MCI Telecommunications Corporation. Sales and Operations Administration (Records of Bert C. Roberts).

Bert C. Roberts was born in 1942. After completing an electrical engineering program at Johns Hopkins University, he worked for Westinghouse and Leasco Response. Roberts joined MCI Telecommunications in 1972 as Manager of Large Accounts, and became responsible for developing operational functions such as order processing, circuit engineering and sales administration. From 1974 to 1978, Roberts, then Vice-President of MCI Telecommunications, concentrated on marketing and developing Execunet and other new services. Roberts led the MCI negotiations with AT & T concerning the introduction of its proposed ENFIA tariff in 1978. In this same period he was involved in the preparation for the trial of MCI's antitrust suit against AT & T. In 1982, Roberts was named senior Vice President of Administration for MCI Communications Corporation and three years later became its President and Chief Operating Officer.

Reflecting Roberts' dynamic career with MCI, his records cover many aspects of its operational, marketing, sales and administrative activities. Memos produced by Roberts and his staff, together with budgets, business plans, reports, forecasts, their drafts and preparatory material, illustrate the development, marketing and implementation of MCI's main products of the 1970's: Quickline, Telemanagement, TelAnalysis, and of the most profitable service - Execunet. MCI filings before the FCC and appellate court, with tariffs and tariff modifications, and also in defense of its offerings against AT & T's attacks, present in detail a complicated history of the other common carriers' struggle against the monopolistic giant for fair competition in telecommunication. The same struggle is reflected in material on negotiations regarding local access charges (ENFIA negotiations) and the government's and MCI's antitrust suits versus AT & T, which resulted in AT & T divestiture and the restructuring of the entire industry. Roberts' role in discussing national security telecommunications systems, his innovative attitude to development of new technologies - facsimile, electronic mail, personal computers, are also presented in this series.

From the description of Records, 1971-1985 (bulk 1974-1984). (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122516230