Global Crossing's IXnet Launches FIX Network Service for the Financial Community.

Business/Technology Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2000

Thousands of Customers Will Now Have Access to Multiple

FIX Trading Partners Through a Single Connection to

Global Crossing's Financial Extranet

IXnet, a Global Crossing Ltd. (NASDAQ: GBLX) company, and provider of the world's first intelligent high-performance global Extranet designed principally for the financial services community, today announced the introduction of its FIX Network Service.

Through a single, secure and reliable connection to IXnet's FIX Network, trading partners will be able to send and receive indications of interest and trade electronically with exchanges, buy-side and sell-firms, ECNs (Electronic Communications Networks) and ATSs (Alternative Trading Systems).

FIX is short for the Financial Information eXchange protocol, a messaging standard developed specifically for the real-time electronic communication of securities transactions. FIX is a public-domain specification owned and maintained by FIX Protocol, Ltd.

"We have responded to the needs of our customers," said Jim Rich, Senior Vice President of Product Development for IXnet. "Our customers benefit enormously from this reliable and secure communications solution - one which enables us to provision their FIX connections quickly and help manage those connections in a far more efficient way than before. The alternative is for our customers to set up hundreds if not thousands of point-to-point connections, which is significantly more expensive and complex to manage. Above all, our "plug and play" FIX Network solution dramatically accelerates the time to provision FIX connectivity and speed to market."

Rich continued, "The FIX Network Service is yet another intelligent layer available on our Extranet, providing our customers with a streamlined and simplified process of connecting to our ever-increasing community of installed trading partners. The mutual benefits of having nearly all of the world's financial services firms connected to our Extranet, with access to most of the world's exchanges, ECNs, and ATSs, are clear. By providing a common communications platform for the financial services industry and supporting industry standard protocols such as FIX, we are helping firms to move toward straight through processing [STP]."

IXnet's FIX Network employs an innovative and proprietary architecture that provides for the software-based provisioning of connectivity between trading partners. Once a customer requests connectivity to a trading partner, it can be set up immediately by IXnet operations. Through their single, secure and reliable IP connection to the closest network point-of-presence (POP), firms can quickly establish connectivity to any other trading partner on the network, regardless of physical location.

Rich explained, "The complexity of establishing and maintaining connectivity to other trading partners is no longer an issue for our customers. The architecture our engineers designed permissions each trading partner connection for a secure, reliable trading channel. Our customers simply need to be on the Extranet, choose their trading partners, and have an authorized representative request a connection to a trading partner, whether that is a buy or sell side firm, ECN, or exchange. It is really that simple."

IXnet is now in the process of developing technology that will further enhance the FIX Network Service. Development of a Web-based interface will allow customers to discover and request connections to any other trading partner on the FIX Network with a few clicks. The combination of the FIX Network Service architecture and this enhanced technology will put customers in complete control of their own global trading community.

The distributed and redundant design of IXnet's FIX Network eliminates all single points of failure, and the global reach of the network into 44 major financial centers provides access to thousands of trading partners and pools of liquidity.

Operating 24/7, IXnet's Global Financial Extranet's infrastructure includes Global Crossing-owned switches, multiple Network Operations Centers (NOCs), thousands of Points of Presence (POPs), data centers, and fiber optic facilities. The FIX Network utilizes a uniform equipment platform based on Newbridge network management technology, augmented with Nortel Networks switches for enhanced voice services and Cisco routers for enhanced data services. IXnet also manages Customer Access Nodes (CANs) on the premises of many financial services firms.

About IXnet

IXnet, a Global Crossing Ltd. (NASDAQ: GBLX) company, provides a high performance global Extranet to the financial community and other similar users. Through a single connection, IXnet delivers end-to-end multiple data and voice communications solutions around the world, 24 hours a day. Customers get voice and data connectivity, plus financial content and transactional capabilities, through the IXnet Extranet without having to access multiple disparate public networks or rely on multiple customer service organizations. With Network Management Centers in New York, New Jersey, London and Sydney, users in more than 45 financial centers worldwide and more than 1,500 customer access nodes, IXnet serves more than 1,400 of the world's top financial firms. For more information about IXnet, please visit www.ixnet.com on the Web.

About Global Crossing

Global Crossing Ltd. (Nasdaq: GBLX) is building and offering services over the world's most extensive global IP-based fiber optic network, which will have more than 101,000 route miles, serving five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 major cities. Global Crossing's operations are headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, with principal offices in Los Angeles, California; London, England; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Madison, New Jersey; Rochester, New York; Sunnyvale, California; New York, New York; and Miami, Florida. Visit Global Crossing at www.globalcrossing.com on the Web.

This press release may contain forward-looking information, including statements regarding strategic direction. These comments constitute forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) which involve significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the information discussed in these forward looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially from those described or implied in the forward-looking statements are general economic conditions, competition, potential technology changes, changes in or the lack of anticipated changes in the regulatory environment in various countries, the ability to secure partnership or joint-venture relationships with other entities, the ability to raise additional capital to finance expansion, and the risks inherent in new product and service introductions and the entry into new geographic markets.