Europe India Gateway Consortium Begins Acceptance of High-Capacity Cable That Will Provide Much Needed Diversity to Growth Regions

Groups Prepare Cable for Activation and Services

LONDON, February 23, 2011 - Global communications industry leaders have begun to accept delivery of
the first part of the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable system. The leaders –
the 16 members of the consortium responsible for overseeing the building of
the $700 million high-capacity submarine cable system — now can begin to
activate their individual portions of the system and offer services that will
enhance capacity and diversity from Europe to the Middle East, Africa and
India.

EIG Consortium members are accepting delivery of more than 11,300
kilometers of the total 15,000 km EIG cable system, which was announced in
2008, and 11 of the 13 cable landing sites. The accepted cable system routes
are: London to Bude, U.K.; Bude to Portugal to Gibraltar to Monaco to Libya;
Monaco to Marseille, France; and Saudi Arabia to Djibouti to Oman to United
Arab Emirates to India.

The accepted active EIG cable landing sites are: the United Kingdom,
Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, UAE, India
and a terminal site in Marseille, France. The only remaining segment to be
completed for the EIG is in Egypt where there are two landing sites.

When fully activated with the Egypt link, the EIG will be the first
direct high-bandwidth optical fiber system from the United Kingdom to India.
The design capacity on the full system is 3.84 terabits per second (Tbps)
using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide
upgradeable transmission facilities that support present and future Internet,
e-commerce, data, video and voice services.

In addition to complementing existing high-bandwidth cable systems in the
region, the EIG will provide much needed diversity for broadband traffic,
which currently relies on traditional routes from Europe to India. This
diversity is important due to the threat of earthquakes in the region.

The EIG Consortium members are: AT&T; Bharti airtel; BT; Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Ltd.; Cable&Wireless Worldwide; Djibouti Telecom; du; Gibtelecom;
Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company; MTN Group; Omantel;
PT Comunicacoes, S.A.; Saudi Telecom Company; Telecom Egypt; Telkom SA Ltd;
and Verizon.

The suppliers for the EIG cable system are Alcatel-Lucent and Tyco
Electronics Subsea Communications (TE SubCom).

Linda Laughlin, Verizon, +1-918-590-5595, linda.laughlin at verizon.com; or Niall Hickey, AT&T, +44-771-577-1451, nhickey at emea.att.com