BellSouth
Parent AT&T Corporation (1983) | AT&T Inc.[1][2] (2006) | |
Subsidiaries | BellSouth Telecommunications |
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BellSouth, LLC (stylized as BELLSOUTH and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American
In a merger announced on March 5, 2006, and executed on December 29, 2006,
The company became known as BellSouth, LLC on June 26, 2015.[5]
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.
BellSouth also operated in Latin America in Argentina, Australia,
Organization and services
As part of the breakup of the old AT&T during 1984, BellSouth was formed as the holding company for the telephone operating companies in the southern portion of the old Bell System—Atlanta-based Southern Bell and Birmingham, Alabama-based South Central Bell. The creation of BellSouth, in effect, reunited most telephone service in the Southeastern United States. Southern Bell had been the Bell System operating company for the entire Southeast until 1967, when the western portion of its service territory became South Central Bell.
BellSouth formed a shared services company, BellSouth Services, to provide centralized functions such as
In 1992, BellSouth merged South Central Bell and BellSouth Services into Southern Bell, which changed its name to BellSouth Telecommunications. This created a single operating company in the BellSouth territory, and fully reunited Southern Bell and South Central Bell. However, BellSouth continued using the Southern Bell name in the eastern portion of its territory and the South Central Bell name in the western portion until 1998, when it adopted BellSouth as the sole customer-facing brand.
The company maintained its largest operation centers in Atlanta and Birmingham. Region-wide headquarters operations were also primarily in Atlanta and Birmingham. Statewide 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.
In August 1998, BellSouth launched FastAccess DSL, their
Toward its end, BellSouth realigned itself in two important areas,
BellSouth became the first "Baby Bell" that did not operate
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[9] (formerly RealPages.com and SmartPages.com).
BellSouth licensed its trademark to US Electronics, which produced telephones under the BellSouth brand. It also maintained a history sub-page at bellsouth.com/servicemarks which displayed its former and recent BellSouth logo usage. That page is no longer functional.[10]
BellSouth stops displaying caller ID from Sprint customers
As of January 1, 2006, BellSouth customers no longer receive
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
Alleged NSA cooperation
In 2006,
On May 16, 2006, BellSouth released a retraction claiming that no contract with the NSA existed and that they had never provided information such as calling records to the NSA.[15]
USA Today posted an update 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."[16]
See also
References
- ^ "BellSouth Corporation Company Profile – Company Information". louisville.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2008-09-08. [dead link]
- ^ "BellSouth Corporation Profile". smartbrief.com. Retrieved 2008-09-08.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Atossa Abrahamian (2009-02-09). "Reuters.com". Today.reuters.com. Retrieved 2012-05-16.[dead link]
- ^ a b "AT&T Press Release Headlines & News from AT&T". www.att.com. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
- ^ "BellSouth. Информация об эмитенте. (LEI 549300K521AGBDAYHX03). Новости и кредитные рейтинги. Таблицы с бухгалтерской и финансовой отчетностью". Cbonds. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- ^ "Vodafone acquires BellSouth NZ". Archived from the original on 2015-04-29.
- ^ "Telefonica Moviles Completes the Acquisition of 100% of Bellsouth's Mobile Operators in Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama". businesswire.com. 2004-10-14.
- ^ "BNamericas - TEM: 8 of 10 BellSouth acquisitions complete". BNamericas.com. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- ^ "YP.com – Yellow Pages, the new yellowpages.com".
- ^ "Archive.org, Oct. 14 2014". Archived from the original on 2014-10-23. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
- ^ Atlanta Business Chronicle: December 17, 2003-Sprint sues BellSouth over caller ID, atlanta.bizjournals.com
- ^ Kansas City Business Journal: October 25, 2002-Sprint and SBC get hung up on deal for caller ID by Charlie Anderson, bizjournals.com
- ^ Washington Post: May 21, 2006-Caller ID Doesn't Always Give a Number – to the Providers' Benefit by Don Oldenburg, washingtonpost.com
- ^ USA Today: May 11, 2006-NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls by Leslie Cauley, usatoday.com
- ^ "May 15, 2006-BellSouth denies giving records to NSA". CNN. 2006-05-15. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^ USA Today: June 30, 2006 – A Note to our Readers, usatoday.com
External links
- Bell Operating Companies, porticus.org
- Archive of Bellsouth Intercept Messages[permanent dead link]
- (in Hebrew) Cellcom, cellcom.co.il
- (in Danish) Telenor Denmark, telenor.dk
- (in Spanish) 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