It begins to look as if AT&T Corp’s proposed bid to take a stake in Compagnie des Machines Bull SA is really a ploy to give it added ammunition in its bid to get the deal between Sprint Corp, France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom banned by the Federal Communications Commission when as seems highly likely, France rejects AT&T’s request for a licence to compete with France Telecom in telecommunications; AT&T filed its opinion on the Sprint deal with the Commission late last week – the closing date for comments – saying that the deal should be approved if and only if, American telecommunications firms have comparable and concurrent access to markets in France and Germany; ironically last year, Sprint itself asked the Department of Commerce to block the purchase of 20% of MCI Communications Corp by British Telecommunications Plc, arguing that Foreign carriers should not be granted access to the US international telecommunications market unless US carriers have equal access in the home markets of the relevant foreign carriers; British Telecom also told the Commission that France and Germany need to be opened before these countries can enter the US by buying into Sprint; MCI Communications Inc urged the Commission to examine the anticompetitive risks posed by the deal.
