Martin Bangemann Opens MCI WorldCom's European Network Control Centre

"Bangemann Centre" To Manage The Pan-European
Voice, Data And Internet Services Delivered End-To-End Over MCI
WorldCom's Network

Amsterdam, 24th November 1998 - -

At a simple ceremony in Amsterdam today, Martin Bangemann, Member of
the European Commission responsible for industrial affairs,
information and telecommunications technologies formally opened MCI
WorldCom's pan-European network control and service facilities.
The new facility, currently employing 220 network professionals,
provides 24x7 network management and customer service to local,
continental and global customers.

MCI WorldCom's European operations today fulfil the vision of
the "Bangemann Report: Europe and the Global Information
Society" which, when published in June 1994, effectively
launched the European Union's timetable to liberalise
facilities-based telecommunications markets in member states.

The plaque unveiled by Mr Bangemann bears the following quotation
from the Report:

"Since information infrastructures are borderless in an open
market environment, the information society has an essentially global
dimension."

MCI WorldCom's local to global network is a unique realisation
of a borderless information infrastructure that has leveraged the
open market environment that has evolved in the US and the UK, and
since the beginning of this year, in mainland Europe. The MCI
WorldCom network connects 38,000 office buildings across the US and
Europe over a single, high capacity network infrastructure combining
local, national, international and intercontinental transport and
switch facilities.

In recognition of the role of the Bangemann report in European
telecommunications liberalisation, MCI WorldCom has named the network
control and service facilities "The Bangemann Centre".

The Bangemann Centre brings together the following functions:

• Management, control, repair and maintenance of the
  company's pan-European long-distance, fibre-optic transmission
  network and its connectivity to the US network via the Gemini
  transatlantic cable system.

• The European arm of Global Data Network Operations responsible
  for the proactive monitoring and enhancement of the MCI WorldCom
  Frame Relay and ATM network facilities.

• Management and control of MCI WorldCom's pan-European
  switched voice network.

• UUNET's pan-European IP network management, control and
  customer service.

• The European arm of the Global Customer Service function
  providing "follow-the-sun" front-line support of the
  company's global customers.

• Amsterdam's local network operations control centre.

Together, these functions deliver customers a single source for
voice, data and Internet services over a single, seamless network.
The network control facilities represent the state-of-the-art in
managing both the physical and virtual elements of a
telecommunications network. MCI WorldCom is the first company to
install local, long distance and intercontinental physical networks
and to integrate them into a single European-wide network. The
transmission network is delivering a new class of product for Europe
- notably full service international ATM and high speed (up to
155Mbps) building to building circuits.
In Europe, MCI WorldCom has full service, facilities-based local
telecommunications subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Germany, The
Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK and resale operations in
Italy. It operates local networks in Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt,
Amsterdam, and London and has connected these over its own long
distance network. It also has local networks in Stockholm and Z|rich
and under construction in Rotterdam, Hamburg and D|sseldorf. Earlier
this year the company announced plans to triple the size and scope of
its pan-European long distance network.

MCI WorldCom is a global communications company with revenue of
more than $30 billion and established operations in over 65 countries
encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions. MCI
WorldCom is a premier provider of facilities-based and fully
integrated local, long distance, international and Internet services.
MCI WorldCom's global networks, including its state-of-the-art
pan-European network and transoceanic cable systems, provide
end-to-end high-capacity connectivity to more than 38,000 buildings
worldwide. For more information on MCI WorldCom, visit the World Wide
Web at www.mciworldcom.com or
www.wcom.com

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