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To: Carlos Ferreira who wrote (46)	9/16/1998 9:26:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15615

[Ambitious Telecom Project Oxygen Plans IPO To Raise Funds] NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- An initial public offering for Project Oxygen Ltd., the ambitious telecommunications project proposed by CTR Group Ltd., is slated for 1999. The IPO for Project Oxygen, which is based in Bermuda, will occur "no later than the end of 1999," said Chairman and Chief Executive Neil Tagare. "We hope next summer will be good." The company said it needs to raise $10 billion. Tagare declined to say how much money the company has raised so far, but said that by December Project Oxygen will announce the first stage of its funding plan. That plan will reveal who the company's equity partners will be and how much bank financing the company has secured. "It will be several billions of dollars, though definitely not $10 billion," he said. Project Oxygen has received "seed capital" from eight sponsors, including Lucent Technologies Inc. and Japan's NEC Corp. Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based CTR proposes to build a "super-Internet" by stringing some 192,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in 38 large loops around the planet. CTR, a group of consultants and technologists who have worked on other high-speed data projects, hopes to begin service in 2003. CTR says the network will span every continent except Antarctica. CTR plans to complete major routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as a land-based link across North America by late 2000. By 2002, CTR hopes to link the network with Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East, India, both coasts of South America, Australia and Central America. Late last year, CTR held a meeting with more than 300 telecom carriers to discuss Project Oxygen, saying that several carriers have signed on. CTR is betting heavily that almost all of the current revenue collected by international carriers will disappear as traffic is moved to the Internet. Tagare has said the biggest obstacle for the project will be the politics involved in dealing with various telecom ministries. Tagare has stressed that Oxygen is the only undersea fiber project focused on the whole world. Nearly all other efforts are either regional or focus on links with the U.S. Back in May, telecommunications-equipment giant Lucent Technologies Inc. said it won a four-year, $1 billion contract to supply a variety of equipment, software and services to Project Oxygen. Lucent's contract is for the first phase of the project, which is expected to cost about $8 billion and span 98,000 miles, most of that undersea. Lucent expects to begin delivery of its equipment and software by early 1999. "Lucent's equipment and software will enable CTR to meet its goal of delivering bandwidth that is up to 100 times cheaper than other fiber connections, and efficiently manage network traffic to meet the explosive demand for Internet, voice and video services - projected to be a $1 trillion-a-year global market by 2000," CTR said at the time. CTR appears to be following the path set by Global Crossing Ltd., another ambitious provider of undersea fiber-optic systems that is also based in Bermuda. Global Crossing (GBLX) had a hot IPO last month. Global Crossing also raised $800 million by selling high-yield bonds. CTR also plans to tap the high-yield bond market.