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Technology Stocks : Advanced Fibre (AFCI) ** IPO

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To: ehasfjord who wrote (3288)	3/1/2004 8:41:47 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) of 3299

SBC 'set to sell rural telephone lines' By Paul Taylor in New York Published: March 1 2004 18:38 \| Last Updated: March 1 2004 18:38 SBC Communications, the US regional telephone company, is understood to be seeking to sell between 500,000 and 650,000 local telephone access lines in rural Michigan and Texas. The move could raise more than $1bn for the San Antonio, Texas-based company. SBC is the second regional phone company to put some of its local access lines in rural areas up for sale. Last month it emerged that Verizon Communications the largest US telephone company was seeking to sell lines in Hawaii and upstate New York that could raise as much as $8bn. In the past the big local telephone operators have been happy to operate in some small rural markets because of the lack of competition. Now however carriers face reduced federal funding to provide service to low-income and rural areas making these operations less attractive. At the same time revenues from local phone operations have declined as customers switch to alternatives including wireless phones. The sale of SBC's Michigan and Texas rural lines would come at an opportune time for the company which is a partner with BellSouth in Cingular Wireless. Last month Cingular agreed to pay $41bn for AT&T Wireless. SBC and BellSouth are expected to pay for the deal with existing cash on hand, debt and funds from asset sales. SBC's portion of the Cingular bill would be about $10bn to $13 bn, and the company is expected by analysts to raise between $1bn and $4bn of that through asset sales. SBC declined to comment on press reports about the line sales, which are concentrated in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and East Texas and might be attractive to smaller local telephone companies such as CenturyTel or Alltel. The lines represent about 1 per cent of SBC's total lines. "We are constantly looking for ways to make SBC a better company and that includes reviewing the operations routinely and that includes the impact from the economy, competition and regulatory climate," the company said.

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