BellSouth
Encyclopedia
BellSouth Corporation is an American
telecommunications holding 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 & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984.
In a merger announced on March 5, 2006 and executed on December 29, 2006, AT&T Inc. (originally Southwestern Bell) acquired BellSouth for approximately $86 billion (1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth) The combined company retained the name AT&T. The merger consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless
and YELLOWPAGES.COM
, both of which were joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T.
With the merger completed, wireless services previously offered by Cingular Wireless are now offered under the AT&T name. In addition, BellSouth has formally become AT&T South, its Bell Operating Company doing business as AT&T Southeast, and ceased doing business under the BellSouth name on June 30, 2007.
BellSouth was the last of the Regional Bell Operating Companies to keep its original corporate name after the 1984 AT&T breakup, as well as the last one to retain the Bell logo as part of its main corporate identity. Cincinnati Bell
, an independent Bell System
franchise not part of the AT&T breakup, continues to actively use the "Bell" name, but dropped the Bell logo from advertising in mid-2006. Verizon still uses the Bell logo on payphones and on the back of Verizon trucks, but not as a main logo. Malheur Bell
, a wholly owned, but separately operated subsidiary of Qwest Corporation
, was the last company to actively use the 1969 Bell logo designed by Saul Bass
. On December 14, 2009, Malheur Bell was merged into its corporate parent, Qwest Corporation
and the use of the Bell logo was discontinued.
BellSouth also operated in the Australian and New Zealand market. BellSouth operated in New Zealand
under the name of BellSouth New Zealand Limited from 1993 until 1998 when it was acquired by Vodafone
. It competed against Telecom New Zealand
. Its operations in Australia
were under the name of BellSouth Australia Pty Limited.
based in Birmingham
, Alabama
combined in 1992 to operate under the name BellSouth Telecommunications
. A shared services company known as BellSouth Services was created to provide centralized functions such as engineering
and information technology
to Southern Bell and South Central Bell. 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
. Satellite television
service was provided as a partnership with DirecTV
. Cable television
was provided in limited markets as BellSouth Entertainment Americast.
The company maintained its largest operation centers in Atlanta and Birmingham. Region-wide headquarters operations were also primarily in Atlanta and Birmingham. State-wide operations centers were located in Birmingham, Miami, Atlanta, Louisville, New Orleans, Jackson, Charlotte, Columbia, and Nashville. BellSouth Mobility was based in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama.
Toward its end, BellSouth realigned itself in two important areas, wireless
and broadband
. In 2001, they merged BellSouth Mobility
, their wireless enterprise, with SBC's wireless services, and took 40% stake in the resulting company, Cingular Wireless
. The new company provided a large percentage of BellSouth's revenue. This joint venture continued after SBC purchased the old AT&T
and rebranded as AT&T
. Continued increase of broadband
penetration and applications in the consumer market was a key strategy to the company. These activities were being funded in part by the sale of Latin America
operations.
BellSouth became the first "Baby Bell" that did 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 at its end were the Communications Group, Domestic Wireless, and Advertising and Publishing. The communications group operated two wholly owned subsidiaries, BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. (BST)
and BellSouth Long Distance, Inc. (BSLD)
. The main marketing groups for the communications group were consumer, small business, large business, and interconnection (wholesale services). The communications group provided wireline communications services, including local exchange, network access, intraLATA long distance services, and Internet services, as well as long distance services.
The advertising and publishing group was responsible for printing and distributing telephone books, selling advertising, and operating online electronic directories.
The BellSouth - SBC/AT&T relationship went further than just Cingular Wireless. BellSouth & SBC/AT&T also co-owned yellowpages.com (formerly RealPages.com and SmartPages.com).
BellSouth licensed its trademark to US Electronics, which produced telephones under the BellSouth brand.
PCS cell phone will usually display the City, State format on the caller ID display instead of the name or business name associated with that number. Based on a 1996 agreement between Sprint and BellSouth, it is likely that this is a result of a 10 year contract. In 2003, Sprint sued BellSouth for $20 million as a result of Sprint claiming Bellsouth violated a 1996 contract by not providing Sprint caller-identification information to BellSouth customers.
Similar caller ID "deals" have been left to the consumer to fight either with their own carrier or through government regulatory commissions for what they should have displayed on their caller ID
device. In 2002, Sprint
and SBC Communications could not come to an agreement on fees charged to carriers to lookup the caller name information.
published an article which claimed that three of the largest United States
carriers, including BellSouth, had been supplying calling records to the National Security Agency
for all international and domestic calls. This data, the article claimed, is being used to create, "the largest database ever assembled
."
On May 16, 2006, BellSouth released a statement claiming that no contract with the NSA existed and that they had never provided information such as calling records to the NSA.
USA Today
posted a retraction on June 30, 2006 stating that:
Cellcom, cellcom.co.il Telenor Denmark, telenor.dk Telcel, telcel.com
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...
after the U.S. Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
forced the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984.
In a merger announced on March 5, 2006 and executed on December 29, 2006, AT&T Inc. (originally Southwestern Bell) acquired BellSouth for approximately $86 billion (1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth) The combined company retained the name AT&T. The merger consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands...
and YELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.com is an Internet web site operated by YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T..-History:Both sites' operations were merged into Yellowpages.com in 2005. As a result of SBC Communications' merger with AT&T, the post merger AT&T wholly owned an additional...
, both of which were joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T.
With the merger completed, wireless services previously offered by Cingular Wireless are now offered under the AT&T name. In addition, BellSouth has formally become AT&T South, its Bell Operating Company doing business as AT&T Southeast, and ceased doing business under the BellSouth name on June 30, 2007.
BellSouth was the last of the Regional Bell Operating Companies to keep its original corporate name after the 1984 AT&T breakup, as well as the last one to retain the Bell logo as part of its main corporate identity. Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...
, an independent Bell System
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
franchise not part of the AT&T breakup, continues to actively use the "Bell" name, but dropped the Bell logo from advertising in mid-2006. Verizon still uses the Bell logo on payphones and on the back of Verizon trucks, but not as a main logo. Malheur Bell
Malheur Bell
Malheur Home Telephone Company, commonly known as Malheur Bell, was a rural telephone company operating in Oregon. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qwest Corporation, the Bell Operating Company of Qwest Communications International....
, a wholly owned, but separately operated subsidiary of Qwest Corporation
Qwest Corporation
Qwest Corporation is a Bell Operating Company owned by CenturyLink. It was formerly named U S WEST Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000, and also formerly named The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1911 to 1991...
, was the last company to actively use the 1969 Bell logo designed by Saul Bass
Saul Bass
Saul Bass was a Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences....
. On December 14, 2009, Malheur Bell was merged into its corporate parent, Qwest Corporation
Qwest Corporation
Qwest Corporation is a Bell Operating Company owned by CenturyLink. It was formerly named U S WEST Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000, and also formerly named The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1911 to 1991...
and the use of the Bell logo was discontinued.
BellSouth also operated in the Australian and New Zealand market. BellSouth operated in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
under the name of BellSouth New Zealand Limited from 1993 until 1998 when it was acquired by Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
. It competed against Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider , providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider , a major ICT provider to NZ businesses , and a wholesale network infrastructure provider to other NZ CSPs...
. Its operations in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
were under the name of BellSouth Australia Pty Limited.
Organization and services
The telephone operating companies Southern Bell based in Atlanta and South Central BellSouth Central Bell
South Central Bell Telephone Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was the name of the Bell System's operations in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee...
based in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
combined in 1992 to operate under the name BellSouth Telecommunications
BellSouth Telecommunications
BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC is the Bell Operating Company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. It absorbed the operations of South Central Bell in 1992....
. A shared services company known as BellSouth Services was created to provide centralized functions such as engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
and information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
to Southern Bell and South Central Bell. Services provided in the BellSouth operating area include telephone and DSL/Dial-Up Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
services in the States of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. Satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
service was provided as a partnership with DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
. Cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
was provided in limited markets as BellSouth Entertainment Americast.
The company maintained its largest operation centers in Atlanta and Birmingham. Region-wide headquarters operations were also primarily in Atlanta and Birmingham. State-wide operations centers were located in Birmingham, Miami, Atlanta, Louisville, New Orleans, Jackson, Charlotte, Columbia, and Nashville. BellSouth Mobility was based in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama.
Toward its end, BellSouth realigned itself in two important areas, wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
and broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
. In 2001, they merged BellSouth Mobility
BellSouth Mobility
BellSouth Mobility, LLC headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was a BellSouth subsidiary.BellSouth Mobility operated wireless networks using many different wireless communication standards. The most widely used of these technologies is called Digital AMPS, or D-AMPS...
, their wireless enterprise, with SBC's wireless services, and took 40% stake in the resulting company, Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands...
. The new company provided a large percentage of BellSouth's revenue. This joint venture continued after SBC purchased the old AT&T
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
and rebranded as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
. Continued increase of broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
penetration and applications in the consumer market was a key strategy to the company. These activities were being funded in part by the sale of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
operations.
BellSouth became the first "Baby Bell" that did 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
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...
has taken BellSouth's place for payphones in northern BellSouth territory; independents have set in further south.
BellSouth's main operating units at its end were the Communications Group, Domestic Wireless, and Advertising and Publishing. The communications group operated two wholly owned subsidiaries, BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. (BST)
BellSouth Telecommunications
BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC is the Bell Operating Company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. It absorbed the operations of South Central Bell in 1992....
and BellSouth Long Distance, Inc. (BSLD)
BellSouth Long Distance
BellSouth Long Distance, Inc. consists of the long distance operations of AT&T serving BellSouth Telecommunications customers. BSLD was acquired by AT&T in 2006 when it purchased BellSouth Corporation.BSLD does business as AT&T Long Distance Service....
. The main marketing groups for the communications group were consumer, small business, large business, and interconnection (wholesale services). The communications group provided wireline communications services, including local exchange, network access, intraLATA long distance services, and Internet services, as well as long distance services.
The advertising and publishing group was responsible for printing and distributing telephone books, selling advertising, and operating online electronic directories.
The BellSouth - SBC/AT&T relationship went further than just Cingular Wireless. BellSouth & SBC/AT&T also co-owned yellowpages.com (formerly RealPages.com and SmartPages.com).
BellSouth licensed its trademark to US Electronics, which produced telephones under the BellSouth brand.
BellSouth stops displaying caller ID from Sprint customers
As of January 1, 2006, BellSouth customers no longer receive caller ID information from Sprint PCS customers. Any incoming call originating from a SprintSprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
PCS cell phone will usually display the City, State format on the caller ID display instead of the name or business name associated with that number. Based on a 1996 agreement between Sprint and BellSouth, it is likely that this is a result of a 10 year contract. In 2003, Sprint sued BellSouth for $20 million as a result of Sprint claiming Bellsouth violated a 1996 contract by not providing Sprint caller-identification information to BellSouth customers.
Similar caller ID "deals" have been left to the consumer to fight either with their own carrier or through government regulatory commissions for what they should have displayed on their caller ID
Caller ID
Caller ID , also called calling line identification or calling number identification or Calling Line Identification Presentation , is a telephone service, available in analog and digital phone systems and most Voice over Internet Protocol applications, that transmits a caller's number to...
device. In 2002, Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
and SBC Communications could not come to an agreement on fees charged to carriers to lookup the caller name information.
Alleged NSA cooperation
In 2006, USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
published an article which claimed that three of the largest United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
carriers, including BellSouth, had been supplying calling records to the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
for all international and domestic calls. This data, the article claimed, is being used to create, "the largest database ever assembled
NSA call database
The United States' National Security Agency maintains a database containing hundreds of billions of records of telephone calls made by U.S...
."
On May 16, 2006, BellSouth released a statement claiming that no contract with the NSA existed and that they had never provided information such as calling records to the NSA.
USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
posted a retraction on June 30, 2006 stating that:
"On May 15, BellSouth said it could not categorically deny participation in the program until it had conducted a detailed investigation. BellSouth said that internal review concluded that the company did not contract with the NSA or turn over calling records."
External links
- BellSouth Corporation (Corporate Website), bellsouth.mediaroom.com
- BellSouth Corporation (Consumers Website), bellsouth.com
- Bell Operating Companies, porticus.org
- Legal Battle with BellSouth over Domain Names, southernlitigation.com
Cellcom, cellcom.co.il Telenor Denmark, telenor.dk Telcel, telcel.com
- Third party links
- Yahoo! - BellSouth Corporation Company Profile, biz.yahoo.com
- AT&T bids $67 Billion for BellSouth, biz.yahoo.com Yahoo! Finance, March 5, 2006, Harry Weber