SBC Named One Of America's Top Five Companies For Minorities By Fortune Magazine.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2002

SBC's best-ever No. 4 rank leads telecommunications industry in

diversity practices for fourth consecutive year

For the fourth year in a row, SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:

In addition, SBC was cited as one of America's top five companies for supplier diversity and one of the top 10 Companies for Hispanics. FORTUNE's list of "Best Companies for Minorities" will appear in the magazine's July 8 issue.

"Diversity in all aspects of our business has improved our ability to meet the needs of the communities and customers we serve," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of SBC Communications. "In fostering diversity, we've created a better business environment, one that makes us an employer of choice, a preferred business partner and an important contributor to the community."

To compile the ranking, FORTUNE surveyed the FORTUNE 1000 and the 200 largest privately held U.S. companies. Companies were judged on more than a dozen measures, including the scope of overall diversity; level of management accountability; number of minority graduates hired by companies; minority representation on the company's board of directors; recent hiring practices; percentage of dollars spent with outside minority-owned suppliers; and percentage of charitable contributions given to programs primarily benefiting minorities. Last year, SBC ranked no. 8 on the list.

SBC is known for setting a high standard of diversity. The company's workforce is 48 percent female and 38 percent people of color. Eighteen percent of the company's corporate officers are minorities and 26 percent are women.

Through SBC's supplier diversity program, widely recognized as one of the country's best, the company spent $2.8 billion with women-, minority-, and disabled-veteran owned businesses in 2001. Of this, $2.1 billion was spent with minority-owned businesses.

A national leader in diversity, SBC earlier this year won the only presidential award for corporate leadership, the Ron Brown Award, in recognition of its supplier diversity efforts. In 2001, SBC received the only global award for corporate citizenship, the Corporate Conscience Award, for workforce diversity.

Within the past year, SBC has been named: one of the top 25 companies for executive women, Executive Female; the best company for Latinas, Latina Style; one of the top 10 companies for diversity, DiversityInc.com; and one of the top companies for Hispanics, Hispanic Magazine.

SBC is joined in this year's ranking of "Best Companies for Minorities" by other leading global companies such as PepsiCo, American Express, UPS, Ford, and Procter & Gamble.

SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) is one of the world's leading data, voice and Internet services providers. Through its world-class network and its subsidiaries' trusted brands - SBC Southwestern Bell, SBC Ameritech, SBC Pacific Bell, SBC Nevada Bell, SBC SNET and Sterling Commerce - SBC companies provide a full range of voice, data, networking and e-business services, as well as directory advertising and publishing. A Fortune 27 company, America's leading provider of high-speed DSL Internet Access services, and one of the nation's leading Internet Service Providers, SBC companies currently serve nearly 60 million access lines nationwide. In addition, SBC owns 60 percent of America's second largest wireless company -- Cingular Wireless - which serves more than 21 million wireless customers. Internationally, SBC has telecommunications investments in 28 countries.

SOURCE: SBC Communications Inc.