Cable & Wireless Opens Internet Solution Center in Munich.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2000

Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP), the global telecommunications group, today announced the opening of its latest data and web hosting facilities in Munich, Germany.

This builds on the company's commitment to meet the continuing growing demand for business data and Internet-based solutions and follows the opening of the Swindon Internet Solutions Center in the UK, one of the largest data and web hosting centers in Europe.

Erwin Huber, Head of the Bavarian State Chancellory and Vice President of Bavaria and Dr Reinhard Wieczorek, Head of Munich Department of Business, officially opened the Munich Internet Solutions Center today.

The center:

-- Has over 3,000 square meters of space, 1,200 square meters of which will be
dedicated to hosting. A further 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet)
hosting space is planned.

-- Is connected to the Cable & Wireless global IP (Internet Protocol) backbone.


-- Delivers integrated internet, data, voice and messaging communications

-- Provides consistent quality of service for businesses worldwide.

This is the latest step by Cable & Wireless in delivering its web hosting capacity globally. Today's opening in Munich signals a total of over 265,000 square feet (24,600 square meters) ready for service, which puts the company on target to have one million square feet of hosting and data storage capacity worldwide by the end of 2002.

In addition to the Swindon Center, a web hosting site in Reston Virginia, USA has been operational since November 1999. The planned site in Santa Clara, California, is due to open in October, adding another 64,000 square feet (5,900 square meters), while the expansion of sites in Tokyo and Osaka are due early next year. This will bring Cable & Wireless close to half way through its planned expansion.

Through its acquisition program Cable & Wireless now has web hosting facilities available in many major European centers:

-- Utrecht, Holland

-- Hamburg, Germany

-- Madrid, Spain

-- Milan, Italy

-- Rome, Italy

-- Paris, France

-- Lyon, France

-- Sophia Antipolis, France

-- Geneva, Switzerland

-- Zurich, Switzerland

-- Stockholm, Sweden

-- Ghent, Belgium

-- Moscow, Russia

A site in Barcelona, Spain is due to open in October this year.

All the centers will be directly connected to the global IP network further strengthening Cable & Wireless' position as a leading web hosting business. Cable & Wireless is investing 2.2 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) in its global IP network build program. 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) capable global IP network in the industry, the first phase of which was completed in April 2000.

In Europe, it is investing 900 million pounds (US$1.5 billion) to extend the coverage of the core 9.6 Gbps (OC-192) IP network by connecting 200 cities across the continent to the world's largest and most advanced data and IP network.

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Munich Don Reed, CEO Cable & Wireless Global Services, said, "This is another key step in the delivery of Cable & Wireless' IP and data strategy. As companies around the world do more and more business over the Internet, our resources and expertise globally can support their e-commerce activities. With these worldwide web hosting centers linked to our global IP network, Cable & Wireless can provide customers with world-class communications, hosting, e-commerce, application service requirements, and guaranteed performance levels."

"The global web hosting market is predicted to grow from a current figure of US $3 billion to US $23 billion by 2002(1). Demand for services range from the simplest hosting service, providing email and basic web sites, to highly customized, managed application development and integration."

"Our web-hosting products and services provide fully scaleable solutions to meet the growing demand for web site management at any stage in a company's web site life cycle. It leverages our world-class web hosting centers, built directly on the nodes of our single global IP network."

The new site has state-of-the-art security systems providing highly reliable and secure environments, with a current bandwidth capability of 1.2 Gbps, 20,000 times faster than ISDN. This will shortly be upgraded to 622Mbps before a 9.6 Gbps connection, 150,000 times faster than an ISDN line, early next year.

Munich ISC will be able to supply business customers of all sizes and in all sectors with a range of web-hosting services including:

Web Hosting Services Shared Webserver

Particularly designed for small and medium sized enterprises, this option is ideal for customers needing to get on line quickly and who do not have sufficient expertise in-house to manage the server. Clients web sites are stored in a high-capacity server group linked to our backbone and managed by Cable & Wireless staff who ensure, among other things, that data is regularly backed up and that real time statistics are available via the internet.

Dedicated Server

Dedicated Server meets the needs of businesses with more complex requirements, demanding a tailor made server configured specifically to their needs, with direct connection to our high speed, high capacity global backbone and administered by our staff.

Cable & Wireless's Business Co-location.

This service is ideal for businesses with in-house web skills but who, rather than host their servers on their own premises, want to ensure their servers are in a secure and specially controlled environment. They can also ensure minimal download and transaction times for their customers by being directly connected to our high speed, high capacity backbone.

The official opening ceremony will be broadcast from 14.00 hrs Central European Time over the net. Go to www.cwecrc.de for access to the webcast.

About Cable & Wireless

Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications business with revenue of over 9 billion pounds (US$14 billion) in the year to 31 March 2000 and customers in 70 countries. Its operations around the world offer a full range of telecommunications services. Cable & Wireless' focus for future growth is on IP (Internet Protocol) and data services and solutions for business customers. It is developing advanced IP networks and value-added services in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in support of this strategy. With the capability of its global IP infrastructure and its strength in key markets, Cable & Wireless holds a unique position in terms of global coverage and services to business customers.

(1) source: Forrester Research, Internet Services Hypergrowth, Feb. 1999