WilTel Communications (formerly known as Williams Communications, which was formerly part of The Williams Companies, Inc) is a telco and Tier 2 Internet Service Provider with its own MPLS-enabled OC-192 optical wave division multiplexing backbone network. Its other products and services include IP VPNs, Private Line services (protected and unprotected), colocation, Ethernet-based wide area networking, ATM and Frame Relay network services. The company was acquired by Level 3 Communications in December 2005 for roughly $800 million in cash and stock.
WilTel also provides broadcast video distribution services including High Definition television distribution.
WilTel Communications also offers a wide range of professional services.
Leucadia, the previous owner of WilTel Communications, sold all of its shares of Level 3 (acquired as part of the sale of WilTel Communications) on March 22, 2006 at $3.44 per share, for a pre-tax gain of approximately $37.4M. On March 29, 2006, Level 3 shares reached $5.60 per share, leaving roughly $100M on the table for Leucadia had they waited 7 days to sell.