21.   It has cellular operations in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

22.   Last month, Sprint said it might spin off its cellular operations to comply with federal limits on the number of cellular businesses a company can own.

23.   Last April, Pacific Telesis Group -- one of the seven regional Bell operating companies -- spun off its cellular operations, creating a company called AirTouch Communications Inc.

24.   Local telephone and cellular operations at Sprint are performing as expected, he said.

25.   More recently, Bell Atlantic and Nynex Corp. announced that they were pooling their cellular operations and seeking more partners for a national network of their own.

26.   Most existing cellular operations are local in focus.

27.   None of these four has an existing cellular operation in Chicago.

28.   Outside its Texas-to-Missouri home turf, SBC runs cellular operations in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Buffalo and Albany, N.Y.

29.   Pacific Telesis also absorbed the debt incurred by the cellular operations, allowing Airtouch to start free of debt.

30.   Since Lin has major cellular operations in those cities, it would have faced an even more aggressive rival.