FLAG announces new landing point in Saudi Arabia.

MARBELLA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 1996--FLAG Limited and the Ministry of Post, Telephone & Telegraph (MOPTT) of Saudi Arabia announced that Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers has approved the establishment of a FLAG cable system landing point in Jeddah.

The addition of Saudi Arabia brings to 13 the number of countries in which FLAG, the world's longest undersea fiber optic cable, has permission to land. The addition of the Saudi landing point will not affect FLAG's scheduled completion date of September 1997.

"The addition of Saudi Arabia to FLAG's route has been eagerly anticipated since FLAG's inception," said FLAG Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Timpanaro. "There has been a place in our plans for Saudi Arabia since the beginning of FLAG. They are a most valued addition to our project. On behalf of FLAG's shareholders and management committee, we are extremely pleased that the Council of Ministers has granted us this approval."

The addition of Saudi Arabia to the FLAG cable route will be achieved with the construction of a 145-kilometer branching unit to Jeddah. The unit will leave the main route of the cable approximately midway in the Red Sea, between the Egyptian and United Arab Emirates landing points. A Saudi MOPTT cable station already exists and operates in Jeddah.

The addition of the Saudi landing point comes as more than 100 delegates from nearly 80 international telecommunications carriers prepare to meet at the FLAG carriers meeting Oct. 14-17 in Marbella, Spain. There, the carriers will identify capacity needs between their networks and those of the Saudi MOPTT.

Currently, FLAG has landing points in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan. Its route is nearly 28,000 kilometers long.

NYNEX is the managing sponsor of FLAG. NYNEX provides a range of communications and media services in the northeastern United States and selected markets around the world. Other sponsors and shareholders of the privately financed project are: the Dallah Al Baraka Group of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a large multinational investment company; Marubeni Corp., one of Japan's leading general trading companies; Gulf Associates Inc., a New York-based corporation that focuses on trade and project development; Telecom Holding Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of TelecomAsia, the largest market-capitalized company on the stock exchange of Thailand; The Asian Infrastructure Fund (AIF) of Hong Kong, a $1 billion fund that invests in entities engaged in developing and operating infrastructure projects in Asia; and GE Capital Services, a diversified financial services company wholly owned by General Electric Company and headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

CONTACT: NYNEX, New York 

Glen Brandow, 212/395-0500