US West Inc, 50% shareholder in the Mercury Communications Ltd Mercury One-2-One digital cellular business and tipped to join Cable & Wireless Plc in Veba AG’s German telecommunications partnership, has been chosen by the prosperous Flanders region of Belgium to be the foreign partner in its Telenet Vlaanderen regional telecommunications network. US West International was chosen from 13 companies on the grounds of its experience in telecommunications and cable television markets and its involvement in multimedia. Telenet Vlaanderen wants to build a rival telephone network to that of state-owned Belgacom NV using existing cable television infrastructure. Belgium has the most extensive cable television network in the European Community. With US West and the regional cable television operators Telenet Vlaanderen will draw up a business plan by mid-year outlining the construction of a broadband network that is intended to become operational by 1997. No details of US West’s participation are decided, but it will have a maximum of 25%.
