GLOBAL CROSSING TO CONSTRUCT 1-BILLION US DOLLAR SYSTEM CONNECTING MAJOR SOUTH AM

GLOBAL CROSSING TO CONSTRUCT 1-BILLION US DOLLAR SYSTEM CONNECTING MAJOR SOUTH AMERICAN CITIES TO ITS WORLDWIDE NETWORK - Ten-fold capacity increase in South American-to-North American connectivity. - 18,000-kilometer undersea and terrestrial system, connecting through Global Crossing Network to U.S., Europe and Asia, will cost nearly US dollars 1 billion to construct. - State-of-the-art, fiber optic network will carry region's Internet, data, voice and video transmission. - Service is scheduled to commence in 2000. Hamilton, Bermuda - Global Crossing Ltd. (Nasdaq: GBLX), the owner and operator of the world's first independent global fiber optic network, today announced South American Crossing (SAC), a subsea and terrestrial fiber optic network directly linking the major cities of South America with the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. South American Crossing will cost nearly US dollars 1 billion to construct and is scheduled to commence service in 2000. It will be built in three phases. The first two phases, providing Argentina and Brazil with connectivity to the Global Crossing Network, will go into service in the fourth quarter of 2000. The final phase, completing the loop around the continent, will be finished in the first quarter of 2001. Internet, voice, video and data traffic growing ''SAC is a huge leap forward for South America in terms of higher speed and increased capacity,'' said Global Crossing Chief Executive Officer Bob Annunziata. ''Continent-to-continent capacity will be increased more than 10 times over. The system is scheduled for completion just in time for the triple-digit growth in Internet, voice, video and data transmission demand that we are seeing throughout the area. South America presently connects to North America, Europe and Asia through satellites or a complicated combination of cable and transit links. SAC gives South America's great cities seamless, one-system access to the world. ''Consumers all over South America want problem-free access to the revolution in Internet, E-Commerce and international telephone services,'' added Annunziata. ''The Global Crossing network will bring South American carriers the reliable communications capacity their customers are demanding at competitive price -- without having to shoulder the up-front capital investment.'' Landing sites connect to South America's terrestrial fiber optic links Connecting to Global Crossing's worldwide communications network, SAC will be a state-of-the-art four-fiber pair, self-healing ring, built using advanced dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology. Subsea portions of the ring will connect to landing sites at St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands), Fortaleza (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Santos (Brazil), Las Toninas (Argentina), Valparaiso (Chile), Lurin (Peru), Buenaventura (Colombia), and Fort Amador (Panama). Terrestrial segments will connect to most major South American cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Cali, and Bogota. Global Crossing also announced today that it is bringing Caracas, Venezuela onto the network by linking that city with the previously announced Pan American Crossing (PAC), now under construction. In addition, other regional business centers will be connected to the network by terrestrial cables in Argentina (Mendoza, Cordoba, Rosario), Brazil (Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre), Colombia (Medellin, Cartagena), Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil), Uruguay (Montevideo, Punta del Este), and Venezuela (Valencia, Maracaibo). The ring will be completed on its southern-most end by a terrestrial link across the Andes between Las Toninas and Valparaiso. The PAC system from Panama to St. Croix will complete the ring. Initially SAC will have a capacity of 40 gigabits per second and will be fully upgradable, using DWDM technology. Half the capacity will be reserved for restoration on the self-healing ring system. Network's worldwide total goes to over 80 of world's top cities With the addition of South American Crossing, the Global Crossing announced network will connect more than 80 of the world's top cities -- well on the way to the company's announced goal of connecting 100 of the top cities in the world. SAC will be the seventh segment to join the Global Crossing Network. Other segments already announced are: -AC-1 -- Atlantic Crossing -- connecting the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany (entered service in May of 1998). -MAC -- Mid-Atlantic Crossing -- connecting the Eastern U.S. with the Caribbean. -PAC -- Pan American Crossing -- connecting the Western U.S., Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. - PC-1 -- Pacific Crossing -- connecting the Western United States and Japan. - PEC -- Pan-European Crossing -- connecting AC-1 with 24 of the top cities of Europe. - GAL -- Global Access Limited -- connecting PC-1 with the top three cities in Japan. About Global Crossing Global Crossing is building and operating the world's first independent global fiber optic platform for data, voice, video and Internet transmissions. The Global Crossing network will span four continents and address 80 percent of the world's international traffic. Global Crossing's operations are headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, with holding company headquarters in Los Angeles, and offices in New York City; Morristown, New Jersey; San Francisco; Miami; London; Amsterdam; and Buenos Aires. Statements made in this press release that state the Company's or management intentions, beliefs, expectations or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of these filings may be obtained by contacting the Company or the SEC. Contact: Investor/analyst contact: Jensen Chow, +1 310-385-5283, jchow@globalcrossing.com, or Press: Tom Goff, +1 310-385-5231, tgoff@globalcrossing.com, both of Global Crossing Ltd.; En espanol: Maria Pis-Dudot, +1 305-520-9001, pisdudom@fleishman.com, for Global Crossing Web site: http://www.globalcrossing.bm (GBLX)