Agreement With Embratel, Brazil's Premier Communications Services Provider, Extends GRIC's Growing Presence in Latin America.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2002

Embratel Joins the GRIC Alliance Network,

Will Offer GRICtraveler(TM) for Secure and Reliable

Remote Internet Access in More Than 150 Countries.

GRIC Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:GRIC), a leading provider of Internet-based mobile office communications services, today announced that Embratel (NYSE:EMT), Brazil's premier communications provider and leading provider of data and Internet services, will join the GRIC Alliance Network(TM) of more than 300 top-tier ISPs and telecommunications companies around the world. The Embratel Internet backbone is the largest in capacity and territorial coverage anywhere in Latin America. With 26 routing centers the Embratel Backbone currently consists of over 35 Gbps at the national level and 2.6 Gbps of international connections. Embratel will offer GRIC's global remote Internet access service, GRICtraveler(TM), to its corporate subscribers. GRIC's corporate customers, as well as customers of GRIC Alliance Network members, will gain access to Embratel's extensive network that covers more than 4,000 counties in Brazil.

The agreement with Embratel, which operates the largest network in all of Latin America, significantly expands GRIC's network coverage in the region.

Under terms of the agreement, Embratel subscribers will benefit from secure and reliable remote Internet access through GRIC's unmatched global network coverage of more than 15,000 dialling locations, more than 9,000 of which are located outside North America. Embratel will also offer GRICtraveler to its corporate customers as an Internet roaming solution, empowering global business travellers to securely and easily connect to the Internet or to their home network from virtually anywhere in the world, at any time. Allowing corporate customers who are travelling on business to connect to the Internet using a local dialing location, GRIC will enable Embratel customers to take advantage of substantial savings over traditional Internet roaming charges.

"This agreement with Brazil's largest communications services provider clearly adds momentum to GRIC's growing presence in Latin America," said Kristin Steinmetz, GRIC's Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. "Embratel provides award-winning services, and its decision to join the GRIC Alliance Network reinforces the quality and breadth of GRIC's unmatched Internet roaming coverage throughout the world."

About GRIC Communications, Inc.

GRIC Communications, Inc., a leading provider of Internet-based mobile office communications services for ISPs, communications providers and enterprise customers, combines state-of-the-art technology with a managed global GRIC Alliance Network(TM) of more than 300 top-tier service providers. GRIC provides services for the Global 1000 in more than 150 countries and enables remote Internet access through more than 15,000 dialing locations. A founding member and vice-chair of the WECA sub-committee Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming (WISPr), GRIC continues to pioneer roaming and remote access via Wi-Fi, and provides its customers the ability to take advantage of broadband access points such as wireless hotspots using GRICtraveler(TM).

A winner of Frost & Sullivan's Market Engineering Award for Customer Service Leadership in the global Internet roaming market, GRIC is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and has offices in the US, Asia and Europe. Visit GRIC at www.gric.com.

Note to Editors: GRIC, GRICtraveler, GRIC Alliance Network, and the GRIC logo are trademarks of GRIC Communications, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

About Embratel

Embratel is the premier communications provider in Brazil offering a wide array of advanced communications services over its own state of the art network. It is the leading provider of data and Internet services in the country. Service offerings include: Internet, advanced voice, high-speed data communication services, satellite data communications and corporate networks. Embratel is uniquely positioned to be the all-distance telecommunications network of South America.

The Company's network has countrywide coverage with 28,388 km of fiber cables comprising 1,045,617 km of optic fibers.

The Internet business unit is backed by the technological infrastructure of Embratel, which stands out from other utilities in this sector, due largely to the scope of its services and sustained by the size of its backbone, which forms the largest IP network in Latin America. The Internet operation is also supported by Embratel's data transmission track-record that stretches back over more than 20 years, staffed by highly-skilled professionals.

This news release may include "forward-looking" statements, including projections about our business, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. For example, statements in the future tense are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us at the time of the release and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations as a result of numerous factors.These and other risks and uncertainties associated with our business are detailed in our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q on file with the SEC and available through www.sec.gov.