oCen Communications Forms Strategic Alliance With Pacific Resource Technology.

Business Editors & Multimedia Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000

Internet Technology Leaders Collaborate to Develop

Enhanced Communication Services for Taiwan's Business Sector

oCen Communications Inc., a leading Internet communications service provider connecting consumers, carriers and corporate enterprise customers in the U.S. and Asian markets, today announced a strategic alliance with Pacific Resource Technology, a unit of Taiwan's Pacific Group.

This alliance, stemming from the recent liberalization of the Taiwan communications market, will combine the technical resources of both companies to jointly develop real-time Internet Protocol (IP)-based services currently in demand for corporate customers in Taiwan.

Under the terms of the agreement, oCen Communications will assist Pacific Resource Technology in designing and mapping out a virtual private network (VPN) covering Taiwan's major cities, including Taipei, Tai Chung and Kao Chung.

By combining oCen's managed, real-time IP expertise and enhanced services application technologies with Mynet, Pacific Resource Technology's Internet service provider (ISP), the two companies will collaborate to provide a broad portfolio of enhanced, cost-effective communications services previously unavailable to business users throughout Taiwan.

Scheduled for this calendar year, the oCen managed IP network will be fully integrated with Pacific Resource Technology's satellite operation to provide an even broader suite of services to business and individual customers in the region.

oCen will provide a variety of enhanced services to this customer base, including high-quality fax, data, video and other IP-based communication services via CommPortal, oCen's integrated suite of IP telephony and Web-based communications services. oCen will be beta-testing CommPortal early this year in Taiwan and will make it available for customer use later on this year.

In December 1999, oCen announced the commercial launch of its U.S.-Asia managed IP backbone network. The new scalable network includes "carrier-grade" data centers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Los Angeles that can accommodate up to 50 million minutes of use per month, representing one of the largest networks of its kind in Asia.

In a second December announcement, oCen detailed US$10 million in institutional equity and debt funding that will be used to support the deployment and operation of its large-bandwidth, IP telecommunications network.

In the past decades, the Pacific Group has been dedicated to developing a technically superior telecommunications infrastructure in Taiwan. In support of the Taiwanese government's initiative to build the country's National Information Infrastructure (NII), the group has recently expanded its operations into the most promising business sectors -- the Internet and communications.

Pacific Resource Technology (PRT) is the ISP and e-commerce unit of the Pacific Group, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerates, with annual sales of more than US$2 billion and interests in real estate, consumer electronics, telecommunications, Internet and finance.

PRT is a secondary value-added communications service providing multiple satellite communications services to Taiwanese audiences. Additionally, the company provides a full range of professional Internet services for business and individual users through Mynet, its ISP division.

Founded in 1997, oCen Communications is a leading Internet communication services provider (ICSP) focused on the North American and Asian markets. A privately held company with headquarters in Los Angeles, oCen is funded by Hong Kong's New World Group, China's Anderson Group, Taiwan's Pacific Group, investment firm Barings Private Equity Partners and other influential partners.

oCen has built one of the largest managed IP networks in the United States and Asia dedicated for Internet telephony and other real-time and enhanced IP communications services. With this state-of-the-art IP network, oCen (www.ocen.com) develops and markets high-quality, innovative communications services to its customers -- consumers, carriers and corporations -- in the United States and Asia.