SBC Communications Inc. plans to cut more than 10,000 jobs from its workforce by the end of 2005, a spokesman said Monday.

"The reasons are because of productivity improvements due to new technologies and less demand for local access," said spokesman Larry Solomon. The layoffs were reported in a quarterly filing made Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he said.

San Antonio-based SBC is the nation"s second-largest phone company after Verizon Communications Inc., with about 50 million customers, Solomon said. SBC currently has about 165,000 employees, so 10,000 jobs would be about 6 percent of the company"s current workforce. The cuts will be distributed across SBC"s 13-state territory and all of its business units, he said.

Solomon said SBC will continue to hire in areas such as wireless and broadband access.