France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom want to conclude co-operation talks with AT&T Co and other US companies by the end of March, Helmut Ricke, chairman of the Bundespost Telekom, told Handelsblatt. He said that finding a US partner for their joint venture must be cleared up in the first quarter of 1994, and some see the alliance between Telekom and Ameritech Corp in the Magyar consortium in Hungary as a possible American partner for the duo if talks with AT&T do not come to anything. The announcement by MCI Communications Corp that it will invest $2,000m to build local telephone networks in the 20 largest US markets, in order to avoid paying access charges of 45% to the local Bell operating company to connect its customers, brings closer the day when Baby Bells such as Ameritech are free to compete in long-distance service.
