FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              News Media Contact:
  October 6, 1999                         Mike Balmoris at (202) 418-0253
                                     Email:    mbalmori@fcc.gov
  
  
             FCC APPROVES SBC-AMERITECH MERGER 
        SUBJECT TO COMPETITION-ENHANCING CONDITIONS 
                              
   Conditions Will Create Irreversible Momentum Towards 
Deployment of Advanced Broadband Services and the Advancement of Local
        Residential Telecommunications Competition 
  
  
  Washington, DC   Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
  approved applications to transfer control of FCC licenses and lines from Ameritech Corp.
  (Ameritech) to SBC Communications Inc. (SBC) subject to significant, enforceable and
  unprecedented conditions.  The 30 conditions are designed to further open the local
  markets of these Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to competition, stimulate
  the deployment of advanced broadband services, and to strengthen the merged firm's
  incentives to expand competition outside its 13 state service area.  The FCC found that
  with these conditions the merger of SBC and Ameritech is in the public interest.  Upon
  consummation of this merger, SBC will control three of the original seven RBOCs (SBC's
  Southwestern Bell Telephone and Pacific Telesis with Ameritech).
  
  The 30 conditions adopted by the Commission are designed to accomplish five
  central public interest goals:  
  
          (1)    promoting equitable and efficient advanced services deployment; 
          (2)    ensuring open local markets; 
          (3)    fostering significant out-of-region competition for the first time by a Bell
          Operating Company; 
          (4)    improving residential phone service; and, 
          (5)    ensuring compliance with and enforcement of the conditions.  
       
  These goals flow from the FCC's statutory objectives to open all
  telecommunications markets to competition, to promote rapid deployment of advanced
  services, and to ensure that the public has access to efficient, high-quality
  telecommunications services.  
  
  The FCC's Order found that, absent these conditions, the proposed merger would
  harm consumers of telecommunications services by:  
  
          (1)    denying them the benefits of future probable competition between the merging
          firms; 
          (2)    undermining the ability of regulators and competitors to implement the pro-
          competitive, deregulatory framework for local telecommunications that was
          adopted by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996; and, 
          (3)    increasing the merged entity's incentives and ability to raise entry barriers to,
          and otherwise discriminate against, entrants into the local markets in its region. 
          
  
  On July 1, 1999, SBC and Ameritech supplemented their application by proffering
  a set of voluntary commitments that they proposed to undertake as conditions of approval
  of their proposed transfer of licenses and lines.  Following a period of extensive public
  comment on these proposed conditions, the applicants substantially revised their
  commitments on August 27, 1999, and continued to refine those commitments in
  subsequent filings.
  
  The FCC's Order also found that the merger would not result in harms to wireless
  markets subject to divestiture of cellular properties as required by the U.S. Department of
  Justice and FCC rules.  The merged company will be classified as a dominant international
  carrier in the provision of service on the U.S.-South Africa route (SBC is affiliated with
  Telkom South Africa, Ltd., the incumbent telecommunications carrier in South Africa). 
  The FCC's Order also found that the merged company is not prohibited by statute from
  continuing Ameritech's alarm monitoring and cable television operations. 
  
       Action by the Commission on October 6, 1999, by Memorandum Opinion and
  Order, in CC Docket No. 98-141 (FCC99-XX); Chairman Kennard and Commissioners
  Ness and Tristani, with Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth and Commissioner Powell
  concurring in part and dissenting in part.  Commissioners Ness, Furchtgott-Roth, Powell,
  and Tristani issuing separate statements.
  
       The Order is effective upon adoption today.
                              
                           -FCC-