Telecommunications Executive Defends Microsoft In Antitrust Hearings

Gregg Sutherland, a senior vice president at Quest Communications, said the ability of emerging messaging systems to operate together requires that different systems communicate.

The proposed penalties "would deprive users of Microsoft-based systems of the ability to send e-mail messages with confidence," Sutherland testified. "Microsoft would have to turn Microsoft-based systems into virtually useless platforms for e-mail communications."

Many telecommunications companies are researching so-called unified messaging services, a way to meld landline and cellular calls, e-mail, faxes and instant messages into a universal inbox.

Nine states pursuing antitrust penalties against Microsoft want those penalties to apply to those systems as well, so that Microsoft won't be able to use its market power to degrade communications between non-Microsoft systems. The states are also afraid Microsoft would co-opt the market with its own products, as it has done with its desktop operating systems.

Other proposed penalties would let computer manufacturers remove Internet Explorer and other features of Windows and substitute competing software. That, the states say, would keep Microsoft from illegally maintaining its monopoly, give consumers more choice and help software developers make new kinds of programs.

The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case against Microsoft last year for lesser penalties.

The original judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled competitors. An appeals court upheld many of the violations but reversed the breakup order and appointed U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to determine new punishment.

Under questioning from John Schmidtlein, a lawyers for the nine states, Sutherland recounted Qwest's dire financial situation. Since the executive joined the telephone giant about a year ago, its stock price has tumbled 80 percent. Government agencies are investigating Qwest's accounting practices and secret deals it made in long-distance services.

Qwest has a close relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft is a shareholder, and the Microsoft Network Internet provider is the primary service provider for Qwest's Internet customers.

Schmidtlein suggested that Qwest may have other motives in having Sutherland testify in a case that Microsoft has said would severely damage the company.

Sutherland said he didn't know how he was chosen to testify, or of conversations between Microsoft and Qwest.

Under questioning, Sutherland said he has very little experience with unified messaging services and started a related project for Qwest less than a month ago. He also said he "skimmed" the states' penalty proposals and the federal government's settlement, but claimed to have no opinion on them.

Several companies, as well as the nine states, argue that Microsoft adopted open technology standards only to make them proprietary later, forcing many to use Microsoft products. Sutherland said he did not study any records of Microsoft's conduct.

"You did not take into consideration Microsoft's past conduct in these proceedings?" Schmidtlein asked.

"Only as background," Sutherland said, adding that he didn't find it relevant.

States that rejected the government's settlement with Microsoft last fall were Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia.

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