Telstra Joins Asia-Pacific Internet Consortium

MEDIACOM-RELEASE-TELSTRA

TELSTRA JOINS ASIA-PACIFIC CONSORTIUM TO PURSUE TRANS-PACIFIC INTERNET PEERING

Sydney, July 15th 1999/MediaNet International-AsiaNet/--Telstra confirmed today that it is playing an active role in APIC (Asia- Pacific Internet Community), a consortium of leading regional telecommunications carriers/ISPs which is seeking to forge a better deal for access to major networks in the USA.

The APIC members - Dacom Corporation (Korea), KDD Corporation (Japan), Cable & Wireless HKT (Hong Kong), Singapore Telecom and Telstra - currently account for some 30 per cent of the total Asia- Pacific Internet market, and have more than 1.3 Gbps (gigabits per second) of Internet connectivity with the USA.

"The current situation where non-US carriers are paying the cost of carrying significant amounts of trans-Pacific Internet traffic into and out of the USA, while the US carriers pay nothing, is inequitable," said Telstra's Managing Director Global Wholesale, Mr John Hibbard.

"It does not, in our view, represent commercial reality in a truly competitive global environment.

"To help redress the situation and produce what we believe is a 'win, win' opportunity for all parties, APIC intends to establish a joint Internet router at Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX), California.

"This router will serve as an interconnection point with the top level Internet backbones in the USA and provide 'peering' opportunities for APIC members and US carriers alike.

"Such a 'one stop shop' arrangement is an attractive proposition which offers economies of scale for all parties."

APIC aims to have the router operational by early August 1999, and to embark on additional cooperative initiatives in the future.

"We have experienced explosive growth of Internet traffic over the past three years in all our markets, and foresee continuing exponential growth in the years ahead," Mr Hibbard said.

"APIC members play a significant role in the regional and global Internet communities, and this joint initiative is likely to be just the beginning of asserting our presence in the US market."

MEDIA RELEASE FROM TELSTRA

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