31 May 2001

In the 21st century, efficient and secure, high-capacity global connectivity is essential for dynamic business development. In response to this need, Hutchison Global Crossing Limited (HGC) today announced the launch of its Hong Kong-China, Hong Kong-Japan and Hong Kong-US International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) services. With support from the city-to-city subsea cable network of parent companies Asia Global Crossing and Global Crossing, the HGC IPLC services now offer Hong Kong enterprises unparalleled communications solutions with seamless global connectivity.

The Hong Kong-China IPLC service collaborates China Telecom's Guangzhou - Shenzhen - Hong Kong SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) Ring in offering 64K to E1 (2Mbps) or above leased line services. The 80km-long SDH Ring runs from Guangzhou to Futian, Shenzhen, where it is connected to HGC's interconnection points at Man Kam To and Lok Ma Chau in Hong Kong, and links directly to the whole of China, including networks in major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Shanghai.

The Hong Kong - Japan IPLC service uses the fully owned subsea cable system East Asia Crossing (EAC) of Asia Global Crossing (AGC), one of HGC's parent companies, to connect enterprises in Hong Kong and Japan. EAC submarine cable has a total length of 19,500km with a present capacity of 80Gbps, equipped with advanced dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and can be upgraded to 2.56Tbps.

The Hong Kong-US IPLC service is supported by the Pacific Crossing-1 (PC-1) fibre-optic system, directly linking Hong Kong and Los Angeles. PC-1 is a 21,000km system with four landing points, two in the United States and two in Japan, with a present capacity of 100Gbps, equipped with DWDM technology and can be upgraded to 640Gbps.

HGC's Hong Kong - Japan and Hong Kong - US IPLC services offer customers broadband transmission speeds of 1.5Mbps to 155Mbps and above. Users benefit from a private network, guaranteeing overseas transmission at speeds chosen by the customer, and also ensuring high-speed co-transmission of voice, fax, data and multimedia, with increased security of data transmitted.

In addition, the transmission network also utilizes self-healing ring design, with all points on the network enjoying two-way transmission capability and immediate service upgrades. Moreover, when network capacity is restricted, transmission will be routed through secondary circuits to any destination, guaranteeing unaffected transmission speeds.

HGC Sales & Marketing Director, Mr. Steve Lam said: "Different from other suppliers in the market, our IPLC facilities are owned by HGC and our parent companies, include the HGC territory-wide all-fiber-optic network backbone, the EAC and PC-1 submarine cables and global fiber-optic networks of parent companies Asia Global Crossing and Global Crossing. And through our links into China and Japan, we are connected with the top telecom carriers in these countries, and can satisfy the needs for international high-speed telecom services, which helps enterprises further develop their global business opportunities."

The HGC IPLC service gives SME and corporate users, ISPs, ICPs and data center operators a wide and flexible choice of private leased line services. The Hong Kong-China IPLC service includes transmission speeds of 64K, 128K, 256K, 384K, 512K, 1024K, T1 (1.536Mbps), E1 (2.048Mbps) and above. Meanwhile our services for the Hong Kong-Japan and Hong Kong-US offer speeds of 1.5Mbps, 45Mbps and 155Mbps and above. Customers may increase their capacity when needs arise.

In addition, the HGC IPLC services also offer excellent one-stop ordering, installation and maintenance, obviating the needs for users to deal with multiple parties and breakdown service charges. Part of the HGC service is to organize end-to-end equipment and relevant services, as well as professional advice. All billing is based on Hong Kong currency, thus making things unified and convenient for customers.

As a key part of its service, HGC operates an International Transmission Maintenance Center, providing 24 x 7 network monitoring and outage management. The HGC service pledge is to repair any breakdown occurring on the HGC network within four hours.

"Asia-pacific is the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world. The landing of the EAC between Hong Kong and Japan in January 2001 was our first step for the first and fastest pan-Asian network. Upon the network completion for Taiwan in June, Korea in the third quarter, Singapore at end of the year and the Philippines and Malaysia in early 2002, EAC will provide Asia with seamless global connectivity to more than 200 major business centers in 27 countries." said Alex Ng, Vice-president, Greater China of Asia Global Crossing.

Going forward, HGC will continue to develop its network infrastructure and related facilities to provide customers with new and enhanced services. Upon Asia Global Crossing's completion of EAC and the collaboration with China Telecom, the HGC IPLC services will link up many more Asian cities in 2001 and 2002, and open the doors to even greater customer success.

On a separate note, Hutchison Global Crossing has organized a HGC IPLC Service Seminar on May 31 at Harbour Plaza Hotel, providing an insight to customers on how IPLC services can be a competitive advantage for their business. The speakers are representatives from Hutchison Global Crossing, Asia Global Crossing and China Telecom.

Media inquiries
Hutchison Global Crossing
Sally Tsang
Tel: 2128 6708
Fax: 2187 2055
E-mail: sallyt@hgc.com.hk