WorldCom Announces Signature Of Interconnection Agreement With France Telecom
WorldCom Now Has Local Interconnects With UK, France,
German And Swedish PTTs Addressing Over 60 Percent Of European
Market
PARIS, FRANCE (June 30, 1997) WorldCom, Inc.
(Nasdaq/NM:WCOM) announced today that its French operating company
has signed an interconnection agreement with France Telecom. The
interconnection agreement will allow any WorldCom customer to
communicate with any subscriber on France Telecom's network.
Interconnection is the key to providing alternative services and
choice to subscribers. It allows WorldCom and France Telecom to
exchange traffic more cost effectively through direct routing. (See:
Editor's Note.)
In Europe, WorldCom has signed interconnect agreements with
British Telecom (in 1994), Telia (in 1995) and Deutsche Telekom (in
May 1997), in addition to many more with mobile and fixed line
operators in the UK and Sweden. These, together with this agreement
with France Telecom, allow WorldCom local connection to over 60
percent of the European telecommunications market for the provision
of switched voice services. As the European Union moves toward the
January 1, 1998 deadline for telecommunications deregulation,
WorldCom anticipates concluding interconnect agreements in other key
national markets in which it operates.
The interconnection agreement with France Telecom follows the
French Telecommunications Regulatory Authority granting of L-33-1
licenses in December 1996. The L-33-1 license permits WorldCom to
build and operate national and international infrastructure, in
addition to interconnecting their network facilities with those of
France Telecom.
"With this interconnect, WorldCom has once again demonstrated
its unique ability to take the concept of a single, global
telecommunications company and make it a reality," said Colin
Williams, president and CEO of WorldCom International. "WorldCom
has seized the opportunity presented by telecom liberalization and is
the only carrier building pan-European, pan-US and intercontinental
cable systems that will meet the market's demands for
'unlimited' bandwidth at a fair price. This strategy, when
combined with our national operating companies, staffed and managed
by local people, resourced with local facilities interconnected with
local PTTs, is unequaled in the industry."
The interconnection agreement, including all technical and
commercial aspects, is operational as of today. WorldCom has already
completed and validated network interconnection testing with France
Telecom.
France is a key market for WorldCom as the company develops a true
pan-European telecommunications capability. This year, Ulysses,
WorldCom's pan-European fiber optic network will link Paris,
London, Brussels, Amsterdam and later Frankfurt. WorldCom's
national and international licenses enable expansion of activities in
France. The reach provided by the interconnect agreement complements
the company's existing fiber optic metropolitan network, which
spans the key business areas of Paris.
Editor's note: Interconnection agreements comprise the
technical and commercial aspects of connecting an alternative
operator's subscriber to any subscriber on the incumbent
operator's network and vice versa.
WorldCom is a global business telecommunications company.
Operating in more than 50 countries, the company is a premier
provider of facilities-based and fully integrated local, long
distance, international and Internet services. WorldCom's
subsidiary, UUNET Technologies, Inc., is the world's largest
provider of Internet services. WorldCom's World Wide Web address
is
http://www.wcom.com
. The common and depositary shares of WorldCom trade on the Nasdaq
National Market (U.S.) under the symbol WCOM and WCOMP,
respectively.
