BellSouth

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**BellSouth Corp**

Type	Public
Founded	1984
Location	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Key people	F. Duane Ackerman, CEO & Chairman
Industry	Communications Services
Products	Telecom
Revenue	{{{revenue}}}
Employees	76,000
Website	www.bellsouth.com

BellSouth Corporation NYSE: BLS 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 (Cincinnati Bell was an independent Bell System franchise) that still uses the Bell symbol in its 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% joint venture with SBC Communications in U.S. wireless telephone service Cingular 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 operates many companies to provide the services that customers consider as coming from BellSouth. The BellSouth Corporation is the holding company (it is NOT headquartered in the BellSouth building in Atlanta). The operating companies include BellSouth Telecommunications (local phone company, headquartered in the BellSouth building in Atlanta), BellSouth.net (the ISP), BellSouth Long Distance (the long distance carrier), BellSouth International (the international operations company), and Cingular Wireless (formerly BellSouth Mobility, jointly owned with SBC). There are other operating companies, like the publishing and advertising companies, but the ones mentioned above are the main ones.