Williams Telecommunications Group, the Tulsa, Oklahoma company that has made a second fortune for Williams Cos after the firm realised that all its redundant pipelines snaking away from dried-out oil wells and criss-crossing the West of America could be brought back to life by stuffing fibre optic cables down them, is going continental. It has bought the Lightnet fibre optic telephone network, formerly owned by Southern New England Telecommunications Inc and CFX Telecommunications Co, for $365m all told. Lightnet will enable Williams to increase its reach into the Eastern industrial heartland – its digital fibre optic phone network covers 38 major cities including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, over 4,500 route mile: large companies and government departments subscribe. Southern New England Telecommunications says that it sold its stake in the business because it wants to concentrate on business within Connecticut; it plans to increase shareholder value by spending the proceeds on buying in as many as 1.5m of its shares, 5%, over the next two years. CFX, of Richmond, Virginia, will receive $213m, of Williams’ cash, New Haven, Connecticut-based Southern New England Telecommunications gets the balance.
