MCI Communications - MCI Innovations

MCI Innovations

After the opening of the long distance market during 1984, companies such as MCI and Sprint were able to compete for customers with AT&T. One of MCI's early advertising success stories was to hire the same actors used in a previous AT&T commercial. As in the AT&T commercial, the woman actor was crying. In the AT&T version, when the husband asked why, the wife replied "he said he loved me" referring to the conversation just ended with a son who was in a distant part of the country. It was part of AT&T's very effective "Reach Out" advertisement strategy. In the MCI version, when the husband asked the wife why she was crying, she replied "I just received my phone bill"... after which an announcer's voice stated "You're not talking too much, you're just paying too much. MCI: The Nation's New Long Distance Telephone Company." The advertisements were created by Ally & Gargano.

Even before the competitive long distance market came into existence, MCI created (during late 1970) a subsidiary company named MCI Satellite, Inc. The idea was that satellites could provide 'long distance' service from anywhere to anywhere without having to build thousands of miles of terrestrial network facilities. During early 1971, MCI and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company created a joint venture named MCI Lockheed Satellite Corp., which was the first company to request FCC authorization as a Specialized Common Carrier using satellite-based communications. A year later, MCI and Lockheed sought an additional source of funding and Comsat Corp. entered the venture which was renamed CML Satellite Corp. In need of cash, MCI sold its share of the venture to IBM Corporation during 1974 (Lockheed also subsequently sold its share to IBM). IBM and Comsat brought in Aetna Insurance Company as a third partner and renamed the company Satellite Business Systems (SBS). IBM, which years later became the sole owner of SBS, sold the satellite subsidiary back to MCI during 1985, the $400 million "purchase price", in effect providing MCI with the financing it needed to continue its expansion.

During 1975, MCI began experimenting with offering switched voice telecommunications in direct competition with AT&T. Until then MCI sold point-to-point voice and data services using their microwave relay network. Starting with two Digital Tandem Switch (DTS) voice-switching systems designed specifically for them by the Collins Radio Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (later a division of Rockwell International), MCI began offering competitive circuit-switched direct-dial services using a combination of their own microwave circuits and leased circuits from AT&T made available to them from the Carterfone decision. One early customer was CNA Insurance in Chicago, served by one of the two Collins systems located at MCI's facilities on the 21st floor of Chicago's John Hancock building. The second Collins switch was located at MCI facilities in New York City and voice services sold to a variety of customers including RCA Global Communications under MCI's "Execunet" service banner. The experiment proved successful and a third switch was purchased from Danray Corporation (later purchased by Northern Telecommunications, now Nortel) and installed in the MCI Chicago facility alongside the Collins system. When GE later bought RCA and broke it up MCI purchased the RCA Global Communications division. Many more Danray switches were purchased and deployed at strategic points of their service area to become the first viable competitor to AT&T's long-distance voice services for businesses.

MCI was the first company to deploy single-mode fiber optic cable (the standard had been multi-mode), which was manufactured by Siecor, a joint venture between Siemens Telecom and Corning Glass Company. Referred to as MAFOS (Mid-Atlantic Fiber Optic System), the fiber cable ran between New York City and Washington D.C. and was activated for service in 1984. Eventually, single-mode fiber became the standard for US telecommunications carriers.

A later marketing strategy employed by MCI was the Friends & Family plan, an early type of loyalty program. In this program, customers would receive a reduced rate when both the caller and callee were MCI customers.

The company also introduced a dial-around collect calling service called "1-800-COLLECT". Actors Ed O'Neill, Wayne Knight, and Mr. T, and motorcycle racer Jeremy McGrath featured in some of 1-800-COLLECT's commercials, but the most commonly used spokesperson ended up being the fictitious Eva Savealot, who was played by actress Alyssa Milano.

During the early 1980s, MCI developed a data network using the CCITT X.25 packet switching protocol and an electronic mail service called MCI Mail. There were other commercially available electronic mail systems, such as IBM's Professional Office System (PROFs), but they didn't interface with each other until the development of the CCITT X.400 standard during 1984. During this time, Vint Cerf (one of the developers of the TCP/IP protocol) was manager of MCI Digital Information Services and organized the effort to interconnect MCI Mail with the Internet; the first commercial e-mail service to do so. Celtic Engineering Inc. of Mc Kinney, Texas was also instrumental in the beginning of this service.

During the mid-to-late 1980s, MCI partnered with several universities and provided the high-speed telecommunications links between their computer systems. This network, operated under the auspices of the National Science Foundation was called NSFNet, used the TCP/IP protocol that had been developed by the U.S. Department of Defense ARPANet and was the immediate forerunner to the Internet. From the early 1990s on, MCI's network was an integral part of the global Internet.

During 1995, MCI introduced 1-800-MUSIC-NOW, a short-lived telephone-based and online music store.