Williams Communications Explores New Bandwidth Markets; Names Vice President
February 15, 2000 07:30 AM
TULSA, Okla., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Williams Communications WCG , a leader in creating competitive market opportunities for telecommunications carriers for 16 years, is formalizing a strategy for bandwidth trading and optimization under the leadership of Sharon Crow, newly-appointed vice president of bandwidth markets.
In her new role, Crow is responsible for working with the broadband industry to identify and implement new market opportunities, develop standards and drive increased growth for the entire industry. A five-year veteran at Williams, she was also one of the first basis traders in natural gas in 1990. Most recently, Crow served as vice president of merchant development for Williams Energy Services.
To develop Williams' strategy and industry standards, Crow will work closely with Kenneth Epps, senior vice president of strategic marketing for Williams Communications. When Epps joined Williams in January 1999, he brought to the organization a wide range of telecommunications experience including 13 years with AT&T. There he was instrumental in numerous product and service launches including the company's Internet service and the telecommunications industry's first long distance call forwarding and completion service. Epps' role encompasses all marketing functions for the organization, as well as strategy and new market development.
"Sharon is an outstanding example of Williams' strength in exploring and developing new market models in industries undergoing regulatory and competitive change," said Epps. "She has helped the company establish leadership positions in energy marketing and trading and has worked closely with other industry players to ensure healthy developments within the industry."
"The combination of knowledge, experience, and talent that Sharon and Ken bring to this opportunity is unmatched in the broadband communications industry," said Howard E. Janzen, president and chief executive officer of Williams Communications. "By cross-pollinating our 90-year history in energy with our 16 years of leading the telecommunications industry, we can apply lessons learned in the creation of new natural gas and electric markets to strengthen the broadband industry's ability to profitably serve network users in innovative and responsive ways."
Crow joined Williams in 1995 as a director of natural gas trading, where she was responsible for all physical and financial trading of natural gas in the eastern United States, before her promotion to vice president of merchant development. Previously, she was with Louis Dreyfus as a physical and financial trader with institutional firms and energy corporations. She held previous positions in logistics management with energy companies.
"The broadband network industry holds tremendous potential for delivering increased value through new market models. Technology and competition are creating new ways to deliver services that better meet the needs of network users. Williams has led similar changes in other industries, but the opportunities for new value delivery have never been as great as what is now emerging in broadband communications," Crow said.
Williams Communications has served bandwidth intermediary roles for its carrier customers since 1985 as WilTel and since January 1998 when it re- launched construction of a next-generation broadband network as Williams Communications. Its carrier customers are companies who require large bandwidth capacity to deliver their own brands of products or services-such as voice, data, Internet or broadcast media services-to end-users.
In the mid-1980s, the original WilTel helped establish the competitive long distance industry by enabling the rise of resellers as intermediaries, buying capacity in bulk from WilTel and others and repackaging it for resale to end users. In the late 1980s, WilTel helped launch the commercial Internet industry by creating innovative bandwidth packages that enabled the birth of fledgling Internet service providers.
"Williams, in fact, is the only broadband network focused on enabling other carriers. By not competing with carrier customers for retail customers, Williams has established a trusted position in the industry," Crow noted. "When combined with its proven market management capabilities, network assets, and established customer relationships, Williams is uniquely positioned to lead the industry to identify and implement the new market models that will best serve end-user customers while also enabling the industry to continue to grow and prosper."
Today, Williams Communications operates the largest next-generation fiber- optic network in the United States with 26,000 route miles of fiber deployed, 24,000 miles lit and 33,000 route miles connecting 125 cities planned for completion 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 over any platform. Williams Communications has earned widespread industry recognition for its network architecture-most recently the International Engineering Consortium's InfoVision award.
Williams WMB which owns about 85 percent of Williams Communications, provides a full range of traditional and leading-edge energy and communications services. Its 54,000 square-foot energy marketing and trading facility, the largest commodity trading floor west of Chicago, transacts more than $75 billion annually in energy and energy-related products in both the physical and financial markets. The companies share a 52-story headquarters facility in Tulsa, Okla.
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