AT&T Corp.'s Gerald DeFrancisco will replace
veteran Tele-Communications Inc. executive Marvin Jones as head of the companies'
broadband-wireline-telephony operations, TCI said..
Jones, TCI's executive vice president, will work with
DeFrancisco, and he plans to retire once the transition is complete, when the two
companies finalize their merger later this month.
As head of the cable-telephony rollout planned for this
year, DeFrancisco will report directly to TCI president and chief operating officer Leo J.
Hindery Jr., who will become CEO of AT&T Broadband and Internet Services after the
merger.
DeFrancisco was named executive vice president of wireline
telephony for broadband and Internet services.
Since last year, he has been AT&T's vice president
in charge of national deployment of cable telephony and its development of an
Internet-protocol strategy. That post followed a lengthy AT&T career that included
senior positions in network operations, business-customer service and access management.
One such post was president and CEO of AT&T Alascom,
the company's wholly owned Alaska affiliate.
"The business was unprofitable for a long time,"
AT&T spokesman Mark Segal said of AT&T Alascom. "Jerry turned it around and
did it ahead of schedule."
DeFrancisco will succeed a man with a notable history of
his own.
Jones, who began his career as a cable installer in 1958,
has been president and CEO of TCI Communications Inc. since June, after serving as chief
operating officer.
Jones was president and CEO of United Artists Cablesystems
Corp. for seven years before the company's 1991 merger with TCI, after which he
founded and ran a cable-television-consulting firm.
