Word: mci
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Instead all we've heard is howling. Last week MCI Communications was baying at Wall Street, explaining that it will lose $800 million this year trying to bust into local phone service with nothing to show for it. MCI blamed its loss on the intransigence of Baby Bell operating companies in complying with the law. Baby Bells such as BellSouth have been wailing that regulators won't let them into long-distance markets and that the long-distance companies don't want to compete anyway...
...most complex problem might be this: if you were a local phone company with 100% of the market, how helpful would you be in allowing a competitor into the area? Exactly. Although would-be warriors such as AT&T, MCI ($18.5 billion) and Sprint ($14.1 billion) are huge, well-capitalized companies, they can't duplicate the $100 billion infrastructure of switches, wires and poles that serves local neighborhoods. Deregulation allows them to ride the incumbent's system, but here's where the static begins: they must rely on the tender mercies of the Bells and GTE to put them into...
...California AT&T had hoped to add local subscribers at the rate of 5,000 a day. But Bennett says Pacific Bell has been installing local service for only about 100 new AT&T customers a day, forcing him to scale back marketing efforts in the Golden State. New MCI subscribers have experienced similar delays. Jonathan Sallet, MCI's chief policy counsel, says PacBell takes an average of three weeks to switch on MCI customers in California, although PacBell switches on its own clients in seven days. Replies a spokesman for PacBell parent SBC: "We have spent $1.2 billion...
...this company will get back on track." Some of that wondering showed in AT&T's closing stock price: down 1 5/16 to $35. What AT&T needs, says Kadlec, is a discernible plan. "They have to declare whether they're getting into the local services competition or not. MCI has gotten together with British Telecom, but AT&T just doesn't seem to have a business strategy." Allen has said he's open to offers of a partnership with GTE, the largest U.S. local phone company, or a Baby Bell. For now, the company is on a recruiting binge...
...winners of the wire-less race, most handicappers put their money on major carriers such as AT&T, Sprint and MCI, which are creating "national footprints" with digital and analog systems. They also have the money to survive a down-and-dirty price...