Canada's BCE Still Awkward in New Role

VANCOUVER -- North of the border, the concept of change has never been as widely embraced as it is in the U.S. If it ain't broke, chances are slim that Johnny Canuck will be fixing it.

Even so, most Canadians were willing to go along with the transformation of their most widely held public company, Montreal-based BCE (BCE Quote), from the country's largest telecommunications outfit into a dynamic player on the global new-media stage.

Until earlier this year, however, BCE was valued chiefly for its 37% holding in telecommunications equipment giant Nortel Networks (NT Quote). In fact, Nortel's phenomenal growth in 1999 stole the show from BCE's other high-tech holdings. ...