BT & Telenor split stake

British Telecommunications PLC
1 June 2001


                                   June 1, 2001

               BT & TELENOR SPLIT STAKE IN SWEDEN'S TELENORDIA

                      TO CREATE SEPARATE NORDIC PRESENCE


BT today announced that it had reached agreement with Telenor, its 50/50
partner in the Swedish joint venture Telenordia, to split the company
according to their strategic intentions. BT Ignite, therefore, will focus on
business customers and business portfolio in Sweden and Finland, providing its
unique value-added solutions services in the IP space.

There is also a cash adjustment in favour of BT. BT's intention is to fully
integrate this focused business into BT Ignite, leveraging the Pan-European
scale of its operations.

BT and Telenor will continue jointly to manage the appeal submitted by
Telenordia to the Swedish courts in relation to the award of third generation
mobile licences in Sweden last December.

Alfred Mockett, chief executive officer of BT Ignite, said: 'The Telenordia
venture has been very successful, delivering high quality services to its
customers and providing its shareholders with an established and focused
presence in the Swedish market.

'The shareholders have now decided to restructure the company and develop
separate businesses. Through the acquisition of many of Telenordia's business
customers and of Telenordia's IP platform, BT Ignite strongly reinforces its
presence in Sweden and Finland. We will now focus on delivering in the region
the integrated portfolio of high value communications solutions we already
provide to businesses throughout the rest of Europe.'

Notes to editors

Telenordia was founded in 1995 as a joint venture between BT,

Tele Danmark and Telenor, the Norwegian PTT. Each partner held a 33.3 per cent
stake. In August 2000 Tele Danmark sold its stake to BT and Telenor, each
partner increasing its share to 50 per cent. Both BT and Telenor paid around £
95 million for their increased stake.

About BT Ignite

BT Ignite - BT's international broadband and solutions business - provides a
complete communications portfolio to business and wholesale customers in all
major cities throughout the world.*

BT Ignite delivers the entire IP value chain - from e-commerce consultancy and
solutions through to core networks and Internet connectivity with a unique
blend of content hosting, application service provision, systems integration
and outsourcing capabilities.

BT Ignite has already established a leadership position in terms of
traditional measures of route kilometres, number of hosting centres, local
sales and service support teams and depth of country coverage. In Europe, BT
Ignite now has significantly more reach than the nearest competitor and
delivers its portfolio in over 250 towns and cities across Europe, and to all
the world's commercial centres through BT's partners, alliance members and
subsidiaries.

* In conjunction with Concert and other partners where required.


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