The acting management of MCI Communications Inc has to field so many questions these days about the progress of chairman William McGowan’s convalescence from his heart transplant that it has taken to saying that the company’s initials stand for Medical Communications Inc, but the joke only highlights the great uncertainty surrounding the future of the US number two long-distance phone company: at divestiture in 1983, AT&T had 91% of the market, MCI had 4% and GTE Sprint had 2%, but Yandee Group estimates that the AT&T share has shrunk to 76%, MCI has nearly 9% and the enlarged US Sprint Communications has 5% – and the Washington Post points out that the customer bases of US Sprint and MCI are largely complementary, and raises the possibility of a merger.
