Word: mci
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...network came at a time of increased vulnerability for , AT&T. Although Ma Bell still carries 70% of the U.S.'s long-distance traffic (down from 90% five years ago), it has been fighting a rearguard action to keep its customers from defecting to its feisty competitors, MCI and US Sprint. The glitch simultaneously deflated AT&T's multimillion-dollar "reliability" advertising campaign and handed its competitors a once-in- a-career sales pitch. "An important message to everyone whose telephone is the lifeline of their business," began a print ad rushed out by US Sprint after the breakdown. "Always...
Competition from rivals MCI and Sprint hastened the move. Both companies can undercut AT&T's tolls on long-distance calls because their networks use fiber- optic cable almost exclusively. The light-wave lines, which transmit a signal faster than ordinary cables and produce clearer sound than satellite communications, form less than half of AT&T's telephone grid...
...Bell's pain could become the consumer's gain, since the improvements may allow the company to keep lowering its toll charges. AT&T still commands 70% of the $50 billion long-distance market, but has grown increasingly price conscious in its rivalry with MCI and Sprint. Even so, the lateness of the move has shaken some investors' confidence in Ma Bell. Says James Meyer, a telecommunications analyst with the Philadelphia investment firm Janney Montgomery Scott: "My question is, Is this it? Or will we have to go through this again...
...1980s finance. Is he a megalomaniac who has built a tottering tower of corporate debt? Or is he a financial genius whose funding of unsung, mid-size industries greatly overshadows his role as a takeover player? He has many defenders among buyers and users of his junk bonds. Says MCI chairman William McGowan, whom Drexel helped raise $2.4 billion for building long-distance telephone lines: "When we first went to Milken, we were not even qualified for junk bonds, but he was able to help us. People went to him because the rest of the financial establishment was turning away...
...also the 14 corporations eager to snare a piece of the project, called FTS-2000, for Federal Telecommunications System. As the largest telecommunications contracting job in U.S. history, the proposed deal has attracted a Who's Who of bidders that includes AT&T, all seven local phone companies, MCI, GM/EDS, Boeing and Martin Marietta. The winning contractors will replace the old system with a showpiece network that will enable federal workers to transmit computer data, conduct video conferences at their desks, send facsimile images and even transfer funds. Says Fritz Ringling, a private telecommunications consultant: "Whoever builds this thing will...