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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mighty Mizzou who wrote (59942)	2/12/1999 7:40:00 PM
From: Bindusagar Reddy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 61433

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.