Cable & Wireless Plc has secured itself an anchor role in Eastern Europe with a memorandum of understanding with the Polish Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications that it will establish a modern digital telephone network for the Gdansk region of Poland and will run it under a 25-year licence. Within three months of the go-ahead, Cables will make available international digital service for the business community and payphones and pay facsimile service for the general public. It looks to have an overlay network serving 33,000 subscribers within three to four years, and sees completion, with 450,000 subscribers, in seven to 10 years. It expects to invest UKP200m over the construction period. Cable & Wireless and US Sprint Communications Co have signedan agreement under which PTT Telecom Netherlands will become the first continental European carrier to market the Global Virtual Private Network service. It joins two Canadian carriers, Teleglobe Canada Inc and Unitel Communications Inc, which last week announced that they would provide Global Virtual Private Network service in Canada. Negotiations are continuing with Telecom Eireann and International Digital Communications Ltd of Japan.
