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To: Narotham Reddy who wrote (1265)	3/6/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: Tech97	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1629

WorldCom sorts out its Internet assets By Denise Pappalardo Network World Fusion, 3/6/98 Looking to get all of its Internet service ducks in a row, WorldCom, Inc. last week revealed a plan to reorganize its four Internet subsidiaries into two business groups. Reorganizing the subsidiaries is the first of two steps being taken by WorldCom to integrate its recently acquired CompuServe Network Services and ANS Communications businesses with its existing UUNET Technologies and GridNet International subsidiaries. WorldCom's next step will be to integrate its subsidiaries' physical networks. The reorganization's goal is to gather similar services under one management team, according to John Sidgmore, UUNET's CEO and WorldCom's chief operating officer. WorldCom may have three or four different versions of certain offerings under the plan, but the company has no immediate plans to eliminate redundant services. One new business unit will include basic Internet services, while the other will include value-added net services. The basic Internet services group will be led by Mark Spagnolo, UUNET's president and COO. "This group will concentrate on UUNET's traditional services coupled with telephony services," Sidgmore said. Wholesale services, dedicated Internet access as well as IP fax and voice services will be included in the basic Internet services group. The value-added services group will be run by CompuServe Network Services President Peter Van Camp. "Value-added Internet services, like remote dial access, extranets, intranets, Web hosting and anything that requires customer network integration, will be handled by this group," Sidgmore said. Most of CompuServe and GridNet's services will fall into the value-added division, while UUNET and ANS Communications' service offerings will be divided between the two groups, he said. WorldCom doesn't expect to start integrating its Internet subsidiaries' disparate physical networks until year-end. Challenges include finding net equipment that can scale up far enough to support massive traffic growth as well as blending four networks based on different net gear. "We have concerns about the basic Internet routers and switches scaling to [support] the 100% [network capacity] growth we've been seeing each year," Sidgmore said. He's hopeful WorldCom will get the hardware it needs by working closely with Cisco Systems, Inc. and investing in high-profile start-up Juniper Networks, Inc. The other big network integration challenge involves melding a hodgepodge of different network equipment. ANS Communications, CompuServe and GridNet are all running 45M bit/sec backbone networks, but each net is based on equipment from a different vendor - Bay Networks, Inc., Cisco and Cascade Communications Corp., respectively. UUNET, on the other hand, is operating a much faster 622M bit/sec network based on Cascade and Cisco gear. This network will most likely form the core of WorldCom's Internet backbone.