Judge Greene ruled against Southwestern Bell.

The U.S. District Court judge ruled that local Bell operating companies cannot provide switching equipment to companies that offer long-distance phone service. Judge Harold H. Greene, who presided over the breakup of the Bell System, said Southwestern Bell Telecommunications had to disassociate itself from a lease through which it provided switching gear to National Telecommunications of Austin, Tex. He said the lease violated terms of the settlement that ended a Justice Department antitrust suit against American Telephone & Telegraph and led to the company’s breakup Jan. 1, 1984.