CompuServe Signs WorldCom's UUNET as Europe Network Provider
Munich, Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- CompuServe Europe, which America Online Inc. and Bertelsmann AG took over earlier this year, said MCI WorldCom Inc.'s UUNET will provide its network services, giving users in four European countries access at local phone rates.
As of January, all of CompuServe's 350,000 customers in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands will be able to dial local numbers to get online. In France and the U.K., CompuServe already fully covers subscribers with local numbers, and 70 percent of German subscribers have local access.
The move is part of America Online and Bertelsmann's effort to edge out Deutsche Telekom AG as Europe's largest online service provider. To lure more customers, CompuServe increased the number of local access numbers German subscribers can dial to 77 from just 13 last month. It also plans to introduce new Internet access software it says will be more user-friendly and provide better connections in January. ''This agreement with UUNET assures us we'll have the right (network) capacity keep growing,'' said Konrad Hilbers, CompuServe Europe executive vice president, in an interview.
Together with CompuServe, AOL-Bertelsmann has more than 2 million subscribers throughout Europe, compared with Deutsche Telekom's 2.5 million mostly German customers.
The three-year agreement harks back to CompuServe's takeover by America Online and Bertelsmann earlier this year in transaction that also called for WorldCom to buy the online service's network. WorldCom, which fully owns the Internet phone service provider UUNET, has since bought MCI Communications Corp. to form the second largest U.S. long-distance phone company.
Though the transaction set the stage for further cooperation between CompuServe and UUNET, Hilbers said the company had to submit a competitive bid for the contract. The company declined to disclose the terms to the agreement.
Though AOL and CompuServe share customer-care call centers, they've remained separate brands and businesses. AOL has targeted the private online user in search of entertainment as well as information, while CompuServe has gone after corporate clients and subscribers looking for professional information.
CompuServe currently has about 850,000 subscribers throughout Europe. Hilbers, who took the helm at CompuServe in Germany after the takeover, has said that within 18 months the service hopes to double its number of subscribers in Germany and the rest of Europe. |
