[ Walter Scott Jr. (born 1931) ] was first elected to the Peter Kiewit Sons' Incorporated board in 1964. In 1979, he was elected president. When Peter Kiewit died later that same year, Scott was selected to succeed him as chairman.

Expansions

In 1963, Peter Kiewit bought the Omaha World-Herald to keep it locally owned. Under the terms of his will, the employees bought the paper in 1979.

Starting in 1985 (Kiewit built MFS in the early 1990s; Level 3 was built in the 1997 to 1999 circa), Kiewit also constructed a nationwide fiber optic network. This network was later spun off as Level 3 Communications, which became the formal successor corporation to the original Peter Kiewit Sons'.

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Not to be confused with L-3 Communications.

Level 3 Communications, Inc.

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Products Mobile telephony, Internet services, Content delivery

Revenue [See Level 3 Communications, Incorporated ]

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Level 3 Communications was an American multinational telecommunications and Internet service provider company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.[4] It ultimately became a part of CenturyLink, where Level 3 President and CEO Jeff Storey was installed as Chief Operating Officer, becoming CEO of CenturyLink one year later in a prearranged succession plan.

Level 3 operated a Tier 1 network.[4] The company provided core transport, IP, voice, video, and content delivery for medium-to-large Internet carriers in North America, Latin America, Europe, and selected cities in Asia.[5] Level 3 was also the largest competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) and the 3rd largest provider of fiber-optic internet access (based on coverage) in the United States.

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History

1985 to 2000

In 1985, [Kiewit Corporation] created a subsidiary named Kiewit Diversified Group to manage the corporation's business that was not related to construction. The division was spun off as a separate entity and changed its name to Level 3 Communications in 1998 to signify an increased focus on communication services. That same year saw it make an IPO on NASDAQ. According to Level3's own history, it continued to build its telecommunications network after going public.[7]

[.... for the rest of the history, see the Level 3 Communications, Incorporated ... ]

Adding to the growing list of companies that are building new national communications networks, Peter Kiewit Sons Inc. has said that it intends to spend up to $3 billion over the next three years to build a 20,000-mile web of fiber optic cable.

The system, which the company wants to complete by 2001, would be the first national fiber optic network based on Internet technology rather than on standard telephone technology. If the Internet technology works as predicted, it could allow Kiewit to charge prices for voice and data communications much lower than those of its competitors while maintaining healthy profit margins.

Kiewit plans to sell access to its network only to business customers. Most of those would be small and medium-sized companies, but some could be upstart long-distance carriers that would resell time on the Kiewit network to consumers.

On Monday, the Kiewit subsidiary that intends to build the network, Kiewit Diversified Group Inc., announced that it had changed its name to [Level 3 Communications, Incorporated]. Level 3 is led by a team of executives who used to run the [MFS Communications Company, Incorporated], the alternate local telephone carrier acquired in 1996 by Worldcom Inc. for $14 billion.

The move by Kiewit, a private company based in Omaha that has its primary operations in construction and mining, brings to four the number of companies building new national communications networks. Kiewit joins IXC Communications, the Williams Companies and the Qwest Communications subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. Established long-distance carriers like the AT&T Corporation also spend billions each year upgrading their systems.

But Level 3's network would differ from the others in its reliance on Internet Protocol, or I.P., technology. I.P. can allow networks to be used more efficiently but can also be less reliable than traditional networks. Traditional networks generally allow voice and data messages to be transmitted in one continuous chunk. I.P. networks break messages into small packets that are each sent independently to their destination.

''I.P. is ready for prime time,'' said [James Quell Crowe (born 1949)], Level 3's chief executive, who was MFS's chairman. He said, however: ''With today's technology, I.P. is fine for anything that's not timing-sensitive, like data or fax. Anything that's timing-sensitive, primarily voice and video, isn't handled very well.''

But Mr. Crowe said that advances in the technology over the next few years would allow Level 3 to offer voice quality equal to that of more traditional systems.

Mr. Crowe said that Level 3 had about $2 billion in cash but that it was confident it could raise the remainder necessary to complete its network.