Sympatico-Lycos' YellowPages.ca continues to be Canada's most popular
    on-line merchant directory logging more than 21 million monthly page
    views

TORONTO,Dec. 20 2001 --Sympatico-Lycos Inc., a leading Canadian
Internet portal, today announced that its YellowPages.ca property has signed a
distribution agreement with canada.com that will see YellowPages.ca power
their respective on-line directory functions.
    "We're pleased to work with canada.com. Having recently reached similar
agreements with other Canadian portals to power their directories, we felt we
could recreate that model effectively with multiple leading properties," said
Jean-Pascal Lion, Vice-President, Local Markets, Sympatico-Lycos.
    Trending toward a growth rate of 200 per cent over last year, monthly
'Find-a-Business' traffic on YellowPages.ca has increased by 45.8 per cent in
the last two months to more than 21million page views and nearly 3 million
unique visitors in November 2001. With more than 94,000 paying advertisers and
2.5 million up-to-date Canadian business listings, 'Find-a-Business' traffic
on the Yellow Pages.ca directory has increased consistently year-over-year and
continues to be Canada's most visited on-line directory of Canadian merchants.
"We're confident that distribution agreements like these will fortify our
market leadership position and contribute to sustained growth," added Lion.
    YellowPages.ca's exceptional increase in traffic followed the
introduction of several significant enhancements to the site including the
integration of 'Find-a-Business' searches from Canada411.ca. Extensive polling
on the usability of YellowPages.ca precipitated the enhancements. "Our users
offered invaluable comments and suggestions and we incorporated those ideas
into this newer, more robust version making it easier to find Canadian
information on everything from art galleries to zippers," said Lion.

    YellowPages.ca features now include:
    -  a function that allows users to find the merchants they are looking
       for faster - by simply entering parts of the merchant's name in the
       search box
    -  new servers that handle twice as many requests than before yielding
       faster search results
    -  a new graphical user interface

    One of the world's best-known brands and a source of complete, reliable
and comprehensive merchant information, the Bell Yellow Pages product line is
the premier medium connecting Canadian buyers and sellers.

    About The Yellow Pages(TM) Directories
    The words "Yellow Pages" and the walking fingers logo are trademarks of
Bell ActiMedia and are used under licence. Bell ActiMedia, a division of Bell
Canada, brings together buyers and sellers through print and electronic Yellow
Pages directories and web-based e-business solutions such as BellZinc.ca. Bell
Canada, Canada's national leader for communications in the Internet world,
provides connectivity to residential and business customers through wired and
wireless voice and data communications, high speed and wireless Internet
access, IP-broadband services, e-business solutions, local and long distance
phone and directory services. Bell Canada is owned by BCE Inc. of Montréal
(80%) and by SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas (20%). For more
information please visit www.bell.ca

    About Sympatico-Lycos
    Sympatico-Lycos (http://www.sympatico.ca) is a leading
Canadian Web
communications company and provides Canadians with a comprehensive Internet
experience, combining world-class Internet technology and applications
including search, community, personalization and a wealth of Canadian content.
Its flagship properties include sympatico.ca; tripod.ca; canada411.ca;
yellowpages.ca; vancouverplus.ca; calgaryplus.ca; edmontonplus.ca;
montrealplus.ca; ottawaplus.ca; quebecplus.ca; and toronto.com, owned in
partnership with Torstar Corp. Sympatico-Lycos Inc., with offices in Toronto,
Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, is part of Bell Globemedia
Interactive, which is a sister division to CTV and The Globe and Mail within
the Bell Globemedia family. Sympatico-Lycos is owned by Bell Globemedia (71%)
and Lycos Inc. (29%)




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For further information: Clive Hobson, Director, Public Relations, Bell
Globemedia Interactive, 416.815.4635, chobson@sl.ca; Alan
Chumley, Senior
Manager, Public Relations, Bell Globemedia Interactive, 416.815.4624,
achumley@sl.ca