Williams enters agreement to provide network services to Time Warner

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 4, 2000

TULSA (JR) -- Williams Communications has signed a five-year agreement with a value of up to $40 million to provide network capacity and services to Time Warner Telecom, a provider of data, Internet and voice services to businesses.

Under the agreement, Time Warner Telecom intends to purchase optical network transport services from Williams for its national Internet Protocol network.

The optical network services will connect Time Warner Telecom to cities throughout the country including Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, San Jose, Tampa and Washington, D.C. The agreement is structured to enable Time Warner Telecom to increase capacity over the term of the contract.

Also on Wednesday, Williams Communications said it is part of a consortium of carriers that is building an intra-Asia 19,000- kilometer submarine cable project that will connect China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

As an initial party investor in the network build, Williams acquires significant capacity, which is scheduled to be in operation by September 2001.

The project will intersect with other trans-Pacific cables between China, Japan and the United States in which Tulsa-based Williams already has an ownership stake.

In mid-April, Williams Communications agreed to buy SBC Communications' interests in two undersea cables between the United States and China and the United States and Japan. This will provide Williams with seamless connectivity to and from major Asia-Pacific markets and its domestic network, the largest next-generation network in the United States.