London - October 5, 2004 -- Global Crossing (NASDAQ: GLBCE) today announced the appointment of Phil Metcalf as managing director of UK operations with responsibility for expanding the company's extensive managed services customer base and product portfolio.
"Phil brings vital management focus on Global Crossing's UK national business, and I've asked him to concentrate particularly on rolling out converged IP solutions to our installed base and to aggressively seek growth opportunities in one of our most promising markets," said Global Crossing CEO John Legere.
Metcalf steps into this position from being CEO of former Global Crossing subsidiary Global Marine Systems. In August this year, he concluded the sale of this subsidiary to Bridgehouse Marine Ltd. While with Global Marine, he has had the dual role of creating the Global Crossing pan-European leadership team. Since joining the company in 1999, he has had a succession of senior management roles covering the construction and operation of Global Crossing's 45-city pan-European network and global service delivery.
Metcalf will report to José Antonio Ríos, international president, who has responsibility for Global Crossing's international operations in the UK, mainland Europe, Latin America and Asia. Mr. Ríos will serve as chairman of the board of Global Crossing UK.
Commenting on his objectives, Metcalf said: "One of my first priorities is to accelerate the introduction of converged IP services to our existing customers in the government, rail and corporate sectors. As well as nurturing our installed base, we are exploring all avenues for growth. An initial focus is to build on the strong partnerships we have with systems integrators and equipment suppliers to develop new routes to market. By exploiting the reach of our extensive 10,000-km UK core network, our growth potential can be achieved with minimal additional investment."
Metcalf added: "As part of Global Crossing, the UK business has something that our competitors lack - a clear IP vision without legacy issues and with huge scale, both in terms of network reach and access to resources for the development advanced IP solutions."
An engineer by education and training, Metcalf's early career was dominated by the design, installation and commissioning of telecom systems for offshore oil and gas platforms, predominantly in the North Sea. He then progressed to a business development role overseeing major power generation projects in various parts of the world, followed by a time as operations director at the same company, Stone and Webster Engineering (now part of the Shaw Group).
Note to Editors:
Global Crossing's 10,000-km core network is the third largest in UK. This dense network reaches within 5-km of 85 percent of UK businesses and within 2-km of 64 percent of UK business delivery addresses.
The UK national business has a strong heritage in the provision of managed IP voice and data. The UK customer network operations centers at Basingstoke and Crewe support 295 managed data customers, 108 voice customers and manage 6,600 routers, 1,300 managed PBXs and more than 235,000 voice extensions.
The company has an especially strong focus on the government and rail sectors. Global Crossing operates the government Managed Telecommunications Service (Mts) on behalf of OGCbuying.solutions. Under this framework agreement - recently extended to December 2008 - Global Crossing supports more than 110,000 users in 90 government departments and agencies. The network - one of the largest private networks in Europe - handles upwards of 20 million voice minutes a month.
Also in the government sector, Global Crossing runs a secure, global IP-based VPN linking embassies and consulates around the world. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office network connects 220 posts in 140 countries and 14,000 users. The company also provides the Royal Air Force with a fully managed messaging service. Recent upgrades to the network has seen usage grow from 39,000 to nearly 64,000 subscribers - in the UK as well as foreign theatres of operation in the Falkland and Ascension Islands, Cyprus and the Persian Gulf.
Global Crossing also serves many of the UK's train operating companies and Network Rail, operator of the UK's rail infrastructure. Railnet provides nationwide internal and external voice communications for a rail community of 65,000 users. The company also provides an industry-wide managed IP VPN in support of the national passenger reservation system. This network facilitates 40 million annual transactions and 120 million enquiries.
About Global Crossing
Global Crossing (NASDAQ: GLBCE) provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network. Its core network connects more than 300 cities and 30 countries worldwide, and delivers services to more than 500 major cities, 50 countries and 6 continents around the globe. The company's global sales and support model matches the network footprint and, like the network, delivers a consistent customer experience worldwide.
Global Crossing IP services are global in scale, linking the world's enterprises, governments and carriers with customers, employees and partners worldwide in a secure environment that is ideally suited for IP-based business applications, allowing e-commerce to thrive. The company offers a full range of managed data and voice products including Global Crossing IP VPN Service, Global Crossing Managed Services and Global Crossing VoIP services, to more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500, as well as 700 carriers, mobile operators and ISPs.
Please visit www.globalcrossing.com for more information about Global Crossing.
