MFS Communications Company, Inc. (Metropolitan Fiber Systems) was a
competitive local exchange carrier that owned and operated local network access facilities installed in and around major U.S. cities and several major European cities. MFS also possessed significant transmission and switching facilities and network capacity that it leased from other carriers in the United States and Western Europe.
History
The company was founded in 1988 as Kiewit Communications, a subsidiary of
Kiewit Corporation.
By 1991, the company owned fiber-optic lines that served large business customers in 11 cities.
In 1993, the company became a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...
via an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
.
[
In April 1996, the company announced the acquisition of ]UUNET
UUNET Technologies, Inc., formerly UUNET Communications Services, was an American commercial Internet service provider. Founded in 1987, it was one of the first and largest commercial ISPs and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in ...
.
In August 1996, WorldCom
MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second-largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. WorldCom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunicatio ...
announced the acquisition of the company and the transaction was completed in December 1996.[ Worldcom filed ]bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
in 2002.
Level 3 Communications and NorthPoint Communications were founded by former executives of MFS.[
]
References
{{Reflist
1988 establishments in Nebraska
1993 initial public offerings
1996 mergers and acquisitions
Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States