WilTel Communications
Encyclopedia
WilTel Communications 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 network
ing, 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.
Telephone company
A telephone company is a service provider of telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies...
and Tier 2 Internet Service Provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
with its own MPLS
Multiprotocol Label Switching
Multiprotocol Label Switching is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, avoiding complex lookups in a routing table. The labels identify virtual links between...
-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
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
-based wide area network
Wide area network
A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations...
ing, ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
and Frame Relay
Frame relay
Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology...
network services. The company was acquired by Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications is a telecommunications and Internet service provider headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.It operates a Tier 1 network. The company provides core transport, IP, voice, video and content delivery for most of the medium to large Internet carriers in North America and Europe...
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.