All,
Another one quoting CEO of WCOM........MCI WorldCom Opens Broadband Access
CEO promises customers a choice of ISPs instead of locking them into company's own service.
by Margret Johnston, IDG News Service
January 12, 2000, 3:18 p.m. PT
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Broadband users will soon have a greater choice of Internet service providers, as the merged MCI WorldCom and Sprint prepare to open their network.
MCI WorldCom will design its broadband wireless network to let customers choose an ISP, rather than requiring them to use its own. The announcement is in a statement issued before a speech here Wednesday by Bernard Ebbers, president and chief executive officer of MCI WorldCom.
MCI WorldCom-Sprint will offer the choice of ISPs by implementing open access to its network wherever wholesale capacity is available, according to the statement. The two companies announced their intent to merge last October.
The announcement was one of four that Ebbers is set to make in his speech to the National Press Club. He is also expected to pledge that the new WorldCom will accelerate its deployment of broadband wireless in rural and underserved areas of the United States within a year after the merger closes.
Ebbers will also spell out MCI WorldCom's plans to offer an "all-distance" service to compete with Bell Atlantic in New York. The service would give customers a large number of minutes that can be used to make local or domestic long-distance calls, the release says. MCI WorldCom also plans to step up competition for infrequent callers by offering a nationwide plan with no minimum usage or monthly fees, according to the release.
The rise of the Internet and wireless communications have changed the way communications services are structured and sold, and the changes are accelerated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Ebbers says in the release.
"The opportunity--in fact, the imperative--created by the Telecom Act was to become a full-service provider for the communications needs of customers," Ebbers is quoted as saying. "If you are not all-distance in this business, you won't go the distance. That means providing local, long distance, international, data Internet, wire-line, and wireless. All services--all distances."
Brina H. |
