WASHINGTON, July 28, 2020 – Nearly 100 U.S.- China business community leaders tuned in to hear China Telecom (Americas) Corporation (CTA) Vice President Luis Fiallo, and other panelists, share best practices on how to be a responsible corporate citizen during COVID-19. Fiallo said, “As early as in January, we have gauged the severity of the situation and started to take appropriate measures to address the crisis and share lessons learned with U.S. industry peers.”

CTA quickly set up an Emergency Response Team to protect the interests of employees and families. As a result of rapidly adapting its operational procedures and introducing hygiene and social distancing policies to offices across the Americas, the company seamlessly transitioned to remote work, and experienced zero cases of the virus. Fiallo concluded, “Also, understanding the importance of giving back to local communities, CTA donated tens of thousands of units of personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, to hospitals and clinics. Moreover, our employees made personal monetary donations to food banks in cities across America.”

The online panel discussion, organized by CGCC-USA and CGCC-D.C., Monday, titled, “Leadership Story Time: Business Continuity and CSR Best Practices during COVID-19,” was moderated by Ernest & Young Partner Shau Zhang. Along with Mr. Fiallo, the panelists included International Vitamin Corporation (IVC) Senior Vice President Veena Chillar, CRRC Sifang America Vice President Haitao Qu, Bank of China U.S.A. Chief Communications Officer Peter Reisman and Sany America General Manager Mengtao Xie.

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China Telecom Americas, a wholly-owned US-based subsidiary of China Telecom Corp. Ltd., is an international telecom provider for Data, IP and Voice Wholesale services to multinational companies, organizations and international carriers requiring China domestic services and International access to China & Asia Pacific.

With headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, and offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Jose, and subsidiaries in Toronto, Canada, and Sao Paolo, Brazil, China Telecom Americas continues to expand its strength and reach.

China Telecom Americas provides locally based, one-stop-shop, turnkey solutions for everything from China domestic and international data circuits to IDC services, network management, equipment management, system integration, and much more.

For additional information on China Telecom Americas, please visit www.ctamericas.com.

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WASHINGTON, April 28, 2020 – China Telecom (Americas) Corporation (CTA)’s donation of surplus computers to the George Mason University Foundation inspired a whole new nationwide campaign organized by the China General Chamber of Commerce – U.S.A (CGCC) to help American university students affected by COVID-19 with their “Remote Education And Living” needs – “The REAL Initiative” calls on CGCC’s member companies to donate their company surplus computers and cash to emergency assistance programs in American universities across the country.

Since the Coronavirus outbreak, CTA has launched various donation campaigns to support healthcare providers, essential workers, and local communities in the U.S. Education has been a focal point of CTA’s corporate social responsibility efforts. According to CTA President Xu Tan, “CTA donated tens of thousands of units of medical supplies, but there are many unique communities who need unique kinds of help. The surplus computer donations are an innovative way to leverage untapped resources to help student communities during state-mandated ‘shelter-in-place’, where remote education all of sudden became a necessity. Many students simply lack the hardware.”

“However, we also realized that the strength of a single company was far from adequate.” Tan added, “CTA reached out to CGCC, which is the largest non-profit organization representing Chinese businesses in the US. CGCC embraced this idea and created the REAL Initiative, so all of its 1,500 member companies can pitch in.”

Within its first week, the initiative has gathered more than $33,000 worth of cash and computers. Beside CTA, the donors also included CGCC’s DC Chapter and its member company Sun Fiber.

Rose Pascarell, Vice President of University Life at George Mason University, extended sincere appreciation for these donations, “in less than one month, George Mason University has received applications from over 1,500 students requesting emergency funding totaling over $2.6 million. Mr. Xu Tan has been one of the strong community leaders who came to our aid. The timely and generous support from Sun Fiber, CTA and CGCC-DC will enable us to directly support Mason students, whose emergency financial needs have placed them in academic and personal jeopardy as a result of the pandemic. We are deeply grateful.”

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The Importance of China’s Information-Sharing Conference on Coronavirus

Also on March 16, the UN published a statement by a World Health Organization senior advisor. He said that China’s experience with his new disease can help serve as lessons for countries around the world. He mentioned that the epidemic has already slowed down in China.

Even though the Novel Coronavirus can spread rapidly, China demonstrated that it doesn’t necessarily have to grow so quickly that it will overwhelm health services. By sharing their own example of actions that worked well for them, China hopes to help the international community reduce virus cases and deal better with the cases that they do have.

About the Coronavirus Conference in Beijing

The International Sharing Conference occurred on March 12, 2020 in Beijing. China’s attendees included representatives from relevant international organizations and embassies. Representatives from various countries and the World Health Organization’s Pacific Region also participated. While some local participants attended the conference in person, the conference required multi-site video connections to allow others to attend by remote video, which is where China Telecom’s strong 5G network and Tianyi cloud conferencing proved vital.

Tari Desai, WHO’s Director-General, gave a video speech at the meeting. In addition, the director of the National Health Commission, Ma Xiowei, spoke about China’s epidemic prevention experience from the Hubei branch. Also, health commissions from Shanghai, Beijiing, Sichuan, and Guangdong provinces offered their own experiences with control and specific cases through a real-time, HD video connection, provided by China Telecom. On a very positive note, the World Health Organization said they believe that China has adopted the most flexible, proactive, and brave control and prevention measure in global history.

China Telecom’s Contribution to the Coronavirus Conference

Since it’s obvious that other country’s can benefit by China’s example and experience, it’s also important to note the large contribution that China Telecom made by providing their 5G connections and Tianyi cloud conferencing system. For example, they completed the conference site’s 5G coverage within only one day to ensure they had foolproof remote communication. According to conference reports, 90 percent of the people who participated in the conference relied upon access via this conferencing system.

During the conference, leaders from China’s National Health and Medical Commission tried out many features of the system, including video speeches and data uploads, and downloads. They praised the performance and stability of the network and publicly mentioned that they hoped that China Telecom could accelerate development of 5G networks all over Beijing to benefit the capital and the country.

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CTA’s primary focus is the safety and well-being of our personnel, colleagues

CTA’s primary focus is the safety and well-being of our personnel, colleagues, and communities around the world as we continue to deliver uninterrupted service to our customers that are counting on us for their global communication and connectivity, especially in this challenging time.

Resilience, redundancy and rapid recovery have always been the paramount principles for our services. Our normal operation standards already include diverse and distributed network architecture and robust continuity procedures at all our POPs, NOCs, and other critical facilities.

Guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and local governments

From the outset, we have implemented the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and local governments where we have offices to keep our staff and facilities safe and the Company operational.

Our extensive measures include, among other things the following:

• Following WHO, CDC and local health authorities’ guidelines, we instituted rigorous workplace hygiene and distancing policies to minimize the chance of infection within our organization.
• We have suspended all non-essential work travel for our employees.
  We encourage the use of virtual meetings and other remote capabilities when available to reduce the need for in-person communications, without disrupting the flow of work.
• We have the technology and processes in place to switch parts, or the whole, of our organization into remote working status at moment’s notice.
• We have trained our staff and stress-tested our emergency response mechanisms.
• We formed a centralized Emergency Response Team consisting of the executive leadership and key personnel from every relevant corporate function.
• Our Business Continuity Plan has been reviewed by third-party to be effective in dealing with health emergencies of pandemic proportion.
• All these measures are designed with the goal of maintaining CTA’s essential functions and services in the event of public health emergencies that might require additional considerations beyond traditional continuity planning.

In this time of uncertainty, we remain vigilant, flexible and innovative to continue to deliver the reliable and effective customer experience you have come to expect from us. If we can help you through this period or answer any specific questions, please let us know by contacting your CTA representative or by sending an email to communications@ctamericas.com

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