Flag Telecom Announces Major New Middle East Loop

[Arun 795]

Flag Telecom Announces Major New Middle East Loop Terabit/S Submarine Cable System With Links To Egypt And Hong Kong Via India

· First major project after amalgamation with Reliance

· FALCON Project unlocks broadband opportunity

· Strengthens FLAG's market leadership position

HIGHLIGHTS

Satisfying regional demand with first self-healing submarine loop network in the Gulf region with links to Egypt, India and Hong Kong

15,000 km terabit/s submarine system to be in service by early 2005

Providing high-capacity connectivity into and out of India

Reliance Infocomm to provide landing stations on east and west coasts of India and loop connectivity across terrestrial network linking all major cities

Seamless integration with FLAG's global network to provide worldwide diversity and industry-leading resilience

DAKC (Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City), Navi Mumbai February 17, 2004

FLAG Telecom, the wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm and a leading provider of international wholesale network transport and communications services, today announced FALCON, a new high-capacity resilient loop cable system providing multiple landings throughout the Gulf region, with submarine links stretching to Egypt in the west and to Hong Kong in the east. Across India the FALCON system will interconnect seamlessly with Reliance's 80,000 km high-speed domestic infrastructure, allowing customers to access major cities connected along the network.

Commenting at today's announcement, Patrick Gallagher, CEO, FLAG Telecom, said: "FALCON will dramatically change the global communications infrastructure balance. We have recognised for some time that the exploding market demand from major growth economies could not be served by the bandwidth connectivity serving the Middle East and Asia today. Across India, FALCON will also provide access to all major cities, offering customers direct connectivity into and across one of the world's largest growth economies from any metropolitan centre connected to the FLAG global network, and all at the level of quality and reliability for which FLAG is renowned.

"Our announcement today follows months of project development work and we are now in final negotiations with a shortlist of suppliers. All initial engineering work has been completed and preparations for the marine survey are well under way. With a forecast initial service date of within 12 months, this is an extremely challenging project, but we believe it is essential to support the growth economies of the Middle East, India and China."

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd., said: "Since our foundation 40 years ago, we have always sought to harness the latest technology to provide world-beating services for our customers. FLAG's FALCON project is such an initiative, and underlines the growing optimism in today's telecommunications marketplace. Today's announcement provides the backbone to deliver advanced broadband services to the Middle East, India and China, which have been traditionally underserved with high-capacity broadband connectivity. FALCON is the culmination of discussions with valued customers and leading global operators and is designed to unlock the broadband opportunity."

FALCON will include the Gulf region's first self-healing submarine network ring providing all countries connected to the high capacity cable with extremely reliable, high quality connectivity. Countries that have the potential to directly access this resilient connectivity include Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Qatar and Iraq. All of these countries have expressed interest in joining FALCON and most are in advanced discussions with FLAG Telecom regarding their participation. Branching units can be added along the entire FALCON cable route to allow more countries in the region to connect to the system as their communications needs continue to expand.

The western link of the FALCON system will land at Telecom Egypt's Landing Station at Suez, where the cable will integrate with FLAG's global network. FALCON will then follow a route through the Red Sea along the East African coast and across the top of the Arabian Sea before landing in Oman.

Travelling from Oman along its easterly link, FALCON will cross the Arabian Sea to a new Reliance-owned landing station at Mumbai, India. At this point FALCON will interconnect seamlessly to Reliance's pan-India 80,000 km high-speed backbone network linking approx 1100 cities and towns across the length and breadth of the country. At Chennai, on the East coast of India where a second Reliance landing station is being built, FALCON will again become a submarine system, linking India to Hong Kong, where the cable will once again integrate with FLAG's global network.

FALCON will be funded by FLAG, Reliance and commitments from participating operators.

FLAG's cable network already spans the globe and the company has an acknowledged reputation for a centralised end to end network management underpinned by exceptional quality and service support. FLAG offers customers east and west routing, meaning traffic can be switched at any time to avoid a cable cut or natural disaster. FALCON will also provide additional resilience across the major route from Egypt to Hong Kong and particularly around the Middle East.