$12 Billion Retail Barter Business Growing at 6% a Year.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2003

Bentley Communications Corp. (OTCBB:BTLY):

-- Bentley Communications Corp. Capitalizes on Retail Barter by

Enabling Its Network of 180 Independent Local Exchanges to Use

Its Trade Exchange Management Software to Collaborate Within

Its Online Global Trade Marketplace

Bentley Communications Corp. (OTCBB:BTLY), the emerging online leader in the trade and barter industry, reports that industry trade groups are showing a robust 6% growth in the $12 billion retail barter industry, driven by significant increases in the range of products and services available on barter, and the ability to provide businesses with an easy way to sell extra inventory, help when they are short on cash and expand sales.

A December 18 New York Times article on retail barter, "Shops Swap, and Keep Sales Coming," said "with its stigma as a poor man's business tool largely disappearing and the slow economy of the last few years attracting many new adherents, retail barter has been expanding by about 6 percent annually." The article, which featured local barter exchanges, cautioned about avoiding "the fatal flaw of the (prior) online barter companies" because "one reason the Internet may be slow to transform barter is that most exchanges are done locally."

Bentley, however, has not only recognized the critical role local exchanges fulfill, but made it the cornerstone of its business strategy, by setting up its Bentley Crump Barter System of 180 independent local exchanges that can now collaborate in an online global online network using Bentley's VirtualBarter software and have their own locally branded identity.

According to the NY Times article, "the retail barter business in the United States remains firmly in the hands of the 400 trade exchanges, which are, for the most part, independently run small businesses that make money by charging membership and other fees." Of these exchanges, about a third are already members of Bentley's Crump Barter System, as well as half of the local exchanges in Canada. They manage transactions and record keeping for approximately 50,000 businesses.

"I founded this network in 1998," says Joe Crump, who heads Bentley's Crump Barter System subsidiary, "to bring efficiencies to the barter industry by providing a clearinghouse through which members of different barter exchanges worldwide can make inventory and services available and trade seamlessly with one another, while at the same time enabling exchanges to maintain their own local identities and provide hands-on broker services to their business clients."

Most important to Bentley's plans for an Internet based worldwide network of independent local barter and trade exchanges, has been its December 8 release of VirtualBarter 3.0, a comprehensive suite of trade exchange management applications. In the first week of operation, twelve exchanges already licensed the software and started to customize their members' online trading experience. Examples of exchanges using the software include: www.labarter.vbarter.com, www.bartercanada.vbarter.com and www.valleybarter.vbarter.com.

"This software is a local trade exchange's dream come true," said Bruce Kamm, Bentley's Vice President of Strategic Development and the designer of the VirtualBarter global trade marketplace and trade exchange management system. "It will enable Bentley to build its online collaborative network of independent exchanges, which we believe will be far superior and larger than any prior exchange network.

"With this online suite of barter and trade management software," continued Mr. Kamm, "Bentley hopes to ultimately redefine the barter industry as it exists today by becoming a market maker and trade currency clearinghouse for all local barter transactions, while collecting a small fee on each transaction."

Bentley's VirtualBarter software allows each local exchange to have their own distinct brand and content, with their own name and logo on all screen views. Members who trade through a participating exchange will be able to buy and sell 24/7 in a branded online e-commerce global trade marketplace. Just one click will permit them to offer products and services to other trade exchange members worldwide. One click will also enable them to find products and services from trade exchange members locally or internationally, while another click will enable them to purchase it in an e-commerce enabled shopping cart.

Exchanges are able to manage their entire exchange and all members from one multi-dimensional application. The software provides exchanges with over 20 real time management reports, including a ready to print member directory. Exchanges can monitor transactions, trade and cash fees and broker productivity from one screen, as well as cash collections and cash receipts. Real time transaction fee processing at the time of transaction improves cash flow for exchanges, as it reduces collection issues.

About the Barter Industry:

The International Reciprocal Trade Association estimates that in the U.S. alone, over 470,000 companies actively participate in barter for a total of over $12 billion in annual sales, with retail barter expanding by about 6 percent annually, according to the National Association of Trade Exchanges. Over 65% of the corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange are presently using barter to reduce surplus inventory, bolster sales and ensure that production facilities run at near capacity. Corporate barter is already a growing $20 billion worldwide industry. The US Department of Commerce estimates that Countertrade, used by multi-national companies and governments to trade excess products and production capacity for other needed products, totals over $600 billion annually.

About Bentley Communications Corporation:

Bentley Communications Corp. is a business-to-business, Internet e-commerce company that seeks to establish a new marketplace and distribution channel for worldwide barter and trade. Bentley is working towards becoming the online "market maker" for the barter industry -- a neutral intermediary that brings together fragmented multiple groups of buyers and sellers online. Through the development of a seamlessly integrated family of online barter services, it envisions that most barter transactions can be handled in real time, with its proprietary VirtualBarter software. Bentley intends to serve as a clearinghouse for barter trades for fortune 500 trading partners, scores of existing retail barter exchanges that serve companies of all sizes, corporate barter companies that serve large multinational corporations, trade associations and their member companies, as well as media and travel agencies.

Forward-Looking Statements:

With the exception of historical information, this news release and accompanying information may include forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated as a result of various risks. There are numerous factors that could contribute to such differences, therefore such projected events and anticipated results are not warranties or guaranties that such events will occur or that the Company will achieve such results. For more information about this corporation and risks involved in the investment of their publicly traded shares, please see the company's website(s), and/or documents filed with the SEC, which are easily accessible in the EDGAR database system.