WorldCom, Inc. Signs International Frame Relay Network-to-Network Interconnection Agreement With TeleMedia International
JACKSON, Mississippi (October 22, 1996) --
WorldCom International, a business unit of WorldCom, Inc., offers
its customers an opportunity to send frame relay traffic to all parts
of the world by teaming with TeleMedia International (TMI). TMI is
wholly owned by Telecom Italia, the sixth largest telecommunications
company in the world.
WorldCom International and TMI signed the NNI agreement during a
recent visit to the network operations headquarters of WorldCom, Inc.
in Tulsa, Oklahoma. TMI provides advanced services for data, voice
and image transmission to multinational companies and
organizations.
"We are pleased to have signed such a significant frame relay
network-to-network interconnection agreement with TMI," said
John Barnett, president of WorldCom International. "This is the
largest international frame relay NNI agreement we have signed in the
history of our company."
Initially, WorldCom International established frame relay
operations in key financial cities within Canada, Europe and the
Pacific Rim and later expanded service into Mexico. TMI, with four
regional offices based in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Buenos
Aires, is represented by more than 90 points of presence worldwide.
With this new agreement, WorldCom International will expand its frame
relay service area to include the Middle East, Asia, South America,
Africa and many more European countries.
"Now we can meet the immediate requests from our customers
who are asking for frame relay connectivity into Singapore, Malaysia
and India," said Rick Gibbens, vice president of WorldCom
International data services. "As usual, we still plan to
establish our own frame relay switches in countries where it makes
good business sense worldwide, but now, those customers who need
connectivity will receive it," Gibbens said.
As WorldCom International places frame relay traffic on the TMI
network, TMI has access to WorldCom International's frame relay
service via the domestic and international networks. The shared
networks will be transparent to both TMI and WorldCom International
customers as each company will provide end-to-end services to its own
customers. Both companies use a StrataCom IPX platform for
international frame relay services.
"Our agreement with TMI is consistent with agreements our
company signed earlier this year with carriers such as GTE
Corporation and Ameritech. These companies resell our long distance
services and we carry the traffic on our domestic and international
networks. Our company is known as the 'Carriers' Carrier'
and we are expanding that philosophy to include high speed data
services in addition to the domestic and international voice traffic
we carry worldwide," Barnett said.
TMI, like WorldCom International, offers its customers tailor-made
solutions for complex data needs. Companies expanding operations into
international markets become highly dependent on quality
telecommunications services, including frame relay. With this NNI
agreement, TMI and WorldCom International are poised to capture a
larger share of this market.
"Companies are looking for cost efficient, flexible and
reliable data communications services which span the world to support
their mission-critical data application needs. Many times frame relay
is the best answer. Also, we see a demand for international frame
relay as more people begin to use the Internet and need an
international data solution to meet Internet applications,"
Barnett said.
WorldCom International frame relay customers will continue to see
more expansion in the company's frame relay worldwide network as
the result of numerous NNI agreements currently under negotiations
with value-added network businesses and Post Telephone and Telegraph
(PTT) administrations.WorldCom International signed its first NNI
agreements in early 1995 with Mexico City-based Intersys and
Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Information Network Corporation
(MIND). In July, WorldCom International signed an NNI agreement with
Telecommunicaciones de Mexico.
One of the largest long distance telecommunications companies in
the United States, WorldCom, Inc. offers domestic and international
voice, data and video products and services to business customers,
other carriers and the residential market. The company operates a
nationwide digital fiber optic network in the United States and has
worldwide network capacity. The common shares of WorldCom, Inc. trade
on the NASDAQ Stock Market's National Market under the symbol
WCOM.
