Singapore Telecom and GTE to Interconnect IP Fax Networks. Agreement will ultimately provide customers with seamless international IP fax services.

DALLAS and SINGAPORE - Singapore Telecom (SingTel) today announced that it has signed an agreement with GTE Internetworking, a subsidiary of GTE Corp., to interconnect the companies' Internet Protocol (IP)-based fax networks. By interconnecting the two networks, customers of both SingTel and GTE will have access to enhanced global IP-connectivity and value-added features for international IP-based fax services.

The agreement also opens new channels and markets for both SingTel's and GTE's IP-based fax offerings. Each company will have an expanded reach into international markets without having to invest further in the building out of its own IP-fax networks. The agreement also enables SingTel to focus on deploying its network in the Asia Pacific region, and GTE Internetworking for the North America and European regions.

The interconnecting of SingTel's and GTE Internetworking's carrier-class, store-and-forward IP platforms was made possible by significant synergies between the two networks. Given the difference in time zones between the United States and the Asia Pacific region, and therefore the difference in peak and off-peak network usage for both SingTel's and GTE's IP-based fax networks, the interconnected networks each have extended resources and capacity that can be used around the clock. The companies expect to exchange significant fax traffic minutes between the networks. By combining the network traffic for delivery between SingTel and GTE, the companies will enjoy economies of scale and lower costs for service provision.

Mr. Lim Eng, Vice President of Corporate Product Marketing, SingTel, said, "This agreement with GTE Internetworking is an important milestone for SingTel. It will enable us to extend SingTel's IP-based solutions seamlessly from Asia to the United States and Europe. SingTel's and GTE's expertise, presence and established network infrastructure in our respective regional markets will help us to roll out our global IP fax access to our business customers. We are confident that SingTel's portfolio of FaxPlus Connect IP fax solutions will fulfill the range of our customers' needs and can be tailored to meet specific requirements, from small domestic businesses to large multinational corporations."

SingTel and GTE Internetworking will continue to explore and introduce new and innovative IP-based products to cater to the increasingly sophisticated needs of business users. These efforts will include working together to develop hardware and software that will provide enhanced features and functionality to the GTE IP Fax service and SingTel's Fax Plus Connect.

"Together GTE and SingTel will provide increased service coverage to our customers and theirs. The combination of these two world-class networks allows us to provide our customers with an easy to use IP-based fax solution. Our IP Fax product is designed to help outsource a company's faxing so they can concentrate on what is important to them--their business. Together with SingTel, they will now have a solution that expands overseas," said Mr. Jim Bullion, Vice President of Marketing, GTE IP Telecom.

Mr. Lim added, "With the rapid growth of the Internet and convergence of computer and communications, there will be continued growth in the demand for store-and-forward fax and other IP-based services over the next three years. We will continue to invest in SingTel's regional network to cater to wholesale arrangements with other regional partners, telecommunications and Internet service providers to offer enhanced IP-based fax services."

With SingTel's FaxPlus Connect and GTE Internetworking's IP Fax services, businesses receive cost-effective, global IP-based fax service via the Internet, without having to invest in and maintain their own infrastructure. Customers can now have secure international faxing through the seamless integration of the two IP-fax networks. Documents can be sent via customers' Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages as well as other fax software and servers.

About Singapore Telecom

Singapore Telecom is a world-class provider of domestic, international and mobile telecommunications as well as postal services. Turnover and net profit for the Group in 1998/99 were S$4.88 billion and S$1.96 billion respectively. Privatised in October 1993, Singapore Telecom is Singapore's largest listed company in terms of market capitalisation. The Singapore Telecom Group has invested more than S$2.5 billion in telecommunications-related projects around the world, especially in the Asia Pacific. It owns interests in 54 ventures and operations in 19 countries including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Belgium. More information on Singapore Telecom can be found at http://www.singtel.com.

About GTE Internetworking

GTE Internetworking, a unit of GTE Corporation (NYSE:GTE) offers customers, from consumers to Fortune 500 companies, a full spectrum of integrated Internet services using IP networking technologies. GTE Internetworking delivers complete network solutions, including dial-up and dedicated Internet access, high-performance Web hosting, virtual private networks, managed Internet security, network management, systems integration, and Web-based application development for integrating the Internet into business operations. GTE Internetworking draws upon its expertise in funded research and development of advanced technologies, including satellite networks, packet radio networks, multi-gigabit routers, network and information security, and speech recognition, and GTE's strong existing telecommunications services, including local and long distance, wireless, paging, video, and Internet.

About GTE

With 1998 revenues of more than $25 billion, GTE is a leading telecommunications provider with one of the industry's broadest arrays of products and services. In the United States, GTE provides local service in 28 states and wireless service in 17 states, as well as nationwide long-distance, directory, and internetworking services ranging from dial-up Internet access for residential and small-business consumers to Web-based applications for Fortune 500 companies. Outside the United States, the company serves customers on five continents.

# # #