Bell Canada and Excell Global Services Announce Formation of Operator Services Company.

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 1999--BELL (ME:BCE.) (TSE:BCE.) (VSE:BCE.) (NYSE:BCE) Bell Canada and Excell Global Services announced today the creation of a new Canadian company majority-owned by Bell Canada to be called Nordia Inc.

The new company will perform directory assistance, teleconferencing as well as long distance operator-assisted services for telephone companies in Canada and in the United States. It will also perform directory assistance and teleconferencing services to Bell Canada.

Paulette Beaudry-Klug, who was formerly Vice-President of Operator Services at Bell Canada, will be Nordia's President and Chief Executive Officer. According to Ms. Beaudry-Klug, "competitive operator services in Canada have great potential for growth and Nordia intends to become the undisputed leader in this field."

Nordia's head office will be in Montreal and the new company's first centers, slated to begin operations between May and September of 1999, will be in Kitchener/Waterloo and Corunna in Ontario and in Quebec City. Future Nordia sites are planned in Kingston and Sherbrooke. "With telecommunications now open to competition on a North American basis, the most efficient call centers are needed. These require 400-450 employees and use highly specialized technology," said Ms. Beaudry-Klug. "All current Bell Canada Operator Services employees will be offered jobs in the new company and we expect over 1,000 employees will be working for Nordia by the end of 1999," she added.

Ms. Beaudry-Klug also emphasized that services offered by Nordia will meet the same quality standards that Bell Canada customers have come to expect. Moreover, Nordia is dedicated to transforming traditional operator services into an innovative and highly competitive business that will allow the company to offer, to an expanded client base, a new range of value-added services (e.g. information services on weather, traffic, cinema showtimes, location of restaurants, etc.).

Bell Canada, the largest Canadian telecommunications operating company, markets a full range of state-of-the-art products and services to more than seven million business and residential customers in Ontario and Quebec. Bell Canada's Internet Web site is located at http://www.bell.ca. News releases, speeches and background information are in the Newsroom under the About Bell main menu. Our e-mail address is [e-mail].

Excell Global Services provides a wide variety of call handling solutions as well as call center management, training and consulting services. The privately-held company, founded in 1994, operates centers in Canada, U.S., Europe and Australia handling more than 40,000,000 calls a month on behalf of companies located around the world.