Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995                   TAG: 9511150048
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Bloomberg Business News
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Short

LOSS POSSIBLE FOR BELLSOUTH

Based on analysts' estimates of earnings of 55 cents to 58 cents, the charge means the company is likely to report a loss for the fourth quarter.

The largest regional Bell operating company also solidified plans to cut even more jobs. Of the $665 million charge, $50 million will be used to cover the cost of severance benefits after 1997.

``We expect there will be anticipated further workforce reductions in future years,'' said Al Schweitzer, a company spokesman. He said future cuts would be ``at a reduced level'' compared with the 11,300 cuts.

He declined to be more specific.

The job cuts, which represent about 17 percent of its workforce in its local phone operations, will save the company about $500 million a year.

BellSouth Communication Systems of Roanoke is not affected by the cuts.

BellSouth hopes to lower costs and become more competitive in the $90 billion-a-year U.S. local phone market. BellSouth and the six other Baby Bells will soon have to compete with cable-television and long-distance phone companies such as AT&T Corp. in the local phone market.

In May, Atlanta-based BellSouth said it will cut about 11,000 jobs by 1998. On Tuesday, BellSouth said it expects to eliminate 11,300 jobs during the next two years. Of that, 7,000 jobs will be eliminated in 1996 and the remainder in 1997.