6,652- kilometer Dash.

Can Patricio Northland motivate mammoth AT&T Latin America?

AS PRESIDENT AND CEO OF AT&T Latin America, Patricio Northland enthusiastically leads the company's broadband charge into the region. But the 45-year-old Chilean native once thought of AT&T as Business Enemy No.1.

That's because AT&T almost drove him out of business. Northland found out how ornery the U.S. telecom giant could be after he and his brother Marco founded Miami-based telecom Americatel in 1991. Eager to up its long-distance traffic, Chilean long distance carrier Entel joined Americatel in a joint venture to expand into wealthy residential and business centers in the United States.

Entel then sought approval to raise its stake in Americatel from 49% to 80% and become the United States' first foreign-controlled telephone company. AT&T fought hard to block approval. "I was surprised and appalled at the strong resistance," says Northland. The legal battle almost bankrupted Americatel before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved the deal in July 1994.

Despite their head-butting, AT&T would become Northland's white knight soon enough. After selling Americatel, Northland signed on to lead broadband business start-up Firstcom. Buyout offers came and went, but it was AT&T that finally acquired Firstcom last year, merging it with Netstream Telecom in Brazil and Keytech LD in Argentina to form AT&T Latin America. AT&T tapped Northland to lead the Nasdaq-traded company, based in Coral Gables, Florida 

Overnight, Northland has gone from feisty outsider to the top of the Latin American telecommunications heap. "I always wanted to focus on building a big company in the region," he says. "I finally have the resources I always dreamed about. Now it's just a matter of doing it."

Energy and enthusiasm are not the issue: Northland built earlier venture Americatel while commuting to the University of Chicago to earn a master's degree in business administration. The AT&T acquisition of Firstcom also marks the high point of a long and close business relationship between Northland and 42-year-old Marco, AT&T Latin America's vice president of marketing and business development.

The Firstcom story says a lot about the Northland gambit: Build from nothing, then make it as big as you can.

In 1996, Interamericas Communications Corp., now known as Firstcom, asked Northland to become CEO. The 2-year-old company had little more than licenses, concessions and rights-of-way in a few Latin American markets. Undaunted, Northland seized Firstcom's reins in November 1996.

Teamwork. He listed the company on the Nasdaq and struck up a relationship with Union Bank of Switzerland in the hunt for cash. The company issued US$150 million in high-yield bonds in October 1997. Firstcom then built high-speed fiber optic networks in Chile. Peru and Colombia. Revenue rose from $18.1 million in 1998 to $38.3 million in 1999. Marco Northland joined Firstcom as vice president in February 1999.

Friends describe the brothers as the perfect team. "Patricio is the broad vision guy and Marco is very good at implementing strategy," says Miami lawyer Andrew Hulsh, a former director of Firstcom and now a director of AT&T Latin America. Says Marco: "He doesn't need to explain much to me. We synchronize quickly."

Latin America business communications is growing rapidly. Excluding wireless, it's a $16 billion revenues market, expected to grow at a 20% compounded annually over the next three years, say industry analysts. But AT&T Latin America is getting a late jump against established international and regional powerhouses like Telefonica, BellSouth, Telefonos de Mexico and Telecom Italia.

"The company is missing several aspects if it wants to be a full-service provider like BellSouth and Telefonica," says Hector Hernandez, a senior telecom analyst with IDC Latin America in Miami. "For instance, it is not aggressively entering the cellular and messaging markets."

Northland also has no track record to prove his strategies work in the long term; he keeps building up companies and selling out. But, he says, with AT&T, he is thinking long term. "One day, I would like to run all the international business for AT&T, not just Latin America."