Guam-Philippines (G-P) submarine cable system to be inaugurated April 30

April 30, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 932-99 PRESS RELEASE Guam-Philippines (G-P) submarine cable system to be inaugurated April 30 PLDT announced today that it will inaugurate the 20-gigabit Guam-Philippines (G-P) cable system, April 30 in ceremonies to be held at the PLDT, Makati City. Operational since March 31, the new cable system is about 3,600 kms. long and is landed at PLDT's Cable Station in Nasugbu, Batangas. The other end of the new cable is landed at AT&T's Tanguisson Cable Station. Initially equipped to accommodate 5 Gbps circuit requirements, the G-P cable system is a follow-on cable to the Guam-Philippines-Taiwan (G-P-T) cable system that was commissioned in 1989. LLphil G-P links the Philippines and the rest of Asia to the TransPacific cables landing in Guam such as the existing (TPC-5 cable network and the forthcoming China-US cable network. It also links North America and beyond to the Asian cables such as the Asia-Pacific Cable Network (APCN) and the forthcoming. SEA-ME-WE 3 cable system that extends up to Western Europe. G-P cable systems uses state-of-the-art Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), Optical Amplifier (OA) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technologies. With these technologies, G-P is capable of supporting high-tech services including internet, internet telephony, ATM, videoconferencing, and other multimedia services. The G-P cable construction and capacity sales were managed through the Guam-Philippines Cable Limited partnership with five investors forming a limited partnership. They are: PLDT, Kanematsu Corporation, Nichimen Corporation, KDD-SCS and Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd. (formerly AT&T Submarine Systems, Inc.). GP-LP will continue to manage capacity sales. Operation and maintenance of the system are being handled by PLDT and AT&T. The new G-P cable system is one of the five fiber optic international submarine cable systems already landed at PLDT's cable station in Batangas. Fiber optic cables operating in Batangas are Brunei-Malaysia-Philippines (B-M-P) cable, APCN, and the PLDT Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON). The fifth, SEA-ME-WE 3 cable system, is expected to be fully operational by fourth quarter this year. PLDT is the major Philippine user of the system. Other telecom owners include AT&T, MCII, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom, Hawaiian Tel, IT&E of Guam and VSNL of India. There are now 42 owners of the system.