TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AT&T; to Help Ukraine Modernize Phone System: AT&T; has formed a joint-venture company to modernize the long-distance phone network in Ukraine--perhaps the biggest agreement yet to upgrade a phone system in the former East Bloc. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. will own 39% of the venture. The Dutch postal and telephone system PTT Telecom of the Netherlands will own 10%, and 51% will be owned by Ukraine’s State Committee of Communications. AT&T;’s investment will include 13 phone switches worth “tens of millions of dollars,” spokesman Walter Murphy said. The first switch will be delivered in May.