Long-distance carrier WorldCom Inc., Jacksonville, MS, has contracted with Alcatel, Paris, to build a fiber-optic network linking London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Paris. The network includes cross-channel cable links between the United Kingdom and The Netherlands and the United Kingdom and France, and is intended to connect WorldCom`s city networks in time for the opening of European Union telecommunications markets to full competition at the start of 1998. In London, the network will interconnect with the transatlantic fiber-optic network Gemini, which connects London and New York. WorldCom`s network will use sdh, optical amplification, and dense wavelength-division multiplexing technology from Alcatel, and have the ability to expand to other countries.