| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 11, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| SPECIAL REPORT
The Trouble with Global Plans For years, major telephone companies around the world have set up alliances to provide phone service to multinational corporations with operations around the globe. But the results have been dismal. MCI WORLDCOM-TELEFONICA 1998 The promising alliance is in disarray. Although both sides pledged extensive cooperation when they announced the partnership 18 months ago, it has accomplished almost nothing to date. As the two companies pursue their separate interests in Brazil, Spain, and the U.S., they're looking more like competitors than partners. GLOBAL ONE 1996 Expect the partnership of Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, and France Telecom to dissolve soon. Ever since DT launched its ultimately futile bid for Telecom Italia this spring without telling its French partner, the Germans and French have been at each other's throats. The rumored MCI WorldCom takeover of Sprint would surely be the death knell, since MCI WorldCom is building phone networks in France and Germany to compete with the incumbents. UNISOURCE 1992 Unisource showed some promise early on, but the partnership was so loosely structured that it proved incapable of delivering consistently strong service around the world. That led to the exits of Telefonica in 1997 and AT&T this year, which have hobbled the consortium. All that remain are Dutch KPN, Sweden's Telia, and Swisscom. Now, those three have decided to sell off the partnership's assets. BRITISH TELECOM-AT&T 1998 This is the one alliance that is holding together. The partners put all their international assets into a joint venture with $10 billion in revenues and brought on hotshot exec David Dorman to be CEO. For more reach in Asia, they took a 30% stake in Japan Telecom. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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RELATED ITEMS Dialing for Pennies TABLE: Dialing Abroad Will Never Be the Same Again Coping with the Revolution TABLE: Third World Backlash A Failure to Communicate TABLE: The Trouble with Global Plans ONLINE ORIGINAL: The FCC's Kennard: Fighting for Lower Long-Distance Rates INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
