CABLE & WIRELESS OPTUS IN MAJOR CAPACITY DEAL WITH PRIMUS

Cable & Wireless Optus today announced a wholesale communications capacity deal to provide Primus Telecom with a national backbone network.

Chris Hancock, Cable & Wireless Optus' Managing Director of Data & Business Services, said the deal again confirmed the company's position at the leading end of the wholesale communications market.

"The deal with Primus is one of a significant number of wholesale capacity deals the company has signed over the last 18 months on a number of our networks.

"The capacity sold to Primus will be used to extend the geographic reach of their existing network and will support their voice, data and IP transmission products," said Mr Hancock.

Primus is expected to be able to access its new network in approximately six months, and depending on Primus' demand, the capacity can be significantly increased in the future.

Mr Hancock said that the deal would be accounted for in a similar manner to that of the national backbone leasing agreement with AAPT last financial year.

"As in other recent wholesale deals, Cable & Wireless Optus will manage the network for Primus. The deal also gives Primus the flexibility to increase its capacity in the future," Mr Hancock said.

Cable & Wireless Optus is a leading provider of wholesale capacity in the Australian market, delivering capacity to the nation's foremost service providers and carriers.

"Our capacity provision to other carriers has been in excess of 30 Gbit/s and $500 million contracted in the last 12 months," said Mr Hancock.

For more information:
Linda Collard
Cable & Wireless Optus
Phone: 02 9342 5045