Furthering the unholy alliance in process of being formed by the biggest two state-owned telecommunications operators in Europe, France Telecom and the Deutsche Bundespost have each agreed to acquire 15% of Computer Sciences Corp’s Infonet worldwide packet switched network business, which accounted for $80m of the El Segundo, California company’s $1,150m annual turnover. Computer Sciences has also granted options on 5% each of the business to Sweden’s Teleinvest AB; the Belgian RTT; and Telefonica of Spain. Other telecommunications operators in Europe and Asia will be offered shareholdings in the new Infonet company, but Computer Sciences intends to remain the largest shareholder in it. Quirkily, the French stake is being acquired by Transpac on behalf of France Telecom – but Transpac, which operates the national X25 service, has its own board, some outside shareholders, and is nominally independent of France Telecom. The agreement will enable the PTTs to offer worldwide end-to-end data communications services and Computer Sciences will continue to use Infonet for delivery of its computer services. The aim of the new agreement is to enable PTTs to offer their customers one stop-shopping for international data communications, with one invoice for all international traffic. Infonet directly links 20 countries, and in 11 other countries provides local customer support with access to the network via common carrier services. The agreement of the five PTTs to opt to support Infonet is seen as compromising plans to establish a Europe-wide Managed Data Network.
