Cable & Wireless Completes First Phase of Global IP Network Rollout -- Customers Worldwide to Be Offered the Highest Quality Service Guarantees in the Industry.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2000

Cable and Wireless plc (NYSE: CWP), the global telecommunications group, today announced it has completed on schedule the first phase of its $3.5 billion global IP network build program with the completion of IP nodes in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney. In November last year, the company announced it was building an IP network of 84 international nodes by 2001 in its drive to build the most advanced OC-192 (9.6 Gbps/s) capable global IP network in the industry.

With the completion of the first phase of its global IP programme, Cable & Wireless is creating a single, global high capacity IP network that will deliver integrated internet, data, voice and messaging communications with a consistent quality of service for businesses worldwide.

The seven nodes announced today connect to the US backbone via five new international nodes in New York, Miami, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cable & Wireless is using the same `single-hop' architecture design - a first for the industry - to enable it to offer business customers outside the US quality of service guarantees consistent with those for its US customers. Customers of the Cable & Wireless Direct Connect service currently enjoy among the highest quality service guarantees in the industry *.

In particular, the new nodes mean:

-- Local connectivity for faster, more cost effective connection to the IP backbone.

-- `Single hop' access across the network for a faster, more reliable, end-to-end service.

-- More capacity to keep the network congestion-free and ensure it is adequately scaled for ISPs and telcos.

-- High speed, high quality access to sophisticated content and services.

Graham Wallace, Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless, commenting on today's announcement, said: "Our business customers are increasingly demanding improved connectivity and quality on a global basis. By extending our US network into Europe and Asia, we can offer customers outside the US the same guaranteed quality of service as our customers in the US. No-one else is offering this kind of consistent level of quality guarantee." Local connectivity for customers worldwide With the new seven nodes, customers will no longer require a private circuit to the US to access content on the backbone. Instead, with local access to the global network, customers will have access to content held at any point on the network. Moreover, Cable & Wireless will be able to deliver a consistent quality of service for customers worldwide so that traffic between London and Tokyo will travel as fast as it does between Los Angeles and Washington.

Single hop access to content

The network is being extended globally using the same routing and switching technology as in the US. This single architecture design - known as AS3561 - means that traffic only passes through a single network, rather than `hopping' across a number of networks, as it does with Cable & Wireless' competitors. This will enable Cable & Wireless to provide a faster service, with greater reliability. According to an independent ratings organization (MIQ), Cable & Wireless' US network has among the lowest monthly latency and packet loss ratings and highest reliability ratings.

Today, almost 80 per cent of web content is hosted in the US. Tier One and Two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) based outside the US in countries with one of these new nodes can now access US content and capability locally, without the cost and delay of access via the US.

Network scale and capacity

All nodes announced today are capable of speeds up to OC-192 (9.6gbit/s): for instance, the wire-rate clear channel OC-192c 10 Gbps IP/MPLS circuit on the East coast, the first of its kind in the industry, could transmit the contents of the Library of Congress from Washington to New York in just seven seconds. It is this scaleable capacity that ensures the network remains congestion-free and is suitable for ISPs and telcos - thus reinforcing Cable & Wireless' position as a Tier One player.

Access to sophisticated, high performance content and services

The Cable & Wireless backbone will offer embedded communications services such as multimedia over IP and Web Content Distributor the ability to replicate static parts of popular web sites on the node closest to the customer for faster download. It will support a full range of web hosting services including edge co-location, announced this week at the major international networking event, Networld+Interop, in Las Vegas.

Next-generation web-hosting centers, sited directly on the node, will provide customers with faster and better web sites, more advanced e-commerce applications and guaranteed performance levels. A major new web hosting center, connecting to the London node, will be opened in Swindon next month. With 130,000 square feet, the facility has enough capacity to host every web site currently running in the UK. Expansion of the Tokyo and Osaka data centers to 120,000 square feet has also been recently announced.

In phase two of the global network build-out program, already underway, Cable & Wireless will install further nodes in countries including Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden with additional nodes in the UK, Japan, France and Germany. The single-hop architecture will extend the benefits of a seamless end-to-end service in the US, to all customers.

About Cable & Wireless

Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications business with annual revenue of around US$13 billion and customers in 70 countries. Its businesses around the world offer a range of services spanning broadband data, Internet and voice services. Cable & Wireless' priority for expansion is the fast growing market of IP (Internet Protocol) and data services for business customers. It is making major investments in developing advanced networks and services in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region to build the world's leading global IP infrastructure. With the capacity of this advanced infrastructure, and its presence in key business markets, Cable & Wireless holds a unique position in terms of global coverage and services to business customers.

* Notes to the editors:

Cable & Wireless service level agreements for new customers of its Direct Connect dedicated Internet access services consist of the following:

-- Average monthly latency of 70 milliseconds round-trip within Cable & Wireless' network backbone in the US

-- Network-wide packet loss of no more than one percent

-- Web reporting capabilities that give customers access to online

monthly network statistics.

Customers can also access real-time network performance through http://traffic.cwusa.com