Countrywide Home Loans and Arel Communications Create Interactive Distance Learning and Conferencing Network.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 2003

Arel's Integrated Conferencing Platform(TM) (ICP) will offer interactive meetings and training to more than 500 Countrywide offices nationwide

Arel Communications and Software Limited (NASDAQ: ARLC) announced today that Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., a national leader in residential finance, has selected Arel's Integrated Conferencing Platform (ICP) to communicate with thousands of home loan consultants in more than 500 offices nationwide. Arel's ICP software platform will enable Countrywide to rapidly and cost-effectively train its associates on new software applications and other aspects of business and operations.

With the software-based Arel ICP, Countrywide employees will be able to interact through Web and data conferencing, video interaction, chat, application sharing, content delivery, Web services and streaming video directly from their PCs or laptops.

"We selected Arel's ICP over its competitors because it is an all-in-one solution that easily integrated into our existing system without additional network costs," said Joe Anderson, managing director of Countrywide's Consumer Markets Division. "Use of Arel's ICP will help Countrywide implement multiple forms of advanced collaboration such as e-learning and Web conferencing. Benefits will include cost reductions for training sessions and travel-related activities as we communicate more efficiently and economically directly from our desktops."

The Arel ICP provides communications connectivity to Countrywide's various offices, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. Its small offices and mobile agents can communicate via open Internet connectivity, as easily as if they were a part of the company's intranet. The company's larger offices connect using a combination of Countrywide's intranet and a two-way satellite network.

Countrywide will implement the Arel Campus(TM) component of the ICP platform, while the Arel Conference component, to be deployed at a later stage, will enable employees to generate conferences within minutes directly from the desktop. Browser-based administration and management allows user authorization management, real-time resource monitoring, creation and scheduling of conferences, email invitations and Crystal reports using .NET technology. Arel Campus and its client application, Arel Spotlight(TM), allow interactive training sessions between a central presenter and a geographically dispersed group of participants. Another important aspect for Countrywide is the ability to easily record, access, edit and distribute any live session, via Arel's content distribution and management technology features.

"Countrywide's selection of the ICP underscores the market trend for enterprises to use and deploy both video and Web conferencing applications for internal and external communications," said Moshe Ben-Yishai, president of Arel Inc. "The Arel ICP is providing an advanced platform that merges the best of video and Web conferencing into one software application that is easily accessible from the desktop."

About Countrywide

Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC), is a member of the S&P 500, Fortune 500 and Forbes 500. Countrywide, through its subsidiaries, provides mortgage banking and diversified financial services in domestic and international markets. Mortgage banking businesses include loan production and servicing principally through Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., which originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services primarily prime-quality loans. The company is headquartered in Calabasas, California and has more than 30,000 employees with over 500 offices. For more information, visit www.countrywide.com.

About Arel Communications and Software

Arel Communications and Software Ltd (www.arel.net) offers effective fully integrated video, voice and data interactive conferencing solutions by optimizing the use of existing network resources available to distributed enterprises. Our integrated networking and software platform is winning us loyalty from major Fortune 500 customers, using our system for various needs such as video conferencing, collaboration, e-learning, and distance learning applications.

Certain statements made herein that are not historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "believe", "hopeful" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, inability to maintain market acceptance to the Company's products, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, rapid changes in the market for the Company's products, loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition, introduction of competing products by other companies, inability to manage growth and expansion, loss of key partners, inability to attract and retain qualified personnel, inability to protect the Company's proprietary technology and risks associated with the Company's international operations and its location in Israel. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, reference is made to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.