Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements Note  10 : Earnings per Share Note  11 : Accounts Receivable Securitization of Accounts Receivable Bell Canada sold an interest in a pool of accounts receivable to a securitization trust for a total of $1 bil- lion in cash at December 31, 2004 ($900 million at December 31, 2003), under a revolving sales agree- ment that came into effect on December 12, 2001. The agreement expires on December 12, 2006. Bell Canada had a retained interest of $133 million in the pool of accounts receivable at December 31, 2004 ($128 mil- lion at December 31, 2003), which equals the amount of overcollateralization in the receivables it sold. Aliant sold an interest in a pool of accounts receiv- able to a securitization trust for a total of $125 million  in cash at December 31, 2004 ($130 million at Decem- ber 31, 2003), under a revolving sales agreement that came into effect on December 13, 2001. The agree- ment expires on December 13, 2006. Aliant had a retained interest of $43 million in the pool at Decem- ber 31, 2004 ($29 million at December 31, 2003). Bell Canada and Aliant continue to service these accounts receivable. The buyers’ interest in the collec- tion of these accounts receivable ranks ahead of the interests of Bell Canada and Aliant, which means that Bell Canada and Aliant are exposed to certain risks of default on the amount securitized. They have provided various credit enhancements in the form of overcollat- eralization and subordination of their retained interests. The buyers will reinvest the amounts collected  by buying additional interests in the Bell Canada and Aliant accounts receivable until the agreements expire. The buyers and their investors have no claim on Bell Canada’s and Aliant’s other assets if customers do not pay amounts owed on time. (1) On July 24, 2003, BCE and CGI signed a new shareholder agreement. As a result, the put options were cancelled.  (2) The calculation of the assumed exercise of stock options includes the effect of the average unrecognized future compensation cost of dilutive options. It does not include anti-dilutive options. These are options that would not be exercised because their exercise price is higher than the average market value of a BCE Inc. common share for each of the periods shown in the table. Including them would cause our diluted earnings per share to be overstated. The number of excluded options was 26,693,305 in 2004, 22,176,302 in 2003 and 20,770,155 in 2002. The table below is a reconciliation of the numerator and the denominator used in the calculation of basic and diluted earnings per common share from continu- ing operations. In December 2003, Aliant completed the sale  of Stratos, after receiving the required regulatory approvals. Aliant received $340 million ($320 million net of selling costs) in cash for the sale. The trans- action resulted in a gain on sale of $105 million  ($48 million after taxes and non-controlling interest). 2004 2003 2002 Earnings from continuing operations (numerator)  Earnings from continuing operations 1,498 1,871 1,871 Dividends on preferred shares (70) (64) (59) Premium on redemption of preferred shares – (7) (6) Earnings from continuing operations – basic 1,428 1,800 1,806 Assumed exercise of put options by CGI shareholders  (1) – – 12  Earnings from continuing operations – diluted 1,428 1,800 1,818 Weighted average number of common shares outstanding (denominator) (in millions) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding – basic 924.6  920.3 847.9 Assumed exercise of stock options  (2) 0.6  1.6 2.0 Assumed exercise of put options by CGI shareholders  (1) – – 13.0  Weighted average number of common shares outstanding – diluted 925.2 921.9 862.9 2004 2003 Trade accounts receivable 2,165  2,119  Other accounts receivable 98  170 Allowance for doubtful accounts (144) (228) 2,119  2,061 102 Bell Canada Enterprises  2004 Annual Report