C&W launches official complaint on AT&T/BT venture

Cable & Wireless (C&W) will tomorrow submit a detailed complaint to the EC about the proposed tie-up between BT and AT&T.

C&W, the UK's second largest telco, has already filed a broad summary of its worries to the commission, saying the alliance could create a dominant giant carrier in the global telecoms market which would stifle and destroy competition.

According to Stephen Pettit, executive director of C&W global business, BT and AT&T account for more than half the total traffic between the UK and the US. The alliance, he said, would be twice the size of its nearest competitor.

According to reports in the Financial Times, Brussels is believed to be sympathetic to both companies' efforts to pre-empt criticism. AT&T and BT are rumoured to be planning to divest certain areas of business and ring-fence others.

But it is unlikely any such efforts will appease C&W which said yesterday that the proposals should not be allowed to go ahead.