AOL Signs Up With Infonet for Pan-European Call Centre Service; World's Largest Online Company's Contract with Infonet Worth More Than U.S. $8 Million.

Business Editors

HOOFDDORP, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2000

Infonet Services Corp. (NYSE:IN) (FSE:IN), one of the world's leading providers of global communications services, today announced that it has been awarded a pan-European contract by AOL Europe, the European arm of America Online, the world's largest online company.

Infonet will carry the majority of AOL's call centre traffic across Europe with Infonet's Call Centre service. Infonet will handle an estimated 100 million minutes of voice traffic per year on behalf of AOL, supporting the company's call centre operations in Ireland and across Europe.

The contract is worth more than U.S. $8 million over its initial 18-month period.

AOL Europe, first established in 1995, has built a multimillion customer base very quickly and has ambitious growth plans over the next five years. Members of the AOL service are provided with a host of interactive services, including a wide range of entertainment and news services, access to the Internet, e-mail, a huge number of chat rooms and access to AOL's international services.

An important success factor for AOL has been its strong focus on its customer care strategy. "Customer service is key for us," commented Richard Sheridan, director of AOL Europe's customer service organisation.

"The Internet is a `now' medium. When customers call looking for information or with a problem, they want help right away. We work very hard on meeting this expectation, and experience tells us our technology and the expertise of our supply partners are critical to our members' experience. That's why, for us, our business and our support technology strategies are one and the same thing."

AOL has expanded rapidly since 1995 and has seen its call centre traffic increase dramatically as the customer base continues to develop. To support this growth, AOL has expanded from its initial call centre operation, opened in Dublin in 1995, to its current total of five European call centres, located in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France. These handle AOL's European customer service needs, from sign-up and technical support to account enquiries.

With the growth in the number of its call centres, AOL needed to improve the sophistication of its call handling capacity to ensure it was giving a seamless service to all customers, no matter where they are located. After an international tender, AOL selected Infonet as the company best able to provide an effective, reliable, and scalable solution for their needs.

By implementing Infonet's Call Centre Service, AOL will be able to consolidate all call centre call management functions across Europe for the first time. Consolidated reports will give real-time information on the performance of each call centre and allow AOL management to drill down as required for in-depth analysis on business operations. Management will be able to assess potential trouble spots and react quickly to reconfigure operations where necessary.

For the customer, the consolidation of call centre operations will provide a single approach no matter which call centre takes the call, and also guarantees comparable service levels at all sites. Overall, AOL anticipates the integration of its European operations through Infonet will lead to better responsiveness and quality of service as well as delivering cost savings.

Said Richard Sheridan: "We are very pleased with our Infonet relationship to date. They have been able to meet our technology needs and they are delivering to us a cost effective integrated solution. Together we are trying out new approaches for pan-European call centres and we are learning all the time."

Infonet, together with its distributor Eircom, faced strong competition for AOL's business. According to Jim Moore, Eircom's account manager for AOL, "AOL closely examined eight vendor proposals for this requirement. The company's primary needs were good network resiliency and redundancy, local support and overall project management.

"AOL at the local level had direct experience of Eircom's capability to successfully implement projects to tight time frames. Together with Infonet's already acclaimed call centre service we've been able to provide a solution which is best-of-breed."

Added Arnold Bos, product manager Infonet Call Centre Service: "We've noted a clear paradigm shift recently in respect to pan-European call centre services. In the past it was enough to sell connectivity -- this is now no longer enough. We have already moved much more to selling solutions tailored to a customer's individual requirements.

"In effect we are putting customers back in charge of their international networks. With our technology we give them real-time routing information and controls to optimise agent utilisation online. We also train our customers in their call centre environment, whatever it may be. This training provides the immediate benefit of a smooth transition to the new environment."

Eircom and Infonet will handle AOL Europe traffic through sites in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and Germany.

About Infonet

Infonet Services Corp. is a world leader in providing value-added global communications services to multinational enterprises. More than two million remote access subscribers make Infonet a world leader in Dial IP services. The company numbers more than 2,600 multinational corporations among its client list.

Infonet provides Internet, intranet, ATM, remote access, electronic-commerce-enabling services and integrated voice/data solutions, plus a full suite of messaging and collaborative products and services. Infonet's services are supported locally in more than 60 countries and territories around the world. The World Network from Infonet is accessible terrestrially from more than 180 countries and via satellite worldwide.

Infonet trades publicly on the New York and Frankfurt stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "IN". News and information are available at www.infonet.com.

Safe Harbor Statement: Infonet has made forward-looking statements in this release. These projections are based on information available to the company as of the date of this release. Risk factors investors should take into account that might affect results include: strength of the market for Infonet products and services, competition, and the timely transitioning of new business opportunities to Infonet's network. Investors should refer to risk factors elaborated on in Infonet's 10K and other recent filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available through the investor relations portion of Infonet's Web site at www.infonet.com.