February 10, 1999


           STATISTICS OF COMMUNICATIONS COMMON CARRIERS
      NOW AVAILABLE FROM THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

     Each year since 1939, the FCC has published Statistics of Communications Common
Carriers.  This publication includes a wealth of data on telecommunications costs, revenues,
prices, and usage.  The 1997/1998 edition is now available from the U.S. Government Printing
Office.  In addition, the entire publication is available electronically.

     The 345-page volume is divided into eight sections:  Part 1 contains general information
on industry structure; Part 2 contains financial and operating data relating to telephone carriers;
Part 3 contains data relating to COMSAT Corporation; Part 4 contains data on international
communications;  Part 5 contains information on rates for long distance telecommunications
services; Part 6 contains historical financial data on the communications industry; Part 7 contains
historical rate tables for AT&T, MCI, and Sprint; and Part 8 contains data on industry trends.
 
     The publication sells for $29.00 (stock number 004-000-00507-4) and may be purchased
from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 
P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954, by calling the Order and Inquiry Desk (202) 512-
1800, or by faxing the order to (202) 512-2250.

     The statistics book is available for reference in the Common Carrier Bureau's Public
Reference Room, 2000 M Street N.W., Washington, DC, Room 575.  The publication can be
downloaded [file names:  97SOCC.PDF or 97SOCC.ZIP] from the FCC-State Link internet site
at http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/stats on the World Wide Web.  

                             - FCC -

     For additional information contact Terry Conway or Katie Rangos at (202) 418-0940 or
for users of TTY equipment, call (202) 418-0484.