Court Dismisses Amended Class Action Lawsuits by BCI Common Shareholders.

BCE Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BCE) today announced that each of the $1 billion lawsuits filed respectively by two common shareholders of Bell Canada International Inc. ("BCI"), against BCE and BCI have been dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the "Court"). The Court dismissed both lawsuits on the grounds that the actions abused the process of the Court and disclosed no reasonable cause of action against BCE or BCI, and ordered that neither plaintiff may amend his statement of claim to again bring these suits before the Court. The Court's decision is subject to appeal by the plaintiffs to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

The first action, brought by Mr. Wilfred Shaw, was originally filed on September 27, 2002, and sought court approval to proceed by way of class action on behalf of all persons who owned BCI common shares on December 3, 2001 in connection with the issuance of BCI common shares on February 15, 2002 pursuant to BCI's Recapitalization Plan and the implementation of BCI's Plan of Arrangement approved by the Court on July 17, 2002. After the original Shaw action was dismissed by the Court on May 9, 2003, Mr. Shaw filed an amended statement of claim on June 27, 2003, and on August 30, 2003, the second action, brought by Mr. Cameron Gillespie was filed. The Gillespie lawsuit was substantially identical to the Shaw amended statement of claim except with respect to the name of the plaintiff. It is these two actions which were dismissed by the Court's order issued yesterday.

About BCE

BCE is Canada's largest communications company. It has 25 million customer connections through the wireline, wireless, data/Internet and satellite services it provides, largely under the Bell brand. BCE's media interests are held by Bell Globemedia, including CTV and The Globe and Mail. As well, BCE has e-commerce capabilities provided under the BCE Emergis brand. BCE shares are listed in Canada, the United States and Europe.

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