Asia Global Crossing Completes Northern Ring of East Asia Crossing

📅 October 12, 2001 - With the landing and lighting of the East Asia Crossing network in Korea, Asia Global Crossing (asiaglobalcrossing.com) today announced the on-time third quarter 2001 completion of the northern ring of East Asia Crossing. East Asia Crossing, the first privately owned and, upon completion, fully redundant pan-Asian cable system, is part of the seamless, city-to-city Asia Global Crossing/Global Crossing Network.

Dacom Crossing, Asia Global Crossing's joint venture with Dacom Corporation(dacom.co.kr), has already obtained a Network Service Provider license that allows them to own and operate telecommunications infrastructure facilities in Korea. Through Dacom Crossing, Asia Global Crossing is now able to offer next generation data communications services to carriers, ISPs, and enterprises in Seoul, connecting them to the more than 200 major cities on the Asia Global Crossing/Global Crossing Network.
A recent Dataquest study estimates that South Korea has the highestbroadband penetration among Asian countries of Internet users. More than 40percent of Korean households access the Internet, and of those more than 60percent use broadband connections. The Korean government has mandated thatat least 80 percent of the Korean population should access the Internet atbroadband speeds greater than 20Mbps by 2005, which will require significantincreases in capacity. With the introduction of East Asia Crossing,customersin Korea will now have access to unprecedented international bandwidth andcapacity products.
"With the completion of the northern ring of East Asia Crossing, we arepoised to provide complete city-to-city connectivity in the Asian region,"said John Legere, CEO of Asia Global Crossing. "Korea, with its nearubiquitous broadband penetration, is an ideal match for our global networkproducts and services and will undoubtedly benefit from the additionalcapacity now available."
East Asia Crossing already connects Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, withSingapore to be connected in the fourth quarter. Connectivity to Malaysiaand the Philippines will be in place in early 2002, and in China asregulations permit. East Asia Crossing has an initial capacity of 80gigabits per second and is upgradeable to 2.56 terabits, which is about 25times the international capacity now available to Korea.its customers betterquality, scale and speed in their Internet operations.