SBC mulling sale of rural lines to help pay for ATTW?

Cingular Wireless’ majority owner SBC Communications is believed to have hired investment banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to seek bidders for around 500,000 rural telephone lines it may be looking to sell to help fund the recently agreed purchase of AT&T Wireless (ATTW). SBC, which owns 60% of Cingular, is responsible for finding around USD25 billion of the USD41 billion agreed asking price for ATTW, with BellSouth, which owns 40%, due to find the remainder. The partners are thought to be looking at the possible divestment of a number of assets deemed ‘non-core’, with SBC’s rural access networks reportedly heading the list. The lines are worth around USD3,000 each, valuing the networks at USD1.5 billion. In 2002 Verizon Communications, the largest US local access provider, sold 1.3 million local lines in Alabama, Missouri and Kentucky for USD4.1 billion.