31.   SBC, for instance, could potentially offer free voice mail, call waiting and caller ID to local phone customers who sign up for DirecTV.

32.   Separately, the rules also create a multibillion-dollar fund for linking schools to the Internet and subsidizing needy phone customers.

33.   Solomon said MCI and other would-be competitors are targeting the most lucrative local phone customers -- businesses -- and ignoring the less-profitable residential homes.

34.   That way Bell Atlantic would get into long distance promptly, as it deserves, and phone customers would get the competition they deserve.

35.   That, in turn, will attract long-distance phone customers.

36.   The company also said it expects to be providing long-distance service to its local phone customers in the third quarter.

37.   The decision will require more than a million phone customers in Eastern Massachusetts to change area codes.

38.   The discounts for schools and libraries will be covered by payments from telephone companies, but those charges will be passed along to phone customers.

39.   The contest for local phone customers in North Texas kicked off with a gust of hot air last summer.

40.   The Federal Communications Commission took steps Thursday to let telephone companies move into the cable television business without forcing phone customers to foot the bill.