While the UK government continues to beat down its domination of the telecommunications market at home, British Telecommunications Plc says it is currently in discussion with Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom to form a consortium that will offer an internal telephone management service to multi-national companies. Says British Telecom, the discussions are in early stages at the moment, but an announcement may be made in the not too distant future. British Telecom would take 48% of the Pathfinder joint venture, while Nippon Telegraph and Telekom would each hold 26% – but it is also possible that a US telephone company may join the proposed alliance, although no further details have been disclosed. The current plan is that British Telecom would offer the Pathfinder services in the US through its BT Tymnet subsidiary, while the Telekom would join it in an attack on Europe. Nippon Telegraph meanwhile, would look after Asia. According to British Telecom, IBM is among the potential customers of the proposed new service, which would take the responsibility for planning and managing intra-company telephone networks off the shoulders of teams of in-house phone technicians – ordering local lines and maintaining the communications network. Outside the UK, Germany and Japan, the telephone consortium would negotiate on behalf of its clients for lines and services from local telephone companies. Multi-nationals are where the money is, acknowledges Dataquest Inc market research analyst John Dinsdale, and the three dominant telecommunications companies are out to milk them for all they’re worth. But it won’t be an easy ride if the deal is signed and the project goes ahead – Nippon Telegraph is forbidden by law to provide services outside Japan, while Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co is the biggest international player. And in Europe, national phone companies are bound to resent this move in on the multi-national business in their countries. If the talks are successful, it may not be long before AT&T Co and other carriers, make moves to offer competing international services.
