SBC Communications, the nation’s second-largest telephone company, will eliminate 10,000 jobs by the end of next year, according to a filing Friday with securities regulators.

The cuts will amount to 6.1 percent of SBC’s workforce of 165,000 employees and will come through attrition and layoffs, the company said. They come on top of 7,000 jobs SBC plans to cut this year as well.

The company did not say which divisions would be directly affected, but an SBC spokesman, Michael Coe, acknowledged that businesses that were not growing would probably lose jobs while those that are growing might see increases.

SBC has more than 50 million phone lines in 13 states. A company spokesman, Larry Solomon, said the job cuts «will be across geographies and across business units.»

Solomon said the company might add workers in growing parts of its business as part of an ongoing effort to adjust its workforce to business conditions.

BC said it had 165,520 employees as of Sept. 30, down from 172,540 a year earlier.

SBC has been losing phone lines as customers replace traditional lines with cellular phones and voice-over-Internet service.

In general, SBC and the other Bell operating companies — Verizon Communications, the largest phone company; BellSouth; and Qwest — have been reducing the size of their local-phone businesses because they have been losing tens of thousands of customers in the past few years.

Conversely, other parts of their business, like providing high-speed Internet connections and long-distance phone service, have been growing.

The Bell companies also have started expanding their fiber-optic networks and have been relying more heavily on their wireless subsidiaries, Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless.

BellSouth, the third-largest Bell company, cut 3,050 jobs, or 4.6 percent of its workforce in the third quarter of this year.

SBC did not say how much money it expected to save through the job cuts, although some industry analysts expect more than $1 billion in potential savings.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

YellowPages.com(SM) brand is recognized as a standard of the industry

SAN ANTONIO and ATLANTA, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A newly formed Internet yellow pages joint venture between the directory affiliates of SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC — News) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS — News) has closed the transaction announced yesterday to acquire online directory publisher www.yellowpages.com, Inc. The new venture will utilize the highly recognized YellowPages.com brand and expects to become the market leader in Internet yellow pages and local Internet search.

The creation of this venture and acquisition of YellowPages.com now positions the two directory publishing companies of SBC and BellSouth to better serve their local Internet search customers and lays the foundation for what they expect to be a leading provider of nationwide, online yellow pages and Internet local search. Through this combination, the YellowPages.com site expects to receive more than 50 million consumer searches per month.

YellowPages.com has the most recognized web address in the industry. The joint venture will use the companies’ deep local content and strong consumer usage to create a technology-focused venture that will bring greater value to advertisers and users by delivering more robust, comprehensive content.

The new venture will be headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., with operations in Henderson, Nev., and it will draw on the technology, management, sales forces and customer care capabilities of all three companies.

Charles Stubbs, an executive with BellSouth’s online yellow pages operation, has been named president and chief executive officer. Bill Clenney, an executive with SBC’s online yellow pages business, has been named chief financial officer. Debbie Slavin, also an SBC online yellow pages executive, was named senior vice president — Operations.

SBC Directory Operations and BellSouth Advertising and Publishing will continue to manage their local online yellow page relationships in their respective regions, outside the new venture, while the new venture will develop a sales force for national advertising accounts.

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in SBC’s and BellSouth’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SBC and BellSouth disclaim any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.

SBC Communications Inc. is a Fortune 50 company whose subsidiaries, operating under the SBC brand, provide a full range of voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising, and related services to businesses, consumers and other telecommunications providers. SBC holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which serves more than 46 million wireless customers. SBC companies provide high-speed DSL Internet access lines to more American consumers than any other provider and are among the nation’s leading providers of Internet services. SBC companies also now offer satellite TV service. Additional information about SBC and SBC products and services is available at [ >>> ] .

BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and a parent company of Cingular Wireless, the nation’s largest wireless voice and data provider. Backed by award-winning customer service, BellSouth offers the most comprehensive and innovative package of voice and data services available in the market. Through BellSouth Answers®, residential and small business customers can bundle their local and long distance service with dial up and high speed DSL Internet access, satellite television and Cingular® Wireless service. For businesses, BellSouth provides secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also offers online and directory advertising through BellSouth® RealPages.com® and The Real Yellow Pages®. More information about BellSouth can be found at [ >>> ] .

By CBS MarketWatch
Last Updated: 10/28/2004 12:05:02 AM

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- SBC Communications plans a major price cut for high-speed Internet customers who also buy the company’s local and long-distance phone service, according to a published report Wednesday.

SBC plans to charge $19.95 for digital subscriber line, or DSL service, to new subscribers who also sign up for its local and long-distance phone plan for an additional $48.95, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The move is meant to counter Internet-calling plans offered by some rivals, the Journal said, and to get customers to migrate away from traditional long-distance providers such as MCI (MCIP) and AT&T (T), the newspaper reported.

DSL providers are also in a battle with cable operators, who can currently offer faster high-speed Internet service than DSL.

SBC (SBC) rose 21 cents to close at $24.96 on Wednesday.

SAN ANTONIO (BUSINESS WIRE) SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) today announced a new three-year contract with VHA Inc., a privately-held, Texas-based healthcare cooperative that helps healthcare organizations nationwide enhance operational and clinical performance.

Under the terms of the contract, SBC companies are one of three providers that will offer discounted local and long distance services to 2,200 VHA healthcare organizations in 48 states. The three-year agreement could generate $50 million in annual revenue for SBC companies.

«VHA members rely on us to help them reduce their operating costs, and our new agreements for telecommunications services help members maximize their resources,» said Amy Anthony, vice president, supplier services at VHA.

«We’re committed to providing VHA and its members with high-quality, reliable communications services at compelling values,» said Chuck Rudnick, president, Business Communications Services, SBC Southwest. «Delivering local and long distance voice services to VHA members across the country underscores our growing strength as a premier national communications services provider that can follow large enterprises, wherever they do business.»

About VHA

VHA Inc. is a national cooperative of leading not-for-profit healthcare organizations that work together to improve the health of the communities they serve. VHA leverages the collective strength of the membership to improve clinical, operational, and financial performance. Through the VHA cooperative, members benefit from resources that assess critical needs and identify best practices to create customized solutions that lower costs and improve clinical quality. As a cooperative, VHA distributes income annually to members based on their participation. Based in Irving, Texas, with 18 offices across the U.S., VHA was named one of the «100 Best Companies to Work For» by Fortune in January 2004, for the fifth year in a row.

About SBC

SBC Communications Inc. is a Fortune 50 company whose subsidiaries, operating under the SBC brand, provide a full range of voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising, and related services to businesses, consumers and other telecommunications providers. SBC holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which serves 25 million wireless customers. SBC companies provide high-speed DSL Internet access lines to more American consumers than any other provider and are among the nation’s leading providers of Internet services. SBC companies also now offer satellite TV service. Additional information about SBC companies and SBC products and services is available at www.sbc.com.

The leaders of BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. said Wednesday they are not interested in acquiring big long distance carriers, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference for media and telecom investors, SBC CEO Ed Whitacre said he would wait for the stock prices of the long distance companies to further fall before considering any deal, the news service reported.

„I wouldn’t say at some price you wouldn’t do something, but it’s certainly not in our plan now,“ Dow Jones quoted Whitacre.

BellSouth CEO Duane Ackerman said declining telecom and data revenue in the market for large corporations makes him wary of acquiring a long-distance provider, Dow Jones reported.

Analysts say the regional Bells are likely to eventually make a bid for long-distance carriers AT&T Corp. and MCI Inc., but BellSouth and SBC are busy seeking to close the $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless through their joint venture, Cingular Wireless.

Unified Communications Lets Consumers, Small Businesses Use Web Portal or Phones to Manage Messages from Multiple Sources

Consumers and small businesses today have a powerful new tool to help them better manage and more easily access their proliferating wireline and wireless voice mailboxes, e-mail accounts, and faxes.

SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) today announced SBC Unified Communications(SM), a new service that harnesses the power of IP (Internet Protocol) to enable customers to gather all of their message services into one easy-to-use system. Rather than check multiple places for messages, customers with Unified Communications can take control of multiple message sources by accessing them through a single gateway.

The new service is a milestone in the company’s emergence as a leader in IP technology. SBC Unified Communications is the first product of its kind available from a major telecommunications provider, giving customers greater control over their communications and increasing personal and business productivity. Voice messages, faxes, and e-mails are integrated into a common mailbox, allowing consumers and small businesses to retrieve, forward, and reply to messages via phone, or online — much like they handle e-mail today. The integrated message mailbox is accessible anywhere Internet access is available or via any phone.

The innovative service, available today in major cities throughout the SBC service territory, is now the flagship messaging service, available as a standalone service or in bundles of SBC residential services, including the popular All Distance(R) unlimited local and long distance calling bundle.

«With Unified Communications, we’re leveraging the power of IP to add new features and benefits to our already world-class voice products and delivering seamless connections that enhance our customers’ communications whether they’re at home, work, school, or on the road,» said Ray Wilkins, president, SBC marketing and sales.

SBC companies are committed to leading the industry in IP technologies. The company also unveiled in June plans to build a next- generation fiber optic-based network — pending regulatory clarity and successful completion of market trials — that would enable integrated digital TV, full-featured VoIP services, and super-high-speed broadband services for consumers and small business.

Unified Communications Features and Capabilities

With Unified Communications, subscribers will no longer have to miss important messages or spend valuable time checking multiple mailboxes. Unified Communications gathers different types of messages in one place and makes them accessible from any place the customer happens to be. Additionally, Unified Communications offers the following features:

-- Cingular Wireless integration. Unified Communications completely integrates with Cingular Wireless, so customers can access wireless messages from the same portal as landline, e-mail, and fax messages.

-- Integrated message center. Unified Communications’ integrated message center allows subscribers to view wireless and wireline voice-mails, e-mail, and fax subject lines all in one inbox. Unified Communications uses an e-mail-like interface, allowing for prioritization of messages and better organization.

-- Here, there, anywhere. The latest text-to-speech technology reads e-mails over the phone. Users can listen to voice-mails over their computers (which also allows for prioritization of voice-mails). Customers can «untie» from the fax machine by checking fax message headers from the phone, and view and print them through the computer.

-- Message indicators. When customers receive a new e-mail, voice-mail or fax, a message indicator alert can be sent to their online mailbox, and wireless and wireline phones (if the customer activates the message indicator alerts). Once messages are checked on one device, the message indicators on the others are updated in real time.

-- Pager notification. For customers who want to be notified immediately about incoming messages, they can activate the pager function, which sends a notification of a new message to their pagers or wireless phones.

-- Online storage. Unified Communications comes with 50 MB of storage for consumers and 100 MB for businesses, and customers can purchase up to 150 MB of additional storage space in 50 MB increments.

-- Separate mailboxes. Users can establish four shared Unified Communications mailboxes under one platform, allowing business colleagues and families to keep their messages separate, each owning a mailbox with separate security codes.

-- Distribution lists. Customers can establish as many as 15 distribution lists, each with up to 25 entries. These entries can be telephone numbers or e-mail addresses.

Residential subscribers to the All Distance service, which provides unlimited direct-dial domestic voice long distance and local calling, can replace the standard voice-mail service with SBC Unified Communications for an additional $3 per month, for a total of $51.95 per month. Pricing for SBC Unified Communications for residential customers when purchased as an a la carte voice messaging service in California and Nevada is $10.95 per month, and $12.95 per month in other SBC states.

For residential customers without Cingular Wireless service, SBC companies offer SBC Unified Communications Lite(SM), a service that incorporates all the features of the standard service, except wireless integration. Pricing for Unified Communications Lite is $1 when purchased with an All Distance package, or for residential customers, when purchased a la carte, the price ranges from $7.95 to $10.95 per month depending on the state. And, both Unified Communications services are available as a «bolt on» service to popular small business bundles, including Business Unlimited.

SBC Family of IP Services

Unified Communications is the latest addition to the company’s rapidly growing portfolio of IP services. IP, the basic language of the Internet, is capable of carrying voice, data and video over a single network infrastructure. SBC companies are taking advantage of this IP- enabled convergence to offer consumers and businesses compelling features and values that previously weren’t possible. SBC companies will continue to enhance the Unified Communications product with features such as an integrated personal address book shared among wireline, wireless, and computers — eliminating the need to keep three separate lists of contacts.

SBC companies already are leaders in business IP services, first introduced to business customers in 1996. Since then, SBC companies have continually introduced new IP services for businesses, including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and today offer a wide range of innovative solutions designed to meet the needs of almost any enterprise, large or small.

SBC companies have offered CPE-based VoIP services for businesses since 1999 and in Novembers 2003 unveiled an innovative new hosted or network-managed VoIP product called SBC PremierSERV(SM) Hosted IP Communication Service (HIPCS). The hosted VoIP service combines customized productivity features such as a single inbox for voice and e-mail messages and «find me, follow me» call routing options, along with traditional voice services, delivered through a Web browser-based interface. Telecommunications Magazine identified SBC companies as a clear leader in hosted VoIP in the publication’s April 2004 «10 hottest technologies for 2004» article.

For more information or to order Unified Communications, customers can visit www.sbcuc.net.

SBC Communications Inc. is a Fortune 50 company whose subsidiaries, operating under the SBC brand, provide a full range of voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising, and related services to businesses, consumers and other telecommunications providers. SBC holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which serves 25 million wireless customers. SBC companies provide high-speed DSL Internet access lines to more American consumers than any other provider and are among the nation’s leading providers of Internet services. SBC companies also now offer satellite TV service. Additional information about SBC and SBC products and services is available at www.sbc.com.

Unified Communications is provided by SBC Messaging, provided subject to written terms and conditions. PC minimum system requirements and additional limitations and restrictions apply. Prices subject to change and do not include other applicable charges (e.g., taxes and surcharges) which may vary by location. Unified Communications services are not available in all areas or on all classes of service. If your local service is billed on a per-call or per-minute basis, you will be charged for all local calls associated with the use of your Voice Messaging service. You will be charged for a local call every time you retrieve a message or otherwise access your mailbox using your local telephone number. You will also be charged for a local call every time a caller leaves or attempts to leave you a message. For customers on calling plans, calls will be counted against your monthly allowance. If you access your mailbox from outside your local calling area, you will incur applicable local toll or long distance charges.

SBC PremierSERV HIPCS is provided by SBC IP Communications Inc.

SAN ANTONIO New Contract Expands Existing Relationship to Meet Provena Health Voice and Data Communications Needs

SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) today announced a new contract with Illinois-based Provena Health, an organization with a network of healthcare facilities and offices located throughout Northern Illinois.

Under the terms of the contract, SBC companies will deliver a comprehensive upgrade of the Provena Health data network infrastructure across the organization’s enterprise, which includes six acute-care hospitals; 16 long-term care and residential centers; 28 primary care, specialty and diagnostic clinics; and five home-health agencies.

The contract also covers a range of long-distance voice and data services, SBC PremierSERV(SM) Managed Service offerings, and the implementation of a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) backbone. The network upgrade is designed to help position Provena Health for emerging technologies such as IP-based voice and video services, to prepare the organization to adopt centralized Picture Archive and Communication Systems (PACS), and to help address regulatory requirements related to HIPAA and business continuity planning.

«Because of our commitment to clinical quality and advanced clinical applications, we were looking for a single provider that could help us to implement a secure, reliable, and scalable networking infrastructure,» said Jonathan Manis, CIO, Provena Health. «We’ve been extremely pleased with the communications services offered by SBC companies, and our close relationship with SBC companies positions us to take full advantage of our investment in high-bandwidth, mission-critical clinical support applications.»

«We are pleased to have the opportunity to help Provena Health with a comprehensive network upgrade,» said Cathy Coughlin, president, Business Communications Services, SBC Midwest. «Provena Health’s decision to utilize a full range of SBC services demonstrates our ability to deliver a comprehensive and integrated range of managed voice, data, and IP solutions to meet the communications needs of businesses of all sizes.»

About Provena Health

Provena Health is a Catholic health system that includes six hospitals, 16 long-term care and senior residential facilities, 28 clinics, five home-health agencies and other health-related activities operating in Illinois and Indiana.

About SBC

SBC Communications Inc. is a Fortune 50 company whose subsidiaries, operating under the SBC brand, provide a full range of voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising, and related services to businesses, consumers and other telecommunications providers. SBC holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which serves 25 million wireless customers. SBC companies provide high-speed DSL Internet access lines to more American consumers than any other provider and are among the nation’s leading providers of Internet services. SBC companies also now offer satellite TV service. Additional information about SBC and SBC products and services is available at www.sbc.com.

SBC PremierSERV Managed Services provided by SBC DataComm. SBC local service provided by SBC Illinois. SBC, the SBC logo and other product names are trademarks of SBC Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (C) 2004 SBC Knowledge Ventures, L. P. All rights reserved.

By Wesley Brown
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — SBC Arkansas is asking state regulators to consider raising the wholesale rates that the phone giant can charge rivals for access to its local phone network, according to a recent filing with the state Public Service Commission.

SBC spokesman Ted Wagnon explained that the rate filing would not increase the retail rates of the SBC’s customers in Arkansas.

«It is a proposed wholesale rate adjustment and does not affect SBC residential and business customers,» Wagnon said.

The filing comes just two months after a June 9 U. S. Court of Appeals ruling threw out a court decision that overturned rules governing access to regional Bell phone networks, called unbundled network elements or UNE loops.

The filing also comes only two weeks after AT and T Corp. announced it plans to stop marketing to residential customers in Arkansas and the rest of the nation, saying the court ruling will make it too expensive to continue.

Yet SBC Arkansas, a subsidiary of San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., argues in the 30-page filing that it is time for state regulators to re-examine wholesale rates the phone giant charges rivals to use its vast network.

«A current review of UNE loop rates in Arkansas is necessary because the existing rates do not compensate SBC for its forward-looking costs,» SBC Arkansas states in the July 30 filing. «As SBC’s cost studies will show, current UNE loop rates are unreasonably and uneconomically low.»

SBC Arkansas also states that the current wholesale rate structure discourages the Baby Bells from investing in facilities and technology.

«If … carriers are not able to recoup their actual costs, much less earn a profit, their ability to invest in new technology is severely hampered by the financial burdens they face,» the SBC filing states.

Arkansas’ largest phone carrier also argues in its filing that other factors, such as depreciation of assets, rising capital costs and the company’s skyrocketing labor costs must be taken into account in determining the appropriate wholesale rates.

SBC and Communications Workers of America members agreed in May to terms of a five-year contract. About 100,000, or 60 percent of SBC’s employees are represented by the CWA.

The strike cost SBC about $263 million, SBC officials said, but the company said it expects to save $2 billion over the five-year life of the contract.

The UNE rates now in effect for SBC Arkansas were adopted by the Arkansas Public Service Commission in May 2001, shortly after the nation’s second-largest phone company was allowed to start selling long-distance phone service in Arkansas.

The company is asking that a procedural schedule for its rate request begin on Sept. 17, when cost studies would be submitted to the commission.

A hearing on the merits of the rate case would be heard on Jan. 26, 2005, followed by post-hearing briefs on Feb. 14 and 28.

Wagnon said the scheduled docket for the rate review would give the company ample time to put new wholesales rates in place after the current UNE agreement expires in June 2005.

SBC Arkansas is also asking the PSC for an interim protective order to keep certain documents and confidential information exempt from public disclosure during the rate case.

According to a report by National Regulatory Research Institute, the wholesale rates that Arkansas charges its rivals to use its network are the lowest in the region.

The weighted average rate per line for Arkansas is $13.09, the report shows. By comparison, UNE rates in Mississippi are $22.37, $14.84 in Oklahoma, $15.19 in Missouri, $16.24 in Louisiana, $14.12 in Tennessee, and $14.14 in Texas.

«This makes Arkansas less attractive for telecom investment and for actual competition,» Wagnon said, adding that SBC has not yet proposed a new wholesale rate. «Why should any company be quick to invest in its own facilities in Arkansas when it can lease from SBC at below-cost rates?»

However, AT and T spokesman Kerry Hibbs said the rate that SBC is currently charging in Arkansas is over $20, «when you add up all the costs.»

«Apparently, SBC doesn’t think rates are quite high enough,» Hibbs said. «We fully expect SBC and the other Baby Bells to raise their rates as high as they can, every where they can.»

Hibbs also said that SBC is breaking its promise to its customers not to raise rates before the end of the year. «They are going to wait until after the November election,» Hibbs said, citing the Bush administration-backed court ruling that opened the door for SBC to raise its rates.

The Dallas-based AT and T spokesman also said he did not know if AT and T would protest SBC’s wholesale cost case.

Last month, the long-distance giant announced that it will pull out immediately from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s wholesale rate case.

«We can’t say right now,» Hibbs said of rebutting SBC’s filing.

AT and T is not abandoning Arkansas, Hibbs added, as suggested by SBC’s recent advertising campaign that seeks to woo former AT and T customers.

«We are no longer marketing there, but we will continue to provide service to our (existing) customers,» he said.

The Dallas Morning News

By Roger Yu

DALLAS _ Faced with sinking profit and rising expenses, SBC Communications Inc. said Tuesday that it will lay off between 3,000 and 4,000 employees by the end of the year and take a one-time charge of up to $150 million as a result.

The San Antonio, Texas-based telecommunications giant, which has 172,540 employees, said attrition and «an enhanced retirement program» will eliminate the jobs.

SBC said last month that its payroll cuts will accelerate in 2004 from the 28,000 job cuts the company had in the 12 months ended in September.

An SBC spokesman declined to provide specifics on the locations or departments where the job cuts will occur, but he said the move will probably affect «to some degree most of our geographic markets.»

Larry Solomon, the SBC spokesman, also declined to comment on severance packages or break down how many are expected to leave through the retirement program.

«They’re assuming softness on the top line in cutting their labor force,» said Susan Kalla, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. «They’re cutting the labor cost to compensate for the top line, so the cash flow is likely remain stable.»

Kalla said the company «can cut another 20 percent» of its employees and be able to achieve its objectives.

SBC has been hard hit by the dramatic swoon of the telecommunications industry, and the latest announcement underscores the common fear that the industry would be among the last to undergo the rebound seen in the U.S. economy.

SBC, like other large phone companies, has been struggling as the price of regular phone lines _ its bread-and-butter business _ has dropped severely in the last few years.

Many customers are replacing those lines with mobile phones. But the company’s growing Cingular wireless phone unit and SBC/Yahoo Internet access business have failed to make up for the falling revenue.

SBC’s landline revenue fell 11 percent in the third quarter to $5.5 billion, though it makes up about 54 percent of the company’s total revenue.

SBC’s chief financial officer, Randall Stephenson, said in a conference call with analysts that the company hopes to generate more revenue by bundling more communications services, such as local and long-distance telephone and Internet service under one bill.

Bundling tends to encourage customers’ loyalty and bring in more revenue per user.

In the Southwest and West, where SBC has sold long-distance for several months, the average revenue per customer is about $6 higher per month than in the Midwest, the company said.

SBC is also betting heavily on Cingular Wireless, in which it owns a 60 percent stake.

Stephenson said Cingular’s third-quarter revenue rose about 4 percent from the second quarter. But the company faces stiff competition, and it’s likely to get even more heated now that customers can change carriers without losing their phone numbers.

The digital subscriber line business has been going well for SBC, but it has to fend off competition from other DSL providers and cable companies that also offer broadband service.

SBC’s data business rose 5.5 percent to $2.58 billion in the third quarter from the year-earlier period.

SBC also hopes to focus more on the long-distance service provided to large companies. Its long-distance revenue rose 12.5 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year to $668 million.

Despite several growing segments in its business, SBC hasn’t been able to stem rising expenses. In the third quarter, its operating expenses rose to $8.6 billion from $8.5 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, its net profit fell 29 percent in the third quarter from a year ago to $1.2 billion.