WorldCom Inc, the Jackson, Mississippi successor company to MFS Communications Inc and IDB Communications Inc, which also takes in Internet access provider UUNet Technologies Inc, is primarily a Metropolitan Area Network builder and operator. It has fiber rings girdling London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels and Paris and now plans to invest $200m ahead of the start of telecommunications competition in 1998 to link those cities together as the first phase of a pan-European network. The first phase is due to be completed by the end of this year, and other cities will be cabled and linked in as it gets approvals – it is currently licensed to build networks and offer national and international services in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Sweden. It its also laying a transatlantic fiber optic cable, Gemini, in alliance with Cable & Wireless Plc, due to open next February.
Content from our partners
