MONTREAL, May 3 -- Further to a public call for tenders, Québec's
ministère des Transports (MTQ) has chosen Bell to simplify and optimize the
Québec's current road conditions information system, as well as expand its
accessibility.
    The Québec Transport telephone information system, now available in all
Québec regions, will be operational 12 months a year, 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. Users will be able to access continually updated information on
summer roadwork and winter road conditions on all 250 roads under the
responsibility of the ministère des Transports.
    The service is now available free of charge to the entire population via
eight phone numbers instead of 35. The information is regionalized and
available in English and French for major destinations. Residents of Québec's
seven major urban centres (Montréal, Québec City, Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi,
Trois-Rivières, Joliette, and Hull) will be able to call a local number while
residents in other regions will have free access to the system through a 1 800
number. Additional lines have been planned in order to be able to respond to
calls during peak hours.
    This three-year agreement also calls for Bell to develop a voice
recognition system that will make it easier to navigate through the telephone
information system, benefiting all users, particularly Québec's mobile phone
users. This system will be implemented next fall.
    "Given that our objective is to provide the public with the best
possible service, we opted for the proposal guaranteeing the widest
accessibility. It combines the strength of a reliable, quality network with a
commitment to develop a voice recognition system. This system, in development,
will help make driving safer for those who use a mobile phone on the road,
whether in the winter or summer," said Transport Minister Guy Chevrette.
    "We are very proud of our association with Québec's ministère des
Transports," said Pierre Blouin, President of Bell Mobility. "It gives us an
opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in developing innovative
technological solutions. This fall, hundreds of thousands of mobile phone
users in Québec will be able to obtain information far more safely while
they're at the wheel, thanks to the voice recognition system to be developed
jointly with major partners such as CGI Inc. and Locus Dialogue inc."
    For Bell Mobility subscribers, the airtime used to access this service
will be free. By dialing (square) 2363, they will be able to obtain
information on road conditions from the Ontario border all the way to the
Gaspé peninsula.
    The voice recognition system is an important road safety feature: mobile
phone users, those primarily concerned by this new service, will be able to
use it and still keep their hands on the wheel. Road safety has been a
long-standing priority at Bell. Since it was founded in 1985, Bell Mobility
has developed a number of methods for raising awareness among drivers who use
a mobile phone, including a list of safety tips that it gives out to all its
subscribers. Bell Mobility was also one of the founding companies of Wireless
Safety Week in the early 1990s, and has organized several campaigns to promote
the use of hands-free equipment as well as its voice dialing service.

    Road work and road conditions available on the Mobile Browser

    Well aware of the growing popularity of new media and the Internet, the
MTQ is presently developing new ways to make information available to the
entire population by means of wireless Internet services. Over the coming
weeks, Bell Mobility subscribers can access on-line information about
roadwork, and road conditions this fall, with Bell Mobility's Mobile Browser
service.
    To date, Bell Mobility has developed unique wireless Internet expertise
in collaboration with such renowned industry partners as Yahoo, Amazon.com and
the Schwab brokerage firm, to name but a few. Bell's partnership with the MTQ
aims to open up a new channel for accessing information on road conditions by
using new means of Internet communications. Observers in the communications
and new media industry agree that wireless Internet services will make a
tremendous breakthrough over the next three years.

    About Bell

    Bell Canada provides a full range of communications services to
customers, including wired and wireless local and long distance telephone
services, Internet access, high-speed data services and directories. Bell
Canada, its telecom partners and subsidiaries provide services through 13.6
million access lines, including 11 million in Ontario and Québec. Bell Canada
also serves more than 2.3 million wireless customers through Bell Mobility.
Bell Canada is 80 per cent owned by BCE Inc. of Montréal and 20 per cent owned
by SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas. Bell Canada's Internet Web
site is located at http://www.bell.ca . News releases, speeches and
background
information are in the Newsroom. Our e-mail address is forum@bell.ca



-30-


For further information: Isabelle Tremblay,
isabelle.a.tremblay@bell.ca, SCP : (514) 233-7593,
Mtl : (514) 391-2007 or
1-877-391-2007