Williams Communications reports fourth quarter earnings

Monday, February 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Tulsa-AP) -- Tulsa-based Williams Communications Group reports a fourth-quarter net loss of 74 million dollars as it enters the final construction phase of its national fiber-optic network. But the company says revenue are up. The loss after interest, taxes and other items was 50.7 million dollars, or 16 cents a share. That compares with a 79.9 million dollar loss for the same quarter in 1999.

A Williams spokesman said milestones for the fourth quarter included extending its fiber-optic network to 26-thousand route miles in operations to link 100 cities across the United States. Along the network, 80 data centers were completed in key markets. Howard Janzen is president and chief executive officer of Williams. Janzen says the company met all key construction milestones established as part of our accelerated network build-out. He says they finished with our highest-ever quarterly network revenues.