MARKED BILLS

Something is not quite right about SBC's confirmation last week that it plans to sell 650,000 rural access lines, and its insistence that it is not doing so to provide cash for Cingular Wireless' acquisition of AT&T Wireless. While it's probably too early for anyone — including SBC — to say exactly how cash from the rural access line sale would be used, the potential deal has at least strategic and philosophic connections to Cingular's acquisition. It has been reported that SBC and its Cingular partner, BellSouth, might be stemming wireline revenue losses by funding an acquisition that reassembles the Bell system model of wireline and wireless under the same roof. Getting rid of rural lines is another step in that path. The company is looking for high-revenue customers who are easy to serve at a low cost, and it's not going to find them in small towns. While the Bell system might have had its share of rural customers, the strong emergence of rural carriers gives SBC more options for disposing of those lines — and likely a higher sale price than it would have found years ago. What's left is a dominant carrier that doesn't have to serve customers it doesn't want to serve. SBC's take from the rural access line sale will help its cash position one way or another — whether it's used directly for the wireless buy or to replenish some of the money it will spend on the deal later this year. Maybe someone should mark the bills so we know where they really end up.