rja@edison.ge.com (rja) (09/24/88)
Someone speculated in the last digest that Mercury was owned by AT&T and that
was why they were cheaper than british Telecomm when calling the US from the UK.
Not True. Mercury, which is a UK long-distance carrier similar to Sprint or
MCI here in the US, is owned by Cable & Wireless PLC. Cable & Wireless
operates local phone companies in UK territories around the world (Hong Kong
Telephone is controlled by Cable & Wireless for example.) C&W is perhaps
AT&T's biggest competitor. They own pieces of trans-Atlantic and
trans-Pacific telephone cables and are also trying to get a piece of the
action in Japan where KDD (the former Int'l telephone service monopoly) will
soon be getting a competitor. The competitor will be a joint-venture of many
companies -- I think that Pacific Telesis was trying to get involved also.
British Telecomm, newly privatised I hear, is like AT&T before the infamous
breakup since they control ALL local loops as well as being the default
long-distance carrier. There is no concept of 'equal-access' yet in the UK
either.
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