A Wedding Of `The Capitally Infirm With The Financially Weak'?

Just over a year ago, John C. Malone took the stage at a New York hotel to announce the largest communications deal in American history: the $21.4 billion sale of cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. to Bell Atlantic Corp. On Oct. 25, the president of TCI, having left Bell Atlantic at the altar, was back in New York with another deal: TCI and two other cable companies are teaming up with Sprint Corp. to offer local and long-distance phone service, cable TV, and wireless communications--all in a single package.

But if last year's deal was the corporate equivalent of Jurassic Park, Malone's latest offering is more like a Merchant-Ivory production: a smooth, well-crafted alliance that should ruffle few feathers in Washington. "We're coming in as a new competitor in a monopoly industry," says Malone, referring to the $78 billion local phone industry. "This is the side of angels."