Comments:
The facilities documented on this page represent assets owned and operated by the "new" WilTel. The original WilTel was purchased by LDDS WorldCom (the predecessor to MCIWorldCom) for I beleieve $2 billion in the mid-90s. One of the parts of the buyout was a non-competition agreement that barred Williams from rentering the long distance market for a period of 8 years (I think). On the last day of that 8 year period the new WilTel was launched.

The original incarnation of WilTel had been a carriers carrier and the new WilTel went after this familar market segment by landing various contracts to act as the long distance backbone for most of the RBOCs and their descendants. For example when Verizon or SBC sells a long distance service package, those long distance calls are carried over the Williams backbone not facilities owned and operated by SBC or Verizon. Williams has similar agreements with many wireless voice providers as well.

While AT&T is the undisputed king of route miles, service penetration and MCI certainly has many high profile clients (numerous federal contracts, internet backbone POPs, etc.), Williams is seemingly the backbone behind the other backbone providers (along with Qwest). For example in 1997 MFN entered into an agreement with Williams to utilize Williams new backbone to connect MFN's east and west coast networks together. MFN then turned around and resold part of that backbone to Dominion Telecom (the telecom branch of Virginia Electric & Power Co.).

The Virginia portion of the fiber optic backbone mirrors the route of Transconitnental Gas Pipeline Company's (Transco, a Williams company) Houston to New York pipeline. The two routes are so integrated that many Williams regeneration sites are colocated at Transco compressor station which makes their documentation difficult at best. From various bits of information floating around this level of route integration caught many pipeline ROW owners by surprise.