Positions WorldCom in Europe for January 1, 1998
Liberalization
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (May 28, 1997) WorldCom, Inc.
(Nasdaq/NM:WCOM) today announced that its wholly owned German
operating company has signed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom (DT)
to interconnect their public networks. The first of its kind to be
signed in Germany, the agreement includes all aspects of the
technical, operational and commercial implementation. It is intended
that the interconnect will be operational from January 1, 1998. The
agreement, including the necessary request to authorize the
interconnect tariff, has been presented to the German regulatory
authorities for ratification.
Interconnection with Deutsche Telekom is a vital step toward
WorldCom becoming a fully enabled, national public telecommunications
operator in Germany. The company has the necessary national and
international licenses and has developed extensive facilities across
the country. These include a metropolitan area network in Frankfurt
and voice and data switch facilities in that and six other cities in
Germany. Plans for WorldCom's pan-European fibre-optic system
announced earlier this year, include the provision of WorldCom owned
and managed capacity between these switch facilities to create a
seamless, high quality national backbone network. The interconnect
with Deutsche Telekom will provide WorldCom customers with the reach
of DT's ubiquitous national network and DT customers access to
the services available over WorldCom's network.
"This is an important advance both for WorldCom in Germany
and for WorldCom in Europe. In Germany we can better serve our
customers by providing a competitive national service which
compliments our unrivaled international portfolio," said Colin
Williams, president and chief executive officer of WorldCom
International. "From a European perspective, it is a major
stride toward making the concept of a liberalised market in January
1, 1998 a reality. Deutsche Telekom is the first of the major
European PTTs outside the UK and Sweden to take this step, and I
anticipate the process will gain momentum across the
Continent."
WorldCom has operating subsidiaries in Germany, the UK, France,
Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. Where
rapidly changing regulation allows, these companies are full service,
facilities-based, national and international telecommunications
service providers to the business market. The company also has
subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Japan, which to date offer value added
private line and data communications services.
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.
