He added that the deal will allow Comcast to provide new products to its customers. MediaOne welcomed the announcement. We look forward to moving ahead and we wish the people of Comcast the best. The two companies said the swaps were designed to improve each company's geographic coverage.
Geographic clustering enables more effective telephony competition.
Lenfest has about 1.5 million subscribers in the Greater Philadelphia area. That sent Comcast scrambling to find help. Microsoft and America Online, who both signed confidentiality agreements to examine MediaOne's secret internal financial data last week, were rumored to be examining a possible partnership with Comcast. MCI WorldCom was also reportedly interested in getting involved in the deal, though had declined to comment. The Associated Press.