Immediate Availability, Rapid Service Delivery Critical to Aggressive 
    Metropolitan Rollout Plan

    ATLANTA, May 17 /CNW/ - Continuing its aggressive, three-year local
network expansion into 50 metropolitan markets across the United States,
Williams Communications (NYSE:WCG) has selected SONET equipment and services
from Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE:NT) for the first phase of its optical-in-the-
metro environment launch.
    Williams Communications will deploy Nortel Networks' metropolitan
solution to connect markets to its existing long-haul network. Combined with a
Nortel Networks' Preside network management system already in place, this will
give Williams Communications an end-to-end voice and data services solution.
    "Nortel Networks has been extremely responsive in meeting Williams'
requirements, providing both a good solution and addressing the aggressive
delivery schedule required for the first phase of our metropolitan buildout,"
said Jeff Storey, vice-president of access services for the Williams Network.
    "We are building the industry's most complete metropolitan portfolio,"
said Don Smith, president, Optical Internet, Nortel Networks. "Focused on
scalability, flexibility and transparent architecture, our optical solutions
can enable Williams Communications to turn rapid new service delivery into a
significant competitive advantage."
    "This is a terrific endorsement of our cost-effective, data-centric
solution," Smith said, "a solution that provides complete fulfillment from
service and network planning to deployment."
    Nortel Networks is the leading global supplier of metropolitan optical
networking equipment, and the overall leader in building a new, high-
performance Optical Internet.
    Nortel Networks is ranked number one globally in Optical Internet
solutions as of year-end 1999, according to the Dell'Oro Group, with a
combined 30 percent global market share in D-WDM and SONET/SDH solutions.
    More than 75 percent of North American Internet backbone traffic travels
across Nortel Networks systems. In 1999, Nortel Networks set the standards for
speed with its 80 gigabits per second (gbps) line rate OPTera technology, and
in bandwidth with the OPTera 1600G, which transmits 160 colors of light across
a 10 gbps system for total capacity of 1.6 terabits per second.
    Nortel Networks is a global leader in telephony, data, eBusiness, and
wireless solutions for the Internet. The Company had 1999 U.S. GAAP revenues
of US$21.3 billion and serves carrier, service provider and enterprise
customers globally. Today, Nortel Networks is creating a high-performance
Internet that is more reliable and faster than ever before. It is redefining
the economics and quality of networking and the Internet through Unified
Networks that promise a new era of collaboration, communications and commerce.
Visit us at www.nortelnetworks.com.



-30-


For further information: Media: Will Cairns, Nortel Networks
44-162-843-8031, wcairns@nortelnetworks.com; Paul Goyette, Nortel Networks
(613) 763-1420, goyette1@nortelnetworks.com; Investor Analysts: Nortel 
Networks, (905) 863-6049, 888-901-7286, investor@nortelnetworks.com.;
Archived images on this organization are available through CNW E-Pix at 
www.newswire.ca. Images are free to members of The Canadian Press.