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To: blankmind who wrote (9335)	2/9/1998 2:48:00 PM
From: Eliot Weissberg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21342

here it is! Monday February 9, 1:21 pm Eastern Time Mexico's Marcatel says to put investment on hold MEXICO CITY, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Mexican telephone company Marcatel said on Monday it was putting $75 million in investment planned for 1998 on hold, waiting for more suitable market conditions. ''(The investments) are on hold in the hope that the market will improve,'' company spokesman Eugenio Gonzalez told Reuters in a telephone interview. The announcement follows news last week that U.S. telecoms giant MCI Communications Corp (Nasdaq:MCIC - news; MCIC.0) had decided to delay plans to invest $900 million in Mexico, saying competition in the long-distance market had not been sufficiently freed up. Marcatel said the charges operator Telmex was levying on long distance operators to connect to its network were very high, substantially increasing the per minute cost of long distance calls. ''Telmex subsidises its long distance calls with its local tariffs,'' Gonzalez said. ''As they have no local competition, they raise their prices here and lower the cost of their long distance calls.'' Marcatel was formed via an association between Mexican beeper firm Radio Beep and U.S. firms IXC Communications (IIXC - news) and Westel Inc (WSTL - news). It has participated in the Mexican market since it opened to competition at the start of 1997. In December Marcatel said it hoped to increase its long distance traffic by 300 percent with the help of an aggressive advertising campaign.