Stmnt re Product Launch

365 Corporation PLC
5 December 2000

5 December 2000

             365 ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF EUROPE'S FIRST COMPREHENSIVE

                                 VOICE PORTAL

365 Corporation plc (365), the digital media and communications company, is to
launch Europe's first comprehensive voice portal. The ground-breaking product
allows individuals to use the most convenient communication channels (mobile
and fixed line phones) to access a full range of customisable communication,
commerce, content and community services, by the most natural and flexible of
interfaces, the user's own voice.


365 has partnered with Royal Philips Electronics' speech recognition solutions
division (Philips Speech Processing), providers of speech recognition software
in more than 50 languages, Cable and Wireless plc, network infrastructure and
management providers, and Brooktrout Software, application developers, to
develop this market leading product which acts as a gateway, enabling users to
access and retrieve information from any telephone using speech recognition
technology.


For the customer, the voice portal, code named Guardian Angel, is an
inexpensive, simple, convenient and enjoyable solution to a host of business,
commercial, organisational, informational and entertainment needs. For the
first time in the UK, the entire population will have access to a totally
mobile, unified communications platform. Customers ring one number from any
telephone, and, using their own voice as the primary means of navigation and
activation (though friendly help is always on hand), gain access to the
Guardian Angel's wide range of services.


Central to the offering is the provision of a genuine Unified Messaging System
(UMS) operated by voice. Guardian Angel users will be able to send emails by
voice and using the latest text-to-speech technology have incoming emails and
faxes read to them over the phone, regardless of how remote they are from
their offices or PCs. They will have the ability to access, change and update
their diary and phonebook, pick up voicemail, set up conference calls and
forward their calls to any number. It will also offer reminders via an SMS or
voice alert.


In addition, Guardian Angel will bring its users a wide variety of commercial
offerings, all designed for maximum speed and convenience of access. 365 has
already established partnerships with William Hill, Domino's Pizza and
Teleflorist, allowing users to make transactions (v-commerce) by voice
commands. It intends to develop further commercial agreements to include
stock-broking, event ticketing and travel, amongst others.


The service also allows users access to a wide spectrum of compelling
voice-delivered content. Drawing on 365's own network of lifestyle,
showbusiness and sporting offerings, as well as partnerships with news
suppliers for areas such as weather, finance and travel information, Guardian
Angel will provide customers with a personalised and easy-to-navigate universe
of entertainment. All of this content will be integrated with related
commercial services through a simple voice command.


Furthermore, Guardian Angel will provide a forum for lifestyle and interest
based communities including business conference calling, personal friends and
family chat rooms, reviews and bulletin boards.


365 is uniquely positioned to develop and operate Europe's first comprehensive
voice portal. As the UK's leading provider of consumer audio and interactive
voice services, the company is already hugely experienced in the deployment of
leading-edge telephony technology and the particular skills required for
successful speech recognition-based services. Its customer base of 2.4m users
demonstrates the ability of 365's consumer-aimed products to attract and
retain the interest of the public.


The company has a further significant competitive advantage in that it has
already invested heavily in the infrastructure necessary to support its
existing interactive audio services with 4,000 lines of interactive voice
response equipment in place. This means it will largely avoid the high levels
of capital investment required to develop a fully integrated voice portal from
scratch. The combination of interactive voice services, content and existing
scalable technology provides 365 with a meaningful lead to market in
delivering this product.


Access to Guardian Angel will be charged to users at the UK national rate
(i.e. 2p to 8p per minute). Through existing commercial agreements, 365 will
receive a share of these access charges, generating revenue with very high
margins for every minute customers spend on the service. Complementing this
will be advertising and sponsorship, voice commerce (v-commerce), subscription
and directory listing revenue streams.


The Guardian Angel service will be in beta testing in January 2000 and a full
commercial launch is anticipated for March 2001.


Dan Thompson, CEO of 365 said: 'This is a major strategic move for 365. We
believe that we are the first company in Europe to develop such a
comprehensive voice portal. In partnering with such household names as Philips
and Cable & Wireless and by deploying our interactive voice expertise and our
unique content via our telephony infrastructure, we believe that we are
extremely well placed to develop a leading position in what will be a vast
market.'


Chris Ford, Regional Sales Director of Philips Speech Processing said 'Having
already implemented several speech portals through our partner base
world-wide, the expected vast opportunities for voice access to content and
information are now truly being realised. It is extremely important that
Philips partner with major organisations to deliver the speech portal
functionality expected from today's portal users. In combination with the
skills and expertise available at 365 we have collectively developed what is
to be the most usable and functional portal yet seen in the UK. We are
delighted to be partnering with one of the UK's leading interactive voice
response experts to bring this truly comprehensive voice portal to market.'


Eamonn Dullaghan, Customer Director of Cable and Wireless plc commented. ' We
are very pleased to be extending our relationship with 365 in this very
exciting area. Their expertise in the interactive voice response field and our
network infrastructure make us natural partners to introduce this market
leading product.'

                                    -ends-

For Further Information Please Contact:


365 Corporation plc                    020 7505 7800

Dan Thompson, Chief Executive Officer

Nik Philpot, Director


Financial Dynamics                    020 7831 3113

Fiona Meiklejohn

Ben Atwell


Notes to editors:

365 will be hosting a presentation today to demonstrate their new voice portal
product, in conjunction with two of its partners - Philips Speech Processing
and Cable and Wireless plc - at 11am on Tuesday 5th December at Bloomberg,
39-45 Finsbury Square, London EC2.


365 Corporation (www.365corp.com) 365 Corporation is a high growth, high
margin, digital media and communications company. It operates two divisions -
a Consumer Division which provides sport, entertainment and lifestyle content
and services on multiple platforms; and a Business Services Division which
provides communication and internet services to small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs).

Consumer Division provides digital content services via the internet, mobile
platforms (phones, PDAs, WAP), television and fixed line phones to consumers.
This content is continually updated and covers a vast array of areas of
interest including sport - football, rugby, cricket, horseracing, Formula 1,
live events; entertainment - music, competitions, games and television and
lifestyle companionship, gardening and advisory services.

Business Division provides communication services - internet , mobile phone,
phone systems and fixed line phone including the provision of data and
advanced services - to small and medium sized companies. It operates as a
single provider for all a company's communications needs.


About Philips Speech Processing

Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Royal Philips Electronics, is a
pioneer and global leader in speech recognition, natural dialogue and language
understanding technologies, with more than 40 years experience in the
development and marketing of speech products. Philips offers a broad portfolio
of speech technology solutions to the telecommunications, IT, automotive and
consumer electronics industries. As a developer and provider of speech
technologies in multiple languages, Philips has the largest installed base of
speech recognition and natural language understanding systems in Europe, and
is a large and growing provider of speech technology in the Americas and other
regions of the world. Installations include call centre services automation,
telephony applications, professional dictation solutions, voice controlled
devices and Internet applications. Visit www.speech.philips.com for additional
information.


About Philips

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest
electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $33.5 billion (EUR
31.5 billion) in 1999. It is a global leader in colour television sets,
lighting, electric shavers, colour picture tubes for televisions and monitors,
and one-chip TV products. Its 232,433 employees in more than 60 countries are
active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances,
components, semiconductors, medical systems, and IT services (Origin). Philips
is quoted on the New York (NYSE: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other
stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com


Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications business with revenue of
over £9 billion (US$14 billion) in the year to 31 March 2000 and customers in
70 countries. Its operations around the world offer a full range of
telecommunications services. Cable & Wireless' focus for future growth is on
IP (Internet protocol) and data services and solutions for business customers.
It is developing advanced IP networks and value-added services in the US,
Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in support of this strategy. With the
capability of its global IP infrastructure and its strength in key markets,
Cable & Wireless holds a unique position in terms of global coverage and
services to business customers.


Cable & Wireless and the Globe Device are registered trademarks of Cable and
Wireless plc.


About Brooktrout Software, Inc.

Brooktrout Software, Inc. is a Brooktrout Company (NASDAQ: BRKT), with
headquarters in Southborough, Mass. The company is a leading provider of
communication solutions and services for the Enterprise and e-Business. Its
products reduce the cost, time-to-market and complexity of developing
real-time and interactive communication solutions, as well as contact
management and unified messaging applications. Additionally, Brooktrout
Software's Solution Services Group offers a range of services including CTI
consulting, project management, custom voice application design and
development, and systems integration, as well as customer education and
training. For more information, visit www.brooksoft.com.