MCI Communications

MCI Communications Corporation (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was an American telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States.

MCI was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the Bell System and introduced competition in the U.S. telephone industry. Its MCI Mail, launched in 1983, was one of the first Email services and its MCI.net was an integral part of the Internet backbone.

The company was acquired by WorldCom in 1998.

MCI was founded as Microwave Communications, Inc. on October 3, 1963, with John D. Goeken being named the company's first president. The initial business plan was for the company to build a series of microwave radio relay stations between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. The relay stations would then be used to interface with limited-range two-way radios used by truckers along U.S. Route 66 or by barges on the Illinois Waterway. The long-distance communication service would then be marketed to shipping companies that were too small to build their own private relay systems. In addition to the radio relay services, MCI soon made plans to offer voice, computer information, and data communication services for business customers unable to afford AT&T's TELPAK service.

Hearings on the company's initial license application between February 13, 1967, and April 19, 1967, resulted in a recommendation of approval by the FCC.

On June 26, 1968, the FCC ruled in the Carterfone case that AT&T's rules prohibiting private two-way radio connections to a telephone network were illegal. AT&T quickly sought a reversal of the ruling, and when the FCC denied the request, AT&T brought suit against the FCC in the United States courts of appeals. The FCC's decision was upheld, thus creating a new industry: privately manufactured (non-Bell) devices could be connected to the telephone network as long as the manufacturer met interface standards.

In 1968, William G. McGowan, an investor from New York with experience in raising venture capital, made an investment into the company large enough to pay all outstanding debts and create a cash reserve. McGowan received a seat on the board of directors. Microwave Communications of America, Inc (MICOM) was incorporated on August 8, 1968 as an umbrella corporation to help build a nationwide microwave relay system.

On October 28, 1968, Hyrum Rex Lee became an FCC Commissioner and MCI began a series of submissions including a proposal for a low-cost educational television network designed to show MCI as being more flexible to public needs than AT&T. While MCI was performing this lobbying, the President's Task Force on Communication Policy issued a report recommending that specialized common carriers be allowed free access into the private line business.