US Sprint’s private networks and international arm Sprint International has set up headquarters at Portland Place, London, with the new division, Sprint International Northern Europe, aiming to provide local customer support in the continent and depending on the outcome of the November telecommunications duopoly review – to participate in a more liberalised UK telecommunications market. Sprint International was formed in January out of a combination of US Sprint’s international voice division and its former Telenet Communications Corp in a restructuring programme completed in March (CI No 1,375): 40% of Sprint International’s foreign revenues comes from Europe, and 40% of that figure from the UK – this, added to the fact that 60% of total world traffic is over a UK-US-Canada-Japan quadrangle, meant the UK was the obvious choice for a North European base, to be headed by Vincent Gargaro, formerly chief executive of Plessey-Telenet Ltd; the new arm will manage operations in the UK, Eire, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Scandinavia for Sprint International’s direct dial voice service, packet-switched data links and videoconferencing facilities. Bill Burgess, general manager of US Sprint Communications admitted that over the last five years there were times when the rapidly growing US Sprint was offering a sub-standard set of products and services, but over the last nine months it has developed into what Burgess likes to describe as the mass market specialist – given the right conditions after the Department of Trade & Industry review, Burgess sees Sprint taking part in the UK mass telecommunications market in a supportive role, possibly to Mercury Communications Ltd. The move into Northern Europe follows the announcement of a joint venture with Cable & Wireless that will see Mercury Communications supporting the UK end of US Sprint’s GVPN Global Virtual Private Network (CI No 1,415). In the effort to expand this to the continent, Burgess is visiting five European network operators in the next few days and expects agreements to be signed with at least two of them in two or three weeks – one of these is likely to extend the service to the Republic of Ireland; talks have also started with International Digital Communications Corp in Japan, and an agreement has already been signed with CNCP Telecommunications in Canada, which must wait until next year for deregulation before it can take part. Burgess reckons, however, that a truly global virtual private network will not be available much before 1992.
