Williams Accelerates Network Completion (ASCEND TO BENEFIT)
By CHUCK MOOZAKIS, InternetWeek
ARMED WITH A READY-MADE customer and an
expected $500 million from new investor SBC
Communications Inc., Williams Communications Inc.
(Tulsa, Okla.) says it will spend more than $4.7 billion to
complete its fiber-optic network in 2000.
The $4.7 billion is nearly double the $2.7 billion Williams
originally had earmarked to finish the 32,000-mile
network.
The cash infusion also helps push up the expected
completion date by a full year, according to Howard
Janzen, president and chief executive officer of
Williams.
Under Williams' "turbocharged" construction timetable,
Janzen reports Williams will expand its current
19,000-mile network to 26,000 miles by year-end and to
32,000 miles in 2000. The network ultimately will connect
125 cities.
"The SBC announcement helped drive our planning,"
Janzen told InternetWeek. "We believe the opportunities
for our network are huge and we want to be able to take
advantage of it."
A significant portion of the additional funds will be
funneled to the purchase of fiber and network equipment,
including advanced optronics and voice switches and
routers designed to support the advent of voice over
Internet Protocol (VOIP) and other enhanced services
later this year.
Northern Telecom Ltd. and Ascend Communications Inc.
(Alameda, Calif.), among a few other vendors, are
supplying the bulk of the equipment.
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