Cable&Wireless Worldwide Reduces CO2 With Earth/Satellite Location Centre Closure

LONDON, July 30, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- C&W Worldwide Site Relocation Results in Dramatic Drop in Company's CO2 Emissions

- New Eco-Friendly Building With Green Roof

As part of its ongoing pledge to significantly reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, Cable&Wireless Worldwide has successfully closed Thameside, its earth/satellite location centre in London. Originally the Docklands Telecommunications Centre, Thameside was a collection of huge satellite dishes in the midst of the city. The closure, and subsequent relocations, of the site will equate to an 85 percent drop in carbon emissions for the activities fulfilled by the site. This is a significant saving for C&W Worldwide and amounts to a 1.48 percent reduction of the company's total carbon emissions, the equivalent of taking almost 1000 cars off the road.[i]

As a global network node and co-location centre Thameside provided global Internet Protocol (IP) backbone access of up to 10 gigabytes per second (GB/s), for roughly 40,000 100 Mbs Ethernet services. It also supplied direct access to all United Kingdom national and international cable heads, connecting tens of thousands of IP data and voice users around the world via cable networks to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. The closure and upgrade of Thameside's 25 year old legacy facilities and equipment, consisting of transmission and switching architecture, means that Cable&Wireless Worldwide will save four times the amount of space, reducing more than 850m2 to approximately 200m2, and, by embracing new technologies, will be much more efficient.

The relocation of tens of thousands of users' network connectivity was an immense project that has taken just over two years to complete. A team of more than a hundred people were a part of the 24 hour-a-day, two-year long operation to close Thameside, migrating all services and closing all voice, IP and data, hosting; and access platforms located in the site. All electronic equipment was disposed of according to WEEE regulations and, wherever possible, the equipment removed from the site was repurposed in other locations or recycled.

The various services provided by Thameside have been successfully dispersed to other C&W Worldwide locations with the satellite capability moved to Whitehill Earth Station in Oxfordshire and a new ecologically friendly network site, built with low-carbon efficiency in mind, even boasting a living roof that provides insulation, attracts local wildlife, creates an appealing facade for the surroundings and helps C&W Worldwide realise even more carbon savings.

Phil Male, Chief Strategy Officer at Cable&Wireless Worldwide, comments; "The closing of Thameside is a significant step in helping us reach our environmental targets and, by embracing sustainable development, we can help ourselves and our customers employ more efficient and energy conserving ways of working. The team has accomplished a lot with this project and in many ways it sets the benchmark for future initiatives as we continue to improve our environmental performance. An 85 percent reduction in CO2 for all the activities of a single site, the equivalent of taking almost 1000 cars off the road, demonstrates what we and other businesses can achieve."

About Cable&Wireless Worldwide

Cable&Wireless Worldwide (LSE: CW.) aims to be the first-choice provider of mission critical communications. The Company is one of the world's leading critical communication providers delivering a range of high-quality managed voice, data and IP-based services and applications to large corporates, multinational companies, governments, carrier customers and resellers across the UK, Asia Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa, Continental Europe and North America.

In the UK, Cable&Wireless Worldwide owns the country's largest fibre network dedicated to business users of telecoms reaching 20,500km in length, and providing ubiquitous UK access through a combination of fibre, digital, microwave, radio and leased circuits. The network has presence in more than 400 towns and cities in the UK, with 802 unbundled exchanges covering 55% of the population.

On an international scale, Cable&Wireless Worldwide's global next-generation network (NGN) stretches to more than 500,000km, including interests in 69 global cable systems, and provides connectivity to 153 countries. The Company's Multi-Service Platform, an IP-based next-generation platform that operates across the NGN, offers a single environment on which voice and data applications can be converged to drive business efficiencies. The network is uniquely designed with inbuilt resilience and the capability to re-route traffic across diverse paths in the event of failure of one or more paths, particularly at the international level.

With more than 6,300 colleagues globally, Cable&Wireless Worldwide is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and developing long term partnerships with its customers.

To find out more, please visit http://www.cw.com

[i] 964 cars in total. The calculation assumes 12,000 miles per car per annum or 16093 Km per annum and 164.9 grams of CO2 per Km. The average car in the UK generates 3.18457 tonnes of CO2 per annum[i]. C&W Worldwide's Dockland site (Thameside) used 6,638,682 kWh per annum. Assuming UK National Grid power at 0.544[i] Kg CO2e per kWh, 6,638,682 kWh is 3611.4 tonnes per annum. However Closing Thames side will mean 15% of the power demand will go elsewhere so closure will save 5,6428,795 kWh or 3069.7 tonnes per annum. 3069.7 tonnes per annum divided by 3.18457 tonnes per car per annum is 964 cars. Closing Thames side will remove 1.48% of C&W Worldwide's FY 09/10 power demand.

[i] http://www.defra.gov.uk/News/2009/090327c.htm

[i] http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/cut-carbon-reduce-costs/calculate/ carbon-footprinting/Pages/conversion-factors.aspx

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    Contacts:

    CABLE&WIRELESS WORLDWIDE
    Liv Nixon                       Senior PR         +44(0)7822-804-975
                                    Executive
    Cable&Wireless Worldwide Press                    +44(0)1344-818-888
    Office

SOURCE Cable&Wireless Worldwide