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.