News Release
- Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Cable & Wireless announces US$50m investment in eCommerce in Caribbean and Atlantic Region.
Cable & Wireless announced today at Internet World in New York, that it plans to invest almost US$50m over the next 5 years to provide a range of eBusiness solutions based in the Caribbean and Atlantic Region.
Earlier this year, Cable & Wireless formed a new company, Cable & Wireless eBusiness Ltd to serve growing demand from global customers for eBusiness solutions in the Region such as web hosting and online payment processing in offshore territories.
“Cable & Wireless announced plans to develop a network of web hosting centres throughout America, Europe and Asia earlier this year and our decision to extend our strategy in the Caribbean and Atlantic will bring some fantastic new opportunities to the Region”, said Nic Budden VP, Cable & Wireless eBusiness Ltd.
“Our first eBusiness solutions centre in the region is a 3000 sq. foot facility in Bermuda. This facility provides world class web hosting and online payment processing solutions but if the market for off shore eBusiness grows as quickly as we believe it will, we expect to expand our operations elsewhere in the region” said Budden.
The global, digital nature of eCommerce presents excellent opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the international cross boarder trading benefits that many of the territories in the Caribbean and Atlantic region are already well known for. “Our mission is to use Internet and eBusiness technologies together with our global network to make these benefits more accessible to customers world-wide.” continued Budden.
Web Hosting
An aggressive schedule of product development has already seen the introduction
of a co-location facility to meet the off-shore requirements of a rapidly
going market. This will be quickly followed by a range of shared-hosting
products in November and by the time of the scheduled opening of the new
purpose build site, in April 2001 a dedicated hosting service.
“All products benefit from the very best infrastructure, with diverse cable systems, multiple redundant power, air conditioning and full 24/7 on site technical support and security” said Andy Gray, Head of Marketing Cable & Wireless eBusiness Ltd.
Online
Payment Processing
“Our multi-currency credit card payment processing service, Web Gateway,
is being launched in November 2000 and will enable us to link web site
shopping carts world-wide with international credit card payment processing
agencies” said Gray.
Web Gateway offers secure, on-line authorisation and settlement for credit card payments. The gateway offers smooth seamless shopping with a fast secure checkout, multi-currency, multi-acquirer, with the ability to interface with multiple merchant storefronts.
“An additional feature of Web Gateway is the fraud database. This module uses a complex set of rules to identify possible fraudulent transactions. Using a database of cardholder activity and a set of rules, Web Gateway is designed to look for dubious transactions or patterns of suspicious activity. The merchant can set his or her own rules on how to deal with the purchase even if the bank authorises the transaction”, continued Gray.
Already a leading global web hosting company, Cable & Wireless hosts many of the world’s most widely recognised websites. Currently, Cable & Wireless supports three of the top five news and information websites; three of the top five marketing and corporate websites; and two of the top five shopping websites. These sites receive from 3 million to 20 million page views per day.
Ends
About
Cable & Wireless
With customers in 70 countries, Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications
business with revenue of around $13 billion in the year ended March 1999
and over 50,000 employees. Its businesses around the world offer a range
of services spanning broadband data and internet services, fixed and mobile
voice, as well as interactive entertainment and information. Cable & Wireless’
priority for expansion is the fast-growing market of data and IP (internet
protocol) services for business customers. Since November 1998, it has
announced major investments in advanced networks in the US and Europe,
the restructuring of Cable & Wireless Communications in the UK and has
acquired full control of Cable & Wireless IDC in Japan to support this
strategy. Cable & Wireless now holds a unique position in terms of global
coverage and services to business customers.
For more information contact:
Pat Bynoe
Clark, Head of Corporate Communications
Cable & Wireless Caribbean and Atlantic Region
1
345 914 640