Having turned down Nynex Corp’s request to be allowed to participate in Cable & Wireless Plc’s transatlantic PTAT-1 fibre optic cable and left the company to appeal to final arbitor, Judge Harold Greene, the US Justice Department has gone the other way on the request by Pacific Telesis Group to be allowed to participate in the Cable & Wireless-led International Digital Communications consortium’s panpacific cable. The Department ruled in favour of Pacific Telesis because it wants only 10% of the consortium building the PPAC-1 cable, in which Cables and C Itoh & Co each have a stake of 34%. Judge Greene has to approve the decision, but rarely overturns a Justice Department ruling. Nynex hopes that the decision will be seen as a precedent and that it will after all be allowed to have 50% of the PTAT-1 cable – but Cable & Wireless is seeking another partner, MCI and IBM being possibles.
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