Do-gooders Phone companies are giving-and getting >BY STEPHANIA H. DAVIS, Associate Editor-News

If, as the saying goes, one does well by doing good, then telephone companies are well on their way to heaven.

From local and long-distance carriers to competitive access providers, philanthropy is on the rise. Increasingly, where once tobacco companies were the most visible corporate sponsors, carriers' names are popping up everywhere from school dance classes to the Super Bowl.

But what do the carriers get out of doing so much good? Answers vary, but one thing is certain: It's more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling.

"As a business, we believe we'll be able to generate more business where AT&T is seen as a vital part of the community, an active corporate citizen,' said Tim McClimon, executive director of the AT&T Foundation, which spent about $35 million last year in charitable grants and donated time, services and equipment. The foundation plans to spend $3 million more this year.

One of the carrier's newest charitable programs is AT&T Cares, in which its 127,000 employees are encouraged to spend one day volunteering in their communities. AT&T pays its workers for that day.

The interexchange carrier also has the AT&T Learning Network, a five-year, $150 million program that links school computers to the Internet and trains teachers to use the World Wide Web.

The MCI Foundation has concentrated its efforts on libraries with the LibraryLINK program, which over the past two years has linked and expanded the Internet capabilities of 17 public libraries across the country.

Frontier Corp., a Rochester, N.Y.-based CAP, supported the Grandfriends Program, in which youngsters and the elderly become pen pals via e-mail.

Not all the philanthropic efforts of telecommunications companies involve technology. Cellular One has sponsored performances of the Body Language Dance Company at schools in the Mid-Atlantic East region. The dance company aims to expose students to a form of communication that doesn't involve phones or keyboards, using music and poetry.

Ameritech has given grants to Chicago's John G. Shedd Aquarium to sponsor African-American History Month programs and to the Girl Scouts of Chicago for alumni recruitment.

Most of the philanthropic activities have some connection to carriers' business, although the links to communication are becoming increasingly creative. GTE has joined in a marketing alliance with the National Collegiate Athletic Association to become the league's "official telecommunications consultant.

And during Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, Sprint provided telephone conferencing between the stadium and several other sites as well as Internet access for fans wanting to chat about the game.

Some industry watchers believe charitable activities could decrease as competition increases and as local exchange carriers move into long-distance and become less familiar with their local communities.

But Boyd Peterson, an analyst with The Yankee Group, disagrees.

"Ameritech, for example, may try to be more national with its charitable dollars but is still first and foremost a company based in the Midwest," he said. "The local companies know where their bread is buttered.

For long-distance carriers such as AT&T, the philanthropic focus has been national rather than local. That will change as the carriers prepare to jump into the local market, McClimon says.

"We won't give up all the national organizations, but a much greater percentage of our giving dollars will be dictated by what works locally," he said. "It's going to be a special challenge."