FLAG Telecom Provides Additional International Connectivity as Formula One Races Into Shanghai

FLAG Telecom Provides Additional International Connectivity as Formula One Races Into Shanghai

FLAG Carries F1 Content From China to the Rest of the World

SHANGHAI, China and LONDON, England, October 18/PRNewswire/ -- The eyes of the sporting world were on China on Sunday as Formula One raced back into Shanghai. To ensure the media broadcasts from the Grand Prix were not interrupted, FLAG Telecom worked alongside its partner China Telecom, provisioning additional capacity to meet the exacting communication needs of the global TV and news agencies covering the event.

Owen Best, FLAG Telecom's President for Asia Pacific, explained: "To meet the broadband capacity needs during the Formula One weekend, China needed to dramatically increase its global connectivity. China Telecom looked to FLAG to quickly provision additional high-quality circuits and ensure there was no disruption to the service during the build up and running of the high profile F1 event. As a carriers carrier, FLAG manages broadcast traffic for many of the world's leading telecommunications operators. Whether it's a Football World Cup event in Asia, the Summer Olympics in Athens, or Formula One in China or the Middle East, FLAG works with our customers and their end users to deliver faultless coverage. For the F1 event, China Telecom managed all domestic infrastructure requirements and FLAG carried the pictures and sound around the world."

FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA) was the first intercontinental submarine cable to land in China. China Telecom is the FEA landing station partner at Shanghai and has been a customer of FLAG Telecom since 1997. The companies are working closely together to meet the needs of customers requiring international connectivity into and out of China and planning for the broadcast needs of the global media during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

F1 first came to China in 2004, when some 150,000 spectators watched the Inaugural Shanghai Grand Prix on the newly constructed race track. Formed in the shape of a "Shang2" Chinese character, which means "high" or "above", the Shanghai circuit is a state of the art complex.

FLAG's cable network 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.

About FLAG Telecom

FLAG Telecom, a Reliance Infocomm company, has an established customer base of more than 180 leading operators, including all of the top ten international carriers. FLAG owns and manages an extensive optical fibre network spanning four continents and connecting key business markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. FLAG also owns and operates a low latency global MPLS based IP network, which connects most of the world's principal international Internet exchanges. FLAG offers a focused range of global products, including global bandwidth, IP, Internet, Ethernet and Co-location services. In the first international acquisition by the Reliance Group, FLAG Telecom became a Reliance Infocomm company on 12 January 2004. Recent news releases and further information are on FLAG Telecom's website at: www.flagtelecom.com.

About Reliance Infocomm

Reliance Infocomm Ltd., an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises group company, is India's largest private information and communications services provider, with a subscriber base of over 12 million. Reliance Infocomm has established a pan-India, high-capacity, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network, to offer services spanning the entire Infocomm value chain.

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises group, is a member of the Reliance Group, founded by Shri Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002). www.relianceinfo.com

Forward-looking Statements

Statements contained in this Press Release that are not historical facts may be "forward-looking" statements as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. To identify these forward-looking statements look for words like "believes", "expects", "may", "will", "should", "seeks", "intends", "plans", "projects", "estimates", or "anticipates" and similar words and phrases. These, and all forward-looking statements, are based on current expectations and necessarily are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors which include, but are not limited to, our ability to achieve our objectives, to maintain the quality and reliability of our network and to guarantee that FALCON will enter service within the expected time frame and whether it will achieve its stated objectives. We caution readers not to rely on forward-looking statements, and we disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Source: FLAG Telecom

FLAG Telecom: Jane Windsor, Director of Communications, +44-20-7317-0813, jwindsor@flagtelecom.com. Reliance Infocomm, Jimmy Mogal, Head, Corporate Communications, +91-22 3038-5128, Jimmy.Mogal@relianceinfo.com

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