Nortel Wins Bell Mobility Contract

TORONTO, Aug. 8 -- Bell Mobility, the wireless arm of telecom conglomerate BCE Inc., said that it would pay $117 million to Nortel Networks Corp. to expand its digital cellular network into the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Nortel will build Bell Mobility a high-speed, wireless Internet network using cdma2000 1XRTT technology including radio base stations and network switching equipment. The network is expected to be up and running in major urban areas in Alberta and British Columbia in early 2002, and will provide customers with speeds of 384 kilobits per second, and enable high-speed wireless access to e-mail, corporate databases and shopping services, the companies said.