MANILA, Philippines - August 1, 2003 - Eastern Telecom Philippines, Inc. (Eastern Telecom) today announced the relaunch of Eastern Gigabit, an Internet access superhighway inter-connecting key commercial buildings in Makati, Ortigas and Manila business centers. Occupants of the tallest buildings in these areas will have access to broadband at speeds of up to 1000 Mbps utilizing the Eastern Gigabit Ethernet backbone. The first and only one of its kind in the Philippines, Eastern Gigabit runs on Metro Ethernet switching technology from global networking leader Cisco Systems®.

Running in self-healing rings connected via fiber-optic lines, Eastern Gigabit provides companies within Eastern Telecom's Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) virtually no downtime and sufficient capacity to support most bandwidth-intensive requirements.

"We are laying the foundation for true broadband access in business areas which need it the most," said Virgil Pedro, Vice President for Corporate Sales and Marketing of Eastern Telecom. "In selecting Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching, Eastern Telecom is now well placed to deliver premium broadband connection at cost-effective rates."

Now powered by Cisco® Catalyst® switches, Eastern Gigabit delivers redundancy, enhanced network control, integrated inline power, and investment protection. "In our opinion, Eastern Gigabit is the most reliable Internet access of its kind because it runs on a Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Optic Ring which guards against network downtime," Mr. Pedro explained. "We also want Eastern Gigabit to grow as our customers' business grows, so we have designed it to be fully scalable, with Internet bandwidth at speeds up to 100 Mbps that runs on a backbone of 1 Gbps." He added that Eastern Gigabit is "easy to install, which allows for fast delivery lead time and upgrade request."

Designed specifically for the aggregation of business services and subscriber access MANs that take advantage of the simplicity and flexibility of optical Ethernet in the First Mile, the switch enables Eastern Telecom to deploy converged networks with higher levels of performance, resilience, security and management.

"Cisco Systems' Metro Ethernet solutions allow innovative service providers such as Eastern Telecom to deliver integrated broadband voice, video, and data services. Eastern Telecom's customers can now enjoy converged data, voice and video services such as streaming video, IP Telephony to further enhance workforce productivity," said Raymond Huang, Country Manager, Cisco Systems Philippines.

Traditionally, services providers have had to run one network for telephone service, another for Internet access, and a third for video. By integrating data, voice and video over an Internet Protocol (IP) platform and delivering it through Gigabit Ethernet, service providers are now able to offer all these services over one network infrastructure. The direct fiber connection of Eastern Gigabit creates practically unlimited bandwidth to customers while avoiding the limitations and complications of running broadband services over existing telephone or cable TV infrastructures.

By consolidating all services onto a single IP network, Eastern Telecom lowers operating costs. In other words, Cisco's Metro Ethernet lets Eastern Telecom roll out an array of communications services in a more cost-effective manner than other network options.

"The combination of Ethernet, optical fiber and IP provides Eastern Telecom with a solid foundation for offering services such as Broadband Internet access, Transparent LAN or LAN-to-LAN services, and applications such as Video Conferencing, Video/Audio on Demand, Webhosting, Site-to-Site VPN, Voice over IP, and Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery," added Mr. Pedro.

About Eastern Telecom

Eastern Telecom is a full service telecommunications company providing a wide range of services from data and Internet to regular landlines, including the latest in broadband technology. The company is the premier provider of Internet access to the country's major Internet Service Providers as well as top corporations.