Cable & Wireless Plc’s Mercury Communications Ltd woke up to the fact that the UK cable television operators, with their networks that were effectively local loop systems, were its natural allies in its desperate battle to win a critical mass of market share against British Telecommunications Plc. And by offering them indifferent interconnect terms and blowing hot and cold over any deeper relationship, it allowed British Telecom back in to win much of their business. The magnitude of the error is now clear, and it seems that C&W is about to do something to remedy the situation. The Sunday Telegraph reckons it is about to buy the UK cable systems put up for sale by Groupe Videotron Ltee of Montreal, which wants to concentrate on North America. Other bidders are Bell Cablemedia Plc, which already has a 26% stake in the systems, and in which Cable & Wireless has 13%, and Deutsche Telekom AG.
