FCC Wants Details on MCI-Sprint Merger

The Federal Communications Commission asked MCI WorldCom Corp. and Sprint Corp. to explain how their proposed $115-billion merger would affect the market for the extensive and sometimes competing Internet services the two companies now provide. “We’ve said all along we’re prepared to address the Internet issue,” said MCI spokesman Peter Lucht. “We’re happy to supply the FCC with any additional facts that it desires.” Both companies have acknowledged the issues raised by their combined ownership of Internet “backbone”--the massive data pipelines that crisscross the nation carrying computer traffic for third parties. Some analysts have predicted the companies would have to shed pieces of that Internet business in order to receive regulatory approval for the deal to go forward. In their official FCC filing, the companies anticipated that the Internet backbone would be part of the Justice Department’s separate antitrust review. But the FCC, in a letter to both companies, asserted that the agency also should look at the market effect of combining the two companies’ Internet backbone businesses as part of its own review. The FCC has the authority to evaluate mergers between companies to see how they impact or serve the public interest.