"Telecom nearing deal with Internet provider"
Note last paragraph in this article... anyone heard anything about this?
Tampa Business Journal, Tuesday, May 20, 1997 at 19:17
Intermedia Communications Inc. is close to signing a deal with
Digex Inc. to provide the Beltsville, Md.-based Internet backbone
operator with high-speed connections for customers in Digex's
widening East Coast footprint.
The potential deal also would help Digex expand considerably its
service area, given Tampa-based ICI's coast-to-coast network.
"We've got a contract on the table," Digex CEO Christopher
McCleary said. "We're going to buy services from them."
McCleary declined to comment on when such a deal will be
completed.
Clyde Heintzelman, president of Digex's business Internet
connectivity group, said Digex will "probably sign a three- to
five-year contract" with ICI in which Digex would buy access to
ICI's fiber optic network. In turn, Digex customers would use this
leased access to make high-speed connections to Digex's Internet
backbone which connects 31 metropolitan business discricts
nationwide.
ICI did not return phone calls.
However, Digex's Heintzelman said the deal "would be major one for
(ICI) because we use a lot of bandwidth. ... Plus, we're adding
between 125 to 150 corporate accounts every month.
While Heinzelman declined to say how much the deal would be worth
to either side, McCleary said it would be "in the millions" of
dollars.
Digex already has signed similar agreements with such national and
regional telecommunications companies as GTE Corp., MCI and MFS.
Publicly traded Digex's nationwide Internet backbone includes
points of presense in Jacksonville, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Orlando
and Tampa.
Major clients include such financial biggies as Morgan Stanley
World Bank, Credit Suisse and Ernst & Young, as well as Lockheed
Martin, the Dallas Morning News and the University of Maryland.
ICI offers local- and long-distance telephone service, as well as
advanced data services, throughout the United States and abroad.
Rumors have popped up in recent days that ICI is negotiating to
buy Digex. Heinzelman neither confirmed nor denied such reports.
"We are a public company and they are a public company and therefore
it would be both inappropriate and illegal to discuss anything like
that," he said. "We keep our head down and focus on our business
plan." |
