GTE broadens Internet presence through International network buildout. Global expansion provides businesses and ISPs with robust Internet services backed by service level guarantees.

IRVING, Texas - Broadening its network reach to become a leading global provider of Internet services, GTE Internetworking, a division of GTE Corp., today announced its strategy for bringing its Internet offerings to Europe, the Pacific Rim and South America.

To expand its international presence, GTE will utilize its own high-speed, high-capacity private fiber network, link to other high-speed international networks and create an expanded distribution channel.

GTE has spent the past year acquiring fiber that crosses both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and establishing new Internet access points and hosting centers to connect Europe, the Pacific Rim, South America and the United States. GTE also has established multiple, global, public and private peering arrangements that allow for fast, high-quality data transfer to and from GTE's backbone to other ISPs' networks.

"More and more businesses are looking for one company that can deliver the solutions for all of their telecommunications and Internet needs," said Paul R. Gudonis, president of GTE Internetworking. "With the expansion of our facilities around the world, we have quickly become a premier single source provider."

Distribution Through Business Partners

GTE has created a new network of business partners, resellers and international business representatives who will sell GTE's Internet-based services. The program, called 'Net.Alliance' outside of the United States, will enable GTE to provide its full suite of Internet-related services to private and commercial customers in key European, Pacific Rim and South American markets, through the leading ISPs in those areas. Business partners, in return, will be able to enhance their portfolio of Internet Protocol (IP)-based services, immediately meeting their customers growing needs for global services. The customers of program members benefit from the relationship their local ISP has with GTE, experiencing the continuity of buying from their current vendor for all of their worldwide needs.

Buildout of the International Network

In 1998, GTE purchased transport capacity that connects its new private fiber network, the Global Network Infrastructure (GNI), in the United States to its facilities in Europe, South America and in the Pacific Rim. Specifically, GTE bought high-speed capacity (310Mb/s) on Global Crossing's AC1 undersea cable, constructing a high-speed network loop through New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Washington. It also bought high-speed access (320 Mb/s) on the Americas II cable to Latin America, 600 Mb/s on the Japan-US cable and an additional high-speed connection (4.6 Gb/s) on the TAT 14 fiber system to Europe. Each of these investments will interconnect with three (3) U.S. gateways in New York, Florida and California - making it easy and seamless for businesses to connect and send traffic around the world.

Global Availability of Internet Services

GTE Internetworking will sell both dedicated Internet access and remote dial access to business customers, as well as offer wholesale connectivity to other ISPs. To make these services available, GTE established its own international network that it controls and manages. In those areas where GTE did not purchase fiber or build facilities, it has established relationships with Hermes, Infonet and others to provide capacity. GTE's dedicated Internet connectivity is available in 65 countries and is backed by rigorous service level guarantees.

For worldwide remote dial access services, GTE Internetworking currently offers coverage through alliances with other global telecommunications providers and will supply comprehensive local dial access via its DiaLinx network. GTE provides remote access to the Internet or corporate networks from more than 150 countries around the world.

All of GTE's connectivity services are managed and monitored from redundant network operation centers in the United States.

In addition to selling dedicated and remote access services, GTE offers other industry-leading services. Each of these service have features, functionality and benefits, consistent with the services provided in the United States. Services include:

Backed by Service Level Guarantees

GTE Internetworking is a leader in offering aggressive service level guarantees, backed by its own network and the highest contracting criteria for supporting companies including local loop providers, field service organizations, leased bandwidth carriers and other vendors.

For dedicated Internet access, GTE's service guarantees protect against transmission delays, information loss, or degradation in the network's availability. Specifically, the new service level guarantees contain stringent performance measures for latency - the time it takes for data to travel to its destination, packet loss - the amount of information that does not reach its destination, and network availability. Effective immediately, all new dedicated Internet access customers will receive one full day of credit in the event of a network outage or significant degradation.

Guarantees for GTE's remote dial access cover the availability and performance of the network.

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 (VPNs) 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. GTE is one the world's largest telecommunications companies and a leading provider of integrated voice, video and data services. More information about GTE Internetworking and GTE Corp. can be found on the Internet at http://www.gte.com.

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