After its famous victory in the Nipponoptic Wars, Cable & Wireless Plc may regard the entire Far East telecommunications arena as its private fiefdom – but not if British Telecom International has any say in the matter. Telecom chairman Iain Vallance had a chat with the Nippon Keizai Shimbun newspaper last week and inter alia expounded on the way the UK company sees the other fibre optic cable across the Pacific, the one to be laid by consortia led by Kokusai Denshin Denwa and AT&T Co, evolving into a three-stage Integrated Services Digital Network. He also declared British Telecom’s intention of building a substantial equipment sales business in Japan, of which its partner, Mitsui & Co, has so far sold 16 in Tokyo, will be followed by other equipment, with products from 51% subsidiary Mitel Ltd likely to spearhead the effort. He also pointed out that lines to be used by International Telecom Japan, in which the UK company has a 2% stake, will be leasing lines on the new cable.
Content from our partners
