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EXHIBIT 99A

[U S WEST Communications Group Logo]




  Release Date:     April 25, 1996

Contact:     Becky Winning (303) 793-6367
     Dave Banks (303) 896-2721


  U S WEST COMMUNICATIONS GROUP REPORTS RECORD REVENUES AND IMPROVED PROFITS

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.  -  U S WEST Communications Group (NYSE:USW) reported record
growth in revenue and telephone access lines for the first quarter of 1996. 
Profits for the quarter, before one-time items, grew 4.7 percent compared with
the first quarter of 1995.
     First-quarter revenues increased a record 6.3 percent to $2.5 billion, up
from $2.3 billion a year ago.  Revenue gains were driven by:
*     Record growth in local service revenues, up 9.0 percent;
*     Strong growth in revenues from value-added services, such as CLASS, Call
  Waiting, Caller ID, Voice Messaging Services and data networking services,
  up approximately 60 percent;
*     Double-digit growth in minutes of use, up 10.3 percent;
*     Record growth in access lines, up 4.8 percent (excluding the sale of
  selected rural telephone exchanges).
     "I'm pleased with U S WEST Communications Group's strong top-line growth
and ongoing improvements in customer service,"  said Dick McCormick, chairman
and chief executive officer of U S WEST, Inc.  "Sol Trujillo and his team are
positioning the company to succeed in an increasingly competitive
environment."
     "Our revenue growth exceeded expectations in nearly every category," said
Sol Trujillo, president and chief executive officer of U S WEST Communications
Group. "That's great news, because revenue growth is one of the most important
value drivers in our business. Our first-quarter results demonstrate our
ability to increase revenues through improved penetration of existing
products, new and innovative products and features, differentiated product
packages and strong sales channel development."

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     First-quarter net income rose 4.7 percent to $289 million, up from $276
million in 1995. Earnings per share rose 3.4 percent to $0.61 from $0.59 in
the prior year. These totals exclude a one-time, after-tax gain on the sales
of rural exchanges totaling $39 million in the first quarter of 1995.  They
also exclude the cumulative after-tax effect of an accounting change related
to the adoption of the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No.
121, which totaled $34 million, as well as the current-quarter, after-tax
effect of that change, which reduced depreciation expense by $5 million.
     "Earnings for the quarter were reduced by higher-than-expected
employee-related expenses, partially related to unplanned contract and
overtime costs caused by flood conditions in Oregon and Washington," Trujillo
said.
     "Approximately 21,000 of our customers were affected by the February
flood, and we dispatched more than 800 technicians to restore service,
including some on loan from other parts of the U.S. and Canada," Trujillo
explained. "We spent approximately $15 million in contract labor and overtime
to build customer loyalty with our 3.2 million customers in the Pacific
Northwest.
     "The remainder of the increase in employee-related expense was due to
accelerating growth in access lines and continued investment in service
quality in the first quarter," Trujillo explained.  "We initiated aggressive
marketing tactics in the last half of 1995 to stimulate strong access-line
growth in the first quarter so we could maximize annual revenue opportunities
in 1996.  We also planned to continue high-priority service-improvement
initiatives.
     "We're beginning to see the results of those efforts," he continued. "In
the first quarter of 1996, we added 268,000 access lines -- approximately 60
percent more than we added in the same period last year.  At the same time, we
achieved significant improvements in service quality.
     "We're spending to fuel growth, and that's good," he said.  "We're also
beginning to achieve productivity improvements on a per-unit-of-volume basis.
Over time, those improvements will bring costs down."
     U S WEST Communications Group reported solid growth in EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), to $1.1 billion, a 6.0
percent increase compared to first quarter 1995. The company's operating
margin expanded to 24.2 percent versus 23.8 percent last year.
     Depreciation increased 3.6 percent to $517 million for the quarter, up
from $499 for the first quarter last year.  The change was primarily due to
increased plant, partially offset by an $8 million (pre-tax) reduction in
depreciation expense related to the adoption of  SFAS No. 121.

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     Planned capital expenditures for the quarter increased to $711 million to
meet the demands of explosive growth.
     "We're on track with our first-quarter performance," Trujillo said. 
"We're beginning to see the benefits of a clear strategic focus and key
management initiatives. We remain firmly committed to our bottom-line
objectives and we expect to make consistent progress toward our goal of
delivering improved results."
REGULATORY UPDATE
Also in the first quarter, the Washington State Utilities and Transportation
Commission (WUTC) acted on U S WEST Communications Group's rate request.  In
February of 1995, U S WEST Communications sought to raise rates for basic
residential services for the first time in 13 years.  Instead, the Commission
ordered a significant revenue reduction and ordered the company to set one of
the lowest rates for basic residential service in the nation.  U S WEST
Communications responded immediately by filing with the King County Superior
Court for an appeal of the order, a temporary stay of the ordered rate
reduction, and authorization to implement a revenue increase.  These legal
filings are currently under review by the court.
     "We were disappointed by the WUTC order,"  Trujillo said.  "It's too
early to speculate what the final outcome will be.  However, we believe the
current order is unreasonable and we'll aggressively pursue every avenue to
achieve recovery of our investment and rational pricing in the state of
Washington."
FIRST QUARTER OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
Operating highlights for the quarter include:
*     Despite accelerating growth, U S WEST Communications demonstrated solid,
  year-over-year improvements in customer service measures.  As an example,
  the company achieved a 25-percent reduction in the number of orders for
  primary service held for more than 30 days.
*     In January, U S WEST Communications announced the deployment of its "U S
  WEST Network 21" in seven major metro areas.  This fiber-optic ring
  architecture will enable the company to provide state-of-the-art service to
  the majority of private-line and switched traffic in a metro area.

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*     U S WEST Communications also introduced a number of new products,
  packages and services.  One example is the U S WEST Home Business Line, a
  new service that allows customers to convert their residence line to a
  business line and have two numbers -- one for residence use and the other
  for business use -- each with its own distinctive ring.
*     !NTERPRISE [registered trademark], the data-networking arm of  U S WEST
  Communications, successfully tested data-communications technology capable
  of providing consumers and businesses with faster network access to data. 
  During comprehensive technical trials in Colorado and Minnesota, U S WEST
  employees connected to the public Internet and to U S WEST's corporate
  network at speeds up to 1.544 megabits per second.
*     U S WEST Communications also issued its proposed agreement for
  competitive interconnection and resale to more than 20 existing and
  potential competitors throughout its 14-state territory.  The proposed
  agreement establishes a framework for individual negotiations with potential
  competitive providers.
U S WEST Communications Group provides telecommunications and high-speed data
services to more than 25 million customers in 14 western and midwestern
states.  The company is one of two major groups that make up U S WEST.  U S
WEST is in the connections business, helping customers share information,
entertainment and communications services in local markets worldwide.  U S
WEST's other major group, U S WEST Media Group (NYSE:UMG), is involved in
domestic and international cable and wireless networks, directory publishing
and interactive multimedia services.

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