Global Crossing

This month or next, Global Crossing's fiber-optic network, spanning 101,000 route miles and expected to serve 80 percent of the world's telecom traffic, is scheduled to be completed.

This month or next, Global Crossings fiber-optic network, spanning 101,000 route miles and expected to serve 80 percent of the worlds telecom traffic, is scheduled to be completed. The company is celebrating by courting the worlds largest businesses.

Chief Financial Officer Dan Cohrs says about 50 percent of Global Crossings $3.8 billion revenue in 2000 came from network sales to other carriers. But in a failing economy, multinational corporations are more attractive customers than telecom carriers.

Small and midsized business customers make up 10 percent to 15 percent of revenue, but thats not likely to increase, Cohrs says.

Instead, Global Crossing will vie with other telecoms for big multinational media companies, financial institutions and governments.

The company, led by CEO Thomas Casey, has been consolidating operations. It sold its GlobalCenter Web hosting unit to Exodus Communications in January. And this summer, it expects to close on the $3.65 billion sale of its local exchange carrier.

The companys network covers every major city in the world outside of Africa, Australia, India and Singapore.