MCI Communications

MCI Communications

MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental for legal and regulatory changes that resulted in the end of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and began the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Initiated during 1963, it grew to be the second-largest long-distance telephonage provider in the U.S. It was purchased by WorldCom during 1998 and became MCI WorldCom, with the name afterwards being abbreviated to WorldCom during 2000. WorldCom's financial scandals and bankruptcy caused that company to change its name during 2003 to MCI Inc.. The MCI name was discontinued during January 2006 after the company was bought by Verizon corporation. As of May 2011, the MCI trademark is still maintained on MCI.com and on a sub-page of Verizon.com.