is a
U.S. Telecommunications company based in
Atlanta, Georgia . BellSouth was one of the seven original
Regional Bell Operating Companies after the
U.S. Department Of Justice forced the
American Telephone And Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on
January 1 ,
1984 . It is also the only "
Baby Bell " or Regional Bell Operating Company that still uses the Bell symbol in its logo. (
Cincinnati Bell is an independent
Bell System franchise.) On
March 5 ,
2006 ,
AT&T announced its plans to acquire BellSouth for $67 billion (1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth).
{Link without Title} The combined company would retain the name AT&T.
BellSouth is the last of the
Regional Bell Operating Companies to have kept its original corporate name since the
1984 AT&T breakup, as well as the only one to have retained the Bell logo.
The subsidiaries
Southern Bell and
South Central Bell have now been combined to operate under the corporate name BellSouth. Services provided in the BellSouth operating area include telephone and
DSL /
Dial-Up Internet services in the States of
Alabama ,
Florida ,
Georgia ,
Kentucky ,
Louisiana ,
Mississippi ,
North Carolina ,
South Carolina and
Tennessee .
BellSouth is realigning itself in two important areas,
Wireless and
Broadband . A 40 percent joint venture with
AT&T (formerly SBC) in U.S. wireless telephone service provider
Cingular Wireless provides a large percentage of BellSouth's revenue. Continued increase of
Broadband penetration and applications in the consumer market is a key strategy to the company. These activities are being funded in part by the sale of
Latin America operations.
BellSouth is currently the only "
Baby Bell " that does not operate
Pay Telephones . By
2003 , BellSouth's payphone operation was discontinued because it had become too unprofitable, most likely due to the increased availability of cell phones.
Cincinnati Bell has taken BellSouth's place for payphones in northern BellSouth territory; independents have set in further south.
BellSouth's main operating units are the Communications Group, Domestic Wireless, and Advertising and Publishing. The communications group operates two wholly-owned subsidiaries,
BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. (BST) and
BellSouth Long Distance, Inc. (BSLD) . The main marketing groups for the communications group are consumer, small business, large business, and interconnection (wholesale services). The communications group provides wireline communications services, including local exchange, network access, intraLATA long distance services, and Internet services, as well as long distance services.
The domestic wireless group provides wireless services through its 40% ownership of
Cingular Wireless (formerly BellSouth Mobility, jointly owned with AT&T).
The advertising and publishing group is responsible for printing and distributing telephone books, selling advertising, and operating online electronic directories.
The BellSouth - AT&T relationship goes further than just Cingular Wireless. BellSouth & AT&T also co-own
yellowpages.com (formerly RealPages.com and SmartPages.com).
The image to the right is a photograph of
BellSouth Center , commonly mistaken as the
BellSouth Corporation headquarters in
Atlanta, Georgia . It is actually the main building for
BellSouth Telecommunications (formerly
Southern Bell headquarters) which is the phone company division of
BellSouth Corporation . The
BellSouth Corporation is headquartered in the Campanile building at the intersection of 14th and Peachtree streets in Atlanta, Georgia, across the street from the Colony Square hotel in Midtown.
Complete management bios at BellSouthcorp.com
