Williams Communications Inc. (Tulsa, OK) has doubled the volume and dollar value of its investment

Williams Communications Inc. (Tulsa, OK) has doubled the volume and dollar value of its investment in Nortel Networks` (Brampton, ON, Canada) optical networking, network management, and long-distance switching solutions. The original contract, valued at $300 million over a five-year period from 1997 to 2002, has increased to $600 million for equipment deployment throughout Williams` current 19,000-mi fiber-optic network. Williams will implement Nortel`s 10-Gbit/sec optical networking equipment with DWDM, along with lower-bit-rate equipment at OC-3 (155-Mbit/sec), OC-12 (622-Mbit/sec), and OC-48 rates.