The International Telecommunications group is comprised of BCI and BCE's other international telecommunications interests. BCI owns, develops and operates telecommunications systems outside of Canada, primarily in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region with a focus on the wireless sector. BCI currently provides wireless services in Colombia, Brazil, Korea, Taiwan, China and India, as well as cable television and private telephony services in Brazil.
Bell Canada International
Revenues at BCI increased to $772 million for 1998, an increase of $354 million compared with the same period last year. This increase was primarily due to increased revenues related to BCI's cellular operations in Colombia. Of this increase, $124 million was due to Occidente y Caribe Celular S.A. (OCCEL), which was acquired at the end of the first quarter of 1998 and $107 million was due to Comunicación Celular S.A. (COMCEL). OCCEL operates a cellular network in the western region of Colombia. The balance of the increase was primarily due to increased revenues from operations in Brazil.
The total number of subscribers in companies in which BCI has an interest reached close to 2.9 million at December 31, 1998, an increase of 2.3 million over December 31, 1997. The majority of the increase was mainly due to BCI's investment, in September 1998, in Hansol PCS Co. Ltd. of Korea (Hansol) which had over 1.4 million subscribers at year-end. BCI's operations in Colombia had close to 700,000 subscribers at December 31, 1998, an increase of almost 270,000 from December 31, 1997. Americel S.A. (Americel) of Brazil and KG Telecommunications Co. Ltd. of Taiwan added 146,000 and 346,000 subscribers, respectively.
BCE's share of BCI's 1998 loss was $48 million compared with a loss of $56 million for the same period in 1997. The decreased loss was mainly due to a net gain of $100 million on the reduction of BCI's ownership in its Colombian subsidiaries, partially offset by losses associated with the acquisition of OCCEL ($61 million) and Hansol ($9 million), and the losses at Americel ($21 million).
Other International Telecom
Other International Telecom includes the international directory operations and the results of Jones Intercable, Inc. (Jones) and Cable & Wireless Communications plc (CWC) (as well as the results of Mercury Communications Limited and Bell Cablemedia plc prior to the merger with NYNEX CableComms under CWC on April 28, 1997). BCE's interest in CWC was disposed of on June 18, 1998. In addition, as a result of an agreement to sell its investment in Jones, announced on May 25, 1998, between Comcast Corporation (Comcast) and a wholly-owned subsidiary of BCE Inc., BCE no longer equity accounts for its investment in Jones as of May 25, 1998.
Other International Telecom contributed $519 million to net earnings in 1998 compared with $119 million in 1997. The increase was primarily due to a net one-time gain recorded in 1998 on the disposition of BCE's interest in CWC. Earnings in 1997 include one-time net gains of $184 million mainly relating to the dilution of BCE's interest in BCI as a result of its initial public offering.
Excluding net one-time special items, results in 1998 improved by $71 million compared with 1997 mainly reflecting lower losses at Jones due to the discontinuation of equity accounting referred to above and CWC's improved earnings prior to the sale.
