belghast, 5 months ago

@pluralistic That is an old sign for certain. Williams Communications went out of business around 2001ish.

johntimaeus, 5 months ago

@belghast @pluralistic

Bet that fibre is still there under different ownership.

belghast, 5 months ago

@johntimaeus @pluralistic I just chased the rabbit trail... WilCom was gobbled up by Level 3 which then became CenturyLink which Lumen Technologies then gobbled up. Big ole corporate shell game.

jadp, 5 months ago

@belghast @johntimaeus @pluralistic Williams Communications (one of 40+ businesses within Williams [$WMB]) had three businesses under that umbrella: Vyvx (fiber optic satellite backhaul), Williams Network (dark fiber in decertified gas pipelines and NOC, bought by Level3), and Williams Communications Services (became NextiraOne and then Blackbox Networks). Ah, memories

johntimaeus, 5 months ago

@jadp @belghast @pluralistic

I worked for NextiraOne for a while. Took over "management" of a broken team of contractors trying to get into FedEx distribution centers to upgrade routers. There'd been no pre-planning, zero coordination between the companies

I also bid and lost the Bank of America voip upgrade subcontract thru EDS for NextiraOne. Six months later I was working for EDS, explaining to BoA why the subcontractor they'd hired instead of me had dropped VIP customer service on the ground for 48 hours.

Really glad to be out of that world.