Protests by Rivals Stall WorldCom Pact

WorldCom Inc. said a pact to provide as much as $450 million of data services to the Defense Department has been stalled by protests from the company’s two biggest rivals, AT&T; Corp. and Sprint Corp. The second-biggest U.S. long-distance phone company said last month that it had beaten AT&T;, its biggest competitor, and No. 3 Sprint to connect the offices of 6,000 scientists and engineers for 10 years.

AT&T; declined to say why it objected; Sprint said its proposal wasn’t fairly evaluated. A Defense Department official said the dispute will be resolved by July 22. The contract originally was awarded to Global Crossing Ltd., but the government revoked it over the firm’s financial troubles.