From today's Wall Street Urinal:
(i have no comment)
The Wall Street Journal -- January 8, 1999
Technology & Health:
FCC Delay Sought On Consortium's Undersea Cable
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By Quentin Hardy
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In a challenge to the way undersea telephone cables are built, Global Crossing Ltd. has asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay consideration of a $3 billion fiber-optic link between Japan and the U.S.
Global Crossing, a Bermuda company that is one of few independent cable operators, filed a petition asking the FCC to address whether the so-called JUS cable, backed by a consortium of 33 companies, inhibits competition. Global Crossing plans to own and operate its own fiber link across the Pacific, with commercial service slated to begin in early 2000, about the same time as the JUS cable.
Global Crossing asked the FCC to defer action on approving a U.S. landing license for the JUS cable, and decide "whether the existence and operation of this consortium unnecessarily distorts the potential for competition." While the petition stops short of asking the FCC to refuse the landing license outright, the action could delay construction of the JUS link.
The JUS consortium includes AT&T Corp., British Telecommunications PLC, MCI Worldcom Inc. and Japan Telecom Co., along with such relative newcomers as Qwest Communications International Inc.
Global Crossing and members of the JUS consortium believe it is the first time there has been a challenge to the consortium cable system, which is the way all but a handful of the world's submarine-communications links have been constructed.
The club system has usually gone unchallenged, despite deregulation of much of the world's telecommunication industry. That is because cables are expensive, and until recently there were a relatively small number of international carriers.
Global Crossing, which was formed in 1997 and went public last summer, already operates a cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Global also plans to operate a network throughout Europe and the U.S., with the eventual aim of running a world-wide private network.
The JUS consortium said the Global Crossing filing was still under review by consortium members, and a response to the FCC contesting any delay will likely take several days. Patricia Robertson, a group spokeswoman, said there would be ample competition in the cross-Pacific market, in part because of Global Crossings' effort. "It is our belief that the FCC should not delay approval," she said. |
