MCI Communications Corp and British Telecommunications Plc yesterday launched the Concert Virtual Network Service, claiming to be the first carriers to offer a seamless voice network service for connecting corporate locations in the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The service is available between the US, UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and the partners reckon those eight countries represent some 80% of all corporate voice traffic among US multinationals. The service offers uniform customer-defined seven- or 10-digit dialling plans or both, authorisation and accounting codes; multilingual customer support round the clock; a calling card for travelling employees to access to their corporate networks and make direct dial calls worldwide; options of centralised or by-location billing in the customer’s choice of currency; and full connection to some 200 countries worldwide not on the network. The new service is built around a centralised database developed by Concert enabling each customer to customise and manage its virtual network. AT&T Corp says it plans to offer a similar service to most European countries in the first quarter of 1995.
