Bandwidth Doubled to Meet Growing Customer Demand in South Asia and Around the Region SINGAPORE, June 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Asia Netcom today announced that it has signed an agreement with NEC to double the capacity on the southern segment of its Pan-Asian submarine cable system, EAC. The upgrade on the EAC2 ring of the system, which spans Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, will raise the bandwidth capacity on those routes to 160 Gbps. This will be the third incremental capacity expansion this year for Asia Netcom. Previous upgrades have already more than doubled the capacity on the northern segment of the EAC system. According to a Telegeography report in April this year, the global bandwidth market is showing signs of improved health, with supply equilibrium and price stability being primary indicators of this trend. This has led many network operators, including Asia Netcom, to light additional wavelengths and fiber pairs on an as-needed basis. This incremental approach to managing spare circuit inventories means that lit bandwidth supply and bandwidth demand are coming into balance. "The trend forward as more sophisticated applications traverse undersea networks is the steady consumption of bandwidth. This is matched by the stabilizing of prices in the region over the past few months," said Bill Barney, President and CEO, Asia Netcom. "We are confident that this is the upturn the industry has been waiting for." "We are seeing burgeoning demand on our undersea routes, and we are expanding quickly to meet that," added Wilfred Kwan, Asia Netcom's CTO. "We will continue to monitor the demand surge even as we expand our coverage within Asia Pacific and into key strategic markets internationally." The EAC system spans 19,500 km within Asia connecting Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and soon, China. The additional capacity will support Asia Netcom's extensive service and product portfolio, which includes leading MPLS-based transport and network solutions, a Tier 1 Internet backbone, as well as traditional connectivity solutions such as international private lines and ATM and Frame Relay. The project, expected to be completed by November this year, will use NEC's submarine line terminal product which is based on advanced and field proven DWDM technology. About Asia Netcom Winner of Frost & Sullivan's 'Data Communications Service Provider of the Year' award for 2005 and 2006, Asia Netcom operates an extensive telecommunications network infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region, including a privately-owned subsea cable system, EAC, as well as extensive terrestrial backhauls and telehouses in all key Asian markets. Leveraging these strategic assets, Asia Netcom provides a comprehensive portfolio of city-to-city connectivity, data communications and IP-based solutions and services to enterprise, ISP and carrier customers in the Asia Pacific region. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong with local offices in all major Asian markets, the US and Europe. For more information, please visit: http://www.asianetcom.com/ For more information, contact: Clement Teo Asia Netcom Tel: +65-62336331 Email: DATASOURCE: Asia Netcom CONTACT: Clement Teo of Asia Netcom, +65-62336331, or Web site: http://www.asianetcom.com/

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