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December 6, 1999

Voice Services Go Global
MCI Worldcom's integrated network expected to improve prices and performance

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any carriers claim to offer seamless global voice services, but few actually control the circuits end to end. MCI WorldCom hopes to change that with its Global Voice Service.

The carrier has integrated its networks in the United States and abroad to offer voice services entirely over its facilities in 20 cities in 12 countries. Customers will save 20% to 25% over buying service from individual foreign carriers, and they'll have to deal with only one carrier for troubleshooting.

"We'd only have to make one call when we have a problem," says Gary Rooney, director of communications at Parametric Technology Corp., an MCI WorldCom customer in Waltham, Mass. "And with a single bill, I could get the clear picture of our overall communications costs that I don't have now."

In addition, customers should demand strong performance guarantees, says Brownlea Thomas, an analyst at Giga Information Group. However, MCI WorldCom refused to discuss any details of its service-level agreements.

Thomas says dealing with one carrier has advantages over joint ventures, such as AT&T and BT's Concert, and alliances, such as Global One: "They can have a change in ownership, inefficiencies in making strategic decisions, conflicts over who owns the account, and the challenge of handling evolving networks, operations, and cultures."

MCI WorldCom's Global Voice Service extends the carrier's Vnet features, such as a uniform seven-digit dialing plan and account codes for billing, to sites overseas. The service is available in the United States, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Israel, and Russia due next year.

Companies can expect to pay 18 cents a minute for calls between the United States and the United Kingdom, 20 to 25 cents per minute for calls between the United States and Western Europe, and 30 cents per minute between the United States and the Far East.

MCI WorldCom already offers data services such as virtual private network, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode over the network used to offer its new voice service, so global data customers already receive the single-network benefits.

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