Press Release: 1996-02-21: Tele-Communications International and Chilean partners announce new cable venture

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.tci.com (archived)

02.21.96

TELE-COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL, Inc.

DENVER, COLORADO 

Bresnan International Partners (Chile) L.P., a U.S. company that is 80 percent owned by Tele-Communications International, Inc., and its partner Cristalerias de Chile S.A. (C.C.), who jointly own the cable operation Cordillera Comunicaciones Ltda., today announced the formation of a new venture, Metropolis-Intercom S.A. Their partner in this new operation is Intercom S.A., a cable venture between Compania de Telecomunicaciones de Chile S.A. (CTC), a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica de Espana (Telefonica), and Comercial El Canelo S.A. & Empresa El Mercurio S.D.P., the Chilean media group. Metropolis-Intercom will consist of the cable operations previously owned by each of the two groups and will be owned 60 percent by Cordillera and 40 percent by Intercom.

In addition to the formation of Metropolis-Intercom, Cordillera has sold nearly all of the infrastructure of its cable systems to CTC. CTC plans to expand and operate the network infrastructure, operate the systems' hardware and provide technical services. Metropolis-Intercom will continue to use the network system to deliver cable services to its customers.

Metropolis-Intercom's cable systems include networks which are currently operating in the cities of Santiago, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, Rancagua, Los Angeles, Temuco, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas and Valdivia. The company also intends to expand its geographical coverage into other Chilean cities.

Fred A. Vierra, Chief Executive Officer of Tele-Communications International commented: "Combining our cable operations with those of our new partners has created the largest cable company in Chile, with more than 200,000 subscribers. Metropolis-Intercom will benefit from the efficiencies of combining its operations, and will be able to devote resources to the development of state of the art broadband technologies for video and communications services."

Tele-Communications International, Inc., trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol TINTA, is a leading operator of broadband cable television and telephony distribution networks in, and a provider of diversified programming services to, selected markets around the world. It's parent company, Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), is the world's largest cable operator, with approximately 13 million customers in the U.S. Tele-Communications International is a partner in ventures that provide cable services to over 2.5 million subscribers in Europe, Asia and Latin America.