Williams Communications Seals $120 Million Contract to Provide Voice, Data And Capacity Services to Compass Telecommunications; Williams Communications Acquires Equity Stake in National Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
February 8, 2000 11:02 AM
TULSA, Okla., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The network unit of Williams Communications WCG , an international provider of telecommunications services and products for the carrier marketplace, has sealed a $120 million, 20-year agreement to provide voice, data and capacity services to Compass Telecommunications, Inc., a national competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) providing integrated communications products and related services.
The transaction includes Williams Communications' acquisition of $5 million in convertible preferred stock in Compass, a privately held company based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Williams, which owns and operates the largest next-generation fiber-optic network in the United States, will supply several voice services that Compass can privately brand including one plus; carrier termination, toll free; calling card and international voice services. Williams will also provide the facilities-based Compass with collocation at its data centers and a variety of its long-haul broadband transit services including ATM, frame relay, private line and Internet protocol.
To support its growth, Compass officials stated they anticipate this agreement to expand through its usage of Williams' existing network services as well as accessing new technologies as they become available.
"This agreement clearly shows the scope of advanced network services and products Williams Communications provides to carriers," said Frank Semple, president of the Williams network. "We're pleased to offer the innovative end-to-end network solutions that enable CLECs such as Compass to successfully compete in the retail marketplace."
"Williams Communications has distinguished itself through its insight into customer and product needs as well as its leveraging of products with the various price, performance and feature points required by the market," said Lawrence Herman, senior analyst of telecommunications services at Frost & Sullivan, an international marketing consulting and training company. Williams Communications recently earned Frost & Sullivan's Market Engineering Award for its product line strategy in the U.S. wholesale data services market.
"The relationship between Williams and Compass has been collaborative and has provided value to both parties" said Ray Powers, president and chief executive officer of Compass. "Philosophically, we are very close in our vision of the future and how best to prepare our companies for those requirements. We have discussed many positive, creative and innovative solutions to consumers ever-increasing requirements for bandwidth delivery. In addition to immediately providing the more traditional services, we are on the threshold of and elated about new technology solutions, and look forward to providing innovative solutions for all consumers."
Williams Communications' network currently has 26,000 route miles of fiber deployed, 24,000-route miles lit and is planned to total 33,000 route miles connecting 125 cities by the end of this year. The fully integrated architecture of the Williams Multi-Service Broadband Network(TM) couples ATM core switching with advanced optical networking technologies to provide carriers with data, voice, video and Internet services. Williams Communications has earned widespread industry recognition for its network architecture-most recently the International Engineering Consortium's InfoVision award.
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