The IP future

We've been very public about the fact that we're betting the ranch on the Internet," says John Sidgmore. Now vice chairman for MCI WorldCom, Sidgmore's communications industry roots are in the Internet. In 1994, he became CEO of UUNet - the first and still the largest commercial Internet backbone operator. The UUNet name and culture have survived three merger/acquisitions and may well survive a fourth.

After the most recent mating of MCI and WorldCom, which had acquired UUNet through its purchase of MFS Communications, a decision was made that "UUNet was the one thing they weren't going to integrate into the rest of the phone company," Sidgmore says.

But paradoxically, Sidgmore now is entrusted with determining the network architecture for the merged megacarrier. Not surprisingly, his vision is focused squarely on IP.

Nothing is preventing carriers from operating IP networks that run integrated voice, video and data today. However, "The real question is, when do the economics work?" Sidgmore asked. That's a year or two away, he says.

Meanwhile, the company is solidifying its IP expertise on the UUNet network. Sidgmore attributes UUNet's success to three things.

First, "we decided we were going to be focused on the business market, and it turned out to be larger than we thought," he says.

Second, although the company didn't want to be a retail player, it maximized its network resources by wholesaling services to ISPs that were using the strategy.

Third, UUNet used the funds it acquired in its May 1995 IPO to acquire international Internet assets. "We wanted to be worldwide because nobody else was doing that, and we felt if we built out before everyone else, we would be ahead of the game," Sidgmore says.

During the next few years, we'll see many new means of accessing the Internet, he predicts: "People will be walking around with wireless Internet devices. We're very close to having ubiquity."

That vision is driving MCI WorldCom's impending merger with Sprint. "One of our strongest positions is the Internet, and having a robust wireless data offering is going to be critical," Sidgmore says. "We're paying to get what we consider the best one."