[VIATEL LOGO]

                         Viatel banks over $52m funding

         Embargoed until 20.01hrs London time, Wednesday 21st April 2004

Viatel, the pan-European communications company, has finalised its funding deal
with six investors including Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated to raise over $52
million. This transaction was completed today and the funds have been released
in a single draw down to the company.

The announcement is exciting news for Viatel and confirms confidence in the
re-emergence of the company into the European Communications Market.

The investment is in the form of senior secured convertible debt securities with
8% interest, payable in cash or in kind, and maturing in 2014. The conversion
price is contingent on the value of Viatel upon the occurrence of various
specified liquidity events.

The term sheet for the funding agreement was signed in February 2004. The
closing of the deal in just two months marks an impressive achievement for
Viatel's management team, headed by CEO Lucy Woods.

Lucy Woods, CEO of Viatel said, "I am particularly delighted to have closed this
financing deal in light of the tough market conditions. This is an exciting day,
not just for Viatel but also for the telecommunications industry. I hope this is
another indication that investor confidence is returning to the sector."

Since Viatel's relaunch as a provider of communications services across Europe,
several new services have been launched and sales have accelerated rapidly as
customers respond to the company's fresh approach to providing services to the
business market. The funding provides the foundation for the company to continue
its rapid growth.

Michael Petrick, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley said, "We are excited about
being part of the financing and we look forward to the Company exercising its
new capacity to capitalize on the opportunities in the European market place."

Leslie Goodman, Chairman of Viatel said, "The past year has involved a huge
amount of work to restructure Viatel to best succeed in today's market.



"We're already seeing the benefits of this through improved sales and I am
confident that this funding will see us through to becoming a strong and
profitable business."

Viatel operates across six European markets, including the UK, France and
Germany. It has more than 10,000 business customers, providing them a range of
communications services that helps businesses of all sizes to securely access
the internet, connect their people and places, manage their webs applications
and increase the security of their data.

* Companies between 100 and 1,000 employees

** Analysys - European Fixed Telecoms - June 2003

ABOUT VIATEL

Viatel is a pan-European data and internet services company delivering services
in communications to European businesses, regardless of size.

Operating across the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and
Switzerland, Viatel is a communications service provider operating a
pan-European network. Headed by Lucy Woods, formerly of WorldCom EMEA and BT,
the company employs 200 people throughout Western Europe to provide services
including IP-VPNs, managed hosting and managed connectivity.

For further information on Viatel, please visit www.viatel.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CALL:

Chris Jones, Neil Daugherty and James Ralph on +44 (0)207 7340 0430

Forward Looking Statements

This document contains "forward-looking statements" as the term is defined in
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including
statements concerning plans and objectives for future operations, events or
performance and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than
statements of historical fact. Any such forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance. Various known or unknown factors could in the
future cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those anticipated in any
such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, our
ability to conclude final terms as to any financing, our ability to maintain a
viable cash and balance sheet position, our ability to maintain, operate and
develop our network, and other unforeseen financial, legal, operational or
technical issues. Any such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date
they are made. We undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking
statement in light of new information or future events.

A FULL COPY OF THE FUNDING AGREEMENT HAS BEEN FILED ON FORM 6-K WITH THE UNITED
STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION.