Scandal-smeared MCI has insisted that all US government secure calls on MCI networks have been handled properly and denied that national security was compromised at any time.

The firm stand follows a fresh round of allegations that the telecoms outfit improperly rerouted long-distance calls in the US and Canada in order to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in access fees to other phone companies.

Fending off this latest round of accusations MCI senior exec, Jerry Edgerton, said: "It is important to emphasise that we are confident that all US government secure calls on MCI networks have been handled properly.

"Contrary to some of our competitors' implications, secure government traffic travels over MCI's network with a dedicated connection and encryption, not through gateways. National security has not been compromised through our secure network," he said.

And in a bid to show that it is prepared to do all it can to help an inquiry into the matter, MCI has appointed Washington DC law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, to investigate the latest allegations.

MCI is committed to providing all necessary company resources and its full cooperation to the review, the company said in a statement. ®

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