France, Germany Discussing Media Linkup : Europe: State monopolies in the two nations are near a deal that could build a major telecommunications force.

The state telecommunications monopolies of France and Germany are on the verge of a deal that could create a new major force in global communications, industry sources said Sunday.

They said the first step in the linkup between France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom would be to expand a joint business communications venture, Eunetcom, merge some core activities and possibly bring American Telephone & Telegraph of the United States into the equation.

The two companies could merge management of telephone lines, leased lines and data services. At a later date, they could build a pan-European multimedia network for data and eventually voice traffic, the sources said.

European businesses are anxiously awaiting such a network, and once in place, it could attract other European operations too small to set up their own systems.

The alliance would compete directly with British Telecommunications and MCI Communications Corp. of the United States, which rocked the industry in June with the announcement of a joint corporate communications venture.

Telecommunications industry sources said Bonn and Paris had hoped to keep news of the alliance under wraps until it could be announced by French President Francois Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the end of November.

Kohl and Mitterrand, scheduled to meet ahead of next month’s European Community summit in Brussels, wanted to announce the deal as further evidence of the strength of the Franco-German axis within the 12-nation Community.

Klaus Czerwinski, spokesman for Germany’s Telekom, said Sunday that Telekom had always wanted to expand its ties with France Telecom but had to wait for the federal government in Bonn to give final clearance for Telekom’s privatization.

That signal came Friday when government and opposition agreed in principle to change the constitution to make it possible to privatize Telekom by 1995.

“Talks are under way concerning intensive cooperation with France Telecom to determine where we can work more closely together,” Czerwinski said.

Michel Hirsch, France Telecom director of international affairs, said in September the French and Germans had talked about merging key activities by swapping shares.

Klaus Grewlich, his counterpart at Telekom, has said in press interviews that such a swap of capital could happen after Telekom is privatized.

Last month, Eunetcom announced its first contract from International Business Machines Corp. to provide data transmission services at 40 IBM sites in Europe.

Business Week magazine reported that France Telecom chairman Marcel Roulet and Telekom chairman Helmut Ricke have discussed the plan with European Commission President Jacques Delors to make sure it is acceptable under EC competition law.

The Financial Times said details of the planned alliance, known as Project Atlantic, would appear Monday in the trade magazine Communications Week International.