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Cerf says . . .

Father of the Internet weighs in on Cable & Wireless deal.

So what does the "Father of the Internet," as MCI often likes to call Vinton Cerf, think about the partial sale of MCI Communications' Internet business to Cable & Wireless plc? Cerf, senior vice president of Internet architecture and engineering, jotted down these responses to an e-mail interview with Network World Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo.

With your strong history in the start of the Internet as we know it today, how do you feel about the fact that MCI will no longer have an Internet backbone of its own?

MCI WorldCom will have a very strong backbone - the deal only goes through if the merger goes through. Otherwise, MCI will retain the property.

Will you and your staff be working with Cable & Wireless on the migration? How do you see that panning out?

A portion of my engineering group will go to Cable & Wireless. I think it will work out well for both MCI WorldCom and for the employees who go with the backbone.

Will MCI eventually leave Internet development to WorldCom's UUNET side of the house? Do you see yourself and your staff migrating over to the UUNET side of the house, once the deal is complete?

While we haven't worked out the organizational structures, our intent is to integrate the Internet businesses.