BT goes home

America's Network, Dec 1, 2004 by Grahame Lynch

BT re-enters North America, blared the headlines last month when the UK telco returned to U.S. shores to buy El Segundo, California-based global services operator Infonet. Much coverage suggested it was BT's second attempt at America after its failed Concert JV with AT&T, but the reality is more benign.

Infonet was previously the global network pool for a number of second-tier European and Asian national telcos and is certainly no big fish in the U.S. market--it does over 80% of its sales overseas, mainly in Europe. As a bemused Jose Callazo, CEO of the venture, remarked on a conference call last month, just three of its 1,000 worldwide workforce are American citizens!