The joint investment gives AT&T and BT a 33 per cent equity stake in Canada's largest wireless provider, with 1.7 million cellular and digital subscribers. Rogers Communications Inc, one of Canada's largest communications companies, owned 80 per cent of Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications and will see its stake drop to 67 per cent.

AT&T's president John Zeglis said at a news conference in Toronto that the transaction will give Canadian customers access to a global network and more products and services such as Internet access on wireless phones.

Additionally, BT said it will spend $402 million to acquire 30 per cent of AT&T's 31 per cent equity position in AT&T Canada, a telecommunications company that trades separately in Canada.

``This is certainly an additional plank in the strategic platform between the twocompanies,'' BT Worldwide president and chief executive Alfred T Mockett said in an interview.

Analysts say the moves reflect increasing consolidation in the Canadian telecommunications market. In March, AT&T agreed to buy MetroNet Communications Corp to expand its Canadian presence in a deal valued at $2.4 billion.

Analysts said shares of Rogers Cantel have had a big run-up lately and investors were disappointed that the company wasn't acquired outright.Mockett said BT, AT&T and Rogers Cantel plan to work together on the next generation of wireless communications to develop global calling plans for one set fee. Already, AT&T and Rogers Cantel offer joint calling plans between the US and Canada that stem from an alliance the two companies started in 1996. Rogers Cantel holds a 16 per cent interest in AT&T Canada. ``With the next generation of handsets and software, we will be able to offer global roaming,'' said Mockett.

The joint investments between AT&T and BT represent the second time the companieshave teamed up as part of a global venture they formed a year ago. In April, AT&T and BT took at 30 per cent stake in Japan Telecom Co for $1.84 billion. Both companies have said there will likely be other investments together or alone as they round out their global assets to compete against companies building world-wide telecommunications networks, such as MCI WorldCom Inc.

BT and AT&T chose Canada for their second international investment because the companies feel Canada is an attractive telecom growth market. About 18 per cent of the Canadian population of 30 million uses a cell phone, compared to about 25 per cent in the US, according to Jeffrey Hines, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in New York.

Rogers Communications President Edward Rogers said the company intends to apply the proceeds of the transation toward paying down its 5 billion Canadian dollars ($3.34 billion) debt.

``We are making progress toward the achievement of `investment grade' [debt ratings] for these companies,'' he said.

BT'sMockett said he expects Canadian market growth to accelerate and also expects Canadian foreign ownership restrictions to fall. ``We have secured a path to increase our combined holdings in AT&T Canada to 100 per cent in the next four years as foreign ownership restrictions are relaxed,'' Mockett said.

---The Wall Street Journal