BCI Announces Termination of Put Option and Secondary Warrants.

Bsuiness Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2002

Bell Canada International Inc. ("BCI") (NASDAQ:BCICF) (TSX:BI) today announced that it had received notice from American International Underwriters Overseas, Ltd. and American International Reinsurance Company, Ltd. (collectively the "Holders") that the Holders have sold their indirect interest in Comunicacion Celular - Comcel S.A. ("Comcel") to a wholly owned subsidiary of America Movil S.A. de C.V. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Accordingly, the Holders' right to put this interest in Comcel to BCI pursuant to a December 10, 1998 Put Option Agreement, an obligation BCI has previously announced it would settle through the issuance of BCI common shares, has terminated pursuant to its terms. As a result, no BCI common shares will be issued to the Holders. As a further consequence of the termination of the Put Option, the secondary warrants issued on January 11, 2002 in connection with BCI's Recapitalization Plan have automatically expired. The termination of both the Put Option and the secondary warrants eliminates the risk of significant dilution facing BCI's shareholders, which would have resulted from the Put Option being exercised.

As of the date hereof, BCI has 4,797,313,658 outstanding common shares. As announced on June 10, 2002, BCI is proposing, as part of a Plan of Arrangement, a share consolidation that will result in BCI having 40 million common shares outstanding following the consolidation. BCI confirms that the proposed consolidation ratio will be approximately one to 120. The share consolidation is subject to required shareholder and court approvals.

BCI, through Telecom Americas Ltd., holds interests in 4 Brazilian B Band cellular companies serving more than 4.5 million subscribers in territories of Brazil with a population of approximately 60 million. BCI is a subsidiary of BCE Inc., Canada's largest communications company. BCI is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BI and on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol BCICF. Visit our Web site at www.bci.ca.

This news release may contain or refer to other communications that may contain certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of management with respect to performance, business and future events. Forward looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance, or achievements, and may contain words like "believe", "anticipate", "expect", "envisages", "will likely result", or any other words or phrases of similar meaning. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results and events may vary significantly.