BCE Applauds VOIP Decision

MONTREAL -- BCE today issued the following statement from Michael Sabia, President and Chief Executive Officer of BCE, in response to the decision by the federal cabinet to order the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review its May 12, 2005, decision on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in light of the recent report of the Telecommunications Policy Review (TPR) Panel:

The federal cabinet is to be congratulated for directing the CRTC to reconsider its VoIP decision. This is welcome recognition of the extent of change in the telecom sector and of the need for a regulatory environment that reflects that change. It is precisely this view that is at the heart of the TPR Panel's report.

By directing the CRTC to review the VoIP decision in light of the TPR recommendations, the government has sent a strong signal to the Commission. We believe the Commission's recent local forbearance decision is also out of step with the policy direction of the TPR Report. For that reason, it is our intention to appeal that decision to the federal cabinet and to seek a decision in an expedited time frame.

We hope the CRTC's approach to reconsidering its VoIP decision will at last put Canada back in step with the rest of the industrialized world by ending economic regulation of VoIP services.

BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) (NYSE/Toronto: BCE)