SBC Completes Acquisition of Ameritech

Posted: 11/1999

SBC Completes Acquisition of Ameritech
By Liz Montalbano and Kim Sunderland

SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, has completed its acquisition of Ameritech Corp.,
Hoffman Estates, Ill., giving the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) control of three
of the original seven Baby Bells, as well as sizeable chunk of customer base and
facilities in local markets in the Midwest, Southwest and on the West Coast.

Of the completed merger, which was first announced more than a year ago, SBC Chairman
and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. said in a press statement, "Now we have the scale and
the scope to compete globally, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do."

SBC now ranks first in U.S. telecommunications providers in size with 59 million access
lines. It also has a strong wireless presence, coming in third in the country with 10.1
million domestic wireless subscribers. Overseas, SBC becomes the largest non-European
telecommunications investor in Europe, giving it access to a $175 billion
telecommunications market.

The SBC-Ameritech merger did not come without conditions, though–30 in all that the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attached to its approval of transferring
applications of FCC licenses and lines from Ameritech to SBC.

Calling them "significant, enforceable and unprecedented," the FCC states
that the 30 conditions are designed to further open the local markets of these regional
Bell operating companies (RBOCs) to competition; stimulate advanced broadband services
deployment; and give the merged company incentive to expand competition outside its
13-state service area.

Absent these conditions, the FCC officials say the proposed merger would harm
consumers; undermine the ability of regulators and competitors to implement the
Telecommunications Act of 1996; and discriminate against local-market entrants.