SureWest to Report Third Quarter 2005 Results November 7

21 October 2005

Leading independent
telecommunications holding company SureWest Communications (Nasdaq: SURW) will
release financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005,
before the market opens on Monday, November 7, 2005. SureWest also released
non-financial quarterly operating metrics by segment today. Please view the
attached table.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050908/SFSUREWESTLOGO )
The Company will host a conference call and live Webcast at 11:00 a.m.
Eastern Time on Monday, November 7 to discuss third quarter 2005 results.
Open to the public, the Webcast will be available from the Company's investor
relations website at http://www.surw.com and via replay shortly after completion of
the call. A telephone replay of the conference will also be available a short
time after the conference call and through Saturday, November 12, by dialing
888-286-8010 and entering passcode 38574034. Be sure to visit http://www.surw.com
for updates prior to the call.

About SureWest Communications
With more than 90 years in Northern California, SureWest and its family of
companies together provide a wide variety of highly reliable advanced
communications products and services. SureWest provides digital TV, fiber
optics, PCS wireless, DSL, high-speed Internet access, data transport, local
and long distance telephone service, and directories with the highest
standards of customer care. For more information, visit the SureWest web site
at http://www.surewest.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
Statements made in this news release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions
of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, these
forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as may,
will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, or project or the negative of those
words or other comparable words. We undertake no obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a
number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause the company's
actual results to differ from those projected in such forward-looking
statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those set
forth in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:
advances in telecommunications technology, changes in the telecommunications
regulatory environment, changes in the financial stability of other
telecommunications providers who are customers of the company, changes in
competition in markets in which the company operates, adverse circumstances
affecting the economy in California in general, and in the Sacramento,
California Metropolitan area in particular, the availability of future
financing, changes in the demand for services and products, new product and
service development and introductions, pending and future litigation, the
internal control issues identified by the company, and unanticipated changes
in the growth of the company's emerging businesses, including the wireless,
Internet, video and Competitive Local Exchange Carrier operating entities.

SUREWEST COMMUNICATIONS
Selected Operating Metrics

As of and for the quarter ended

September 30, September 30, Pct
2005 2004 Change
LINE SUMMARY
ILEC access lines 130,000 132,981 -2.2%
Broadband access lines (1) 16,858 12,535 34.5%
Total SureWest access lines 146,858 145,516 0.9%

TELECOM
ILEC access lines 130,000 132,981 -2.2%
ILEC voice-grade equivalents (2) 373,100 448,600 -16.8%
Long distance lines 51,213 46,191 10.9%
Long distance penetration 39.4% 34.7% 13.4%

BROADBAND
CLEC access lines 2,175 1,770 22.9%
CLEC voice-grade equivalents (2) 285,300 141,700 101.3%
DSL subscribers 26,945 22,300 20.8%
DSL revenue-generating units
(RGUs) (3) 28,430 22,941 23.9%
Video RGUs 2,021 971 108.1%
Data RGUs 26,815 22,156 21.0%
FTTP subscribers 19,245 14,786 30.2%
FTTP revenue-generating units
(RGUs) (4) 44,793 34,619 29.4%
Voice RGUs 14,683 10,765 36.4%
Video RGUs 13,713 11,478 19.5%
Data RGUs 16,397 12,376 32.5%
FTTP marketable homes 84,500 62,100 36.1%
FTTP marketable homes penetration (5) 22.5% 23.6% -4.7%
FTTP churn 1.6% 1.9% -15.8%

WIRELESS
Total subscribers 53,818 49,072 9.7%
Contract subscribers 49,374 41,897 17.8%
POPs 3,532,000 3,477,000 1.6%
POPs covered 2,759,000 2,711,000 1.8%
Net contract additions 595 1,274 -53.3%
Net non-contract additions -138 -733 -81.2%
Contract churn (6) 3.2% 3.4% -5.3%

(1) The sum of CLEC access lines and FTTP voice RGUs.
(2) Voice-grade equivalents (VGEs) are calculated by dividing the
capacity of all circuits in use by 64 kilobits (bandwidth representing a
voice access line), excluding ethernet service and Broadband FTTP data
RGUs. DSL VGEs are counted as two 64 kbps channels.
(3) Revenue-generating units (RGUs) are the sum of all primary digital
video and high-speed data connections, excluding additional units.
Telephony units are included in ILEC Access Lines.
(4) Revenue-generating units (RGUs) are the sum of all primary digital
video, telephony and high-speed data connections, excluding additional
units.
(5) FTTP marketable home penetration is calculated on residential
marketable homes passed and residential FTTP subscribers. The total FTTP
subscribers also includes 219 and 106 Small-Medium Enterprise customers
in 2005 and 2004, respectively, which are not included in the penetration
rate.
(6) Quarterly turnover in contract customers (total contract customer
disconnects divided by sum of monthly average contract subscribers).