1.   Access Management, the division responsible for connecting long-distance calls to local phone companies, was in the worst shape.

2.   Most of that sum represents a subsidy to local phone companies rather than reimbursement of the true costs of connecting calls.

3.   The phone company is also trying to persuade state regulators to drop an arcane system of payments to rivals for connecting calls to Internet service providers.

4.   Today, telecom companies pay each other for connecting calls to the Internet because they are considered local.