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Stephanie N. Mehta is a telecommunications reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, focusing on coverage of local telephone carriers, including the Bell operating companies. She also has written extensively on the wireless, long-distance and manufacturing sectors of the telecommunications industry. This year she helped break stories on the proposed Bell Atlantic-GTE merger and SBC Communications’ planned purchase of Ameritech. Ms. Mehta has been with the Journal since 1994. She received a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in English at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.