Bell Operating Companies
BELLSOUTH (AT&T Southeast)

It's Official, AT&T received approval on December 29 to acquire Bell South.  Both the Cingular and Bell South name will be phased out in 2007.  Click here to read further about the momentous event.

This is the Baby Bell I'm most familiar with . . . BellSouth - (formerly Southern Bell and South Central Bell).

In 1984, the Bell System's local exchanges were divested from AT&T and organized into regional "Bell Operating Companies" which are sometimes called, unofficially, "Baby Bells".  BellSouth is the last of the original "Baby Bells" still operating by itself, a BellSouth spokesman said.  BellSouth Corporation is an integrated communications services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia serving more than 41 million customers in the United States and 16 other countries. BellSouth, consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, provides residential, business and wholesale customers with integrated voice, video and data services to meet their communications needs. BellSouth is a Fortune 100 company with total revenues exceeding $26 billion. 

The following is a brief account of corporate changes that took place in what is now called BellSouth:

1990 - 1991 - Prior to 12/31/1991, BellSouth Corporation consisted of two separate operating companies:

• South Central Bell Telephone Company which serviced Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

• Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company which serviced Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

1992 - 1994 - On 1/1/1992, South Central Bell and Southern Bell were merged, forming BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., a corporation that is wholly-owned by BellSouth Corporation.

1995 - BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. had no changes during this period, except that on 1/1/1995, the names South Central Bell and Southern Bell were dropped and only BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. was used.

1996 - 2005 - BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. had no changes during this period.

2006 - BellSouth announced on March 5, 2006 that they have reached an agreement with the "new" AT&T (formerly SBC) to merge within a year.  The Cingular name will become AT&T and BellSouth will be called AT&T. Click here to read the latest news on the merger.  As of December 29, 2006, the merger was finally approved by the FCC which officially makes BellSouth part of AT&T.

BellSouth has proudly kept the Bell name, logo and tradition! Click HERE to see what I mean (a GIF image is also available by clicking HERE.)

I wish I could say the same for the rest of the former Bell System local operating companies!  Yes, you might have guessed by now that I'm a BellSouth customer. I have BellSouth for my local phone service, cell phone service (Cingular), FastAccess ADSL Internet service and long distance service. I've been a Southern Bell and BellSouth customer since the 1970's so I think that makes me a loyal customer :-)

Did you know that BellSouth in the metro Atlanta area has THE LARGEST TOLL-FREE LOCAL CALLING AREA IN THE USA?  No other Baby Bell or ex-Baby Bell can say that.  We have to put up with three area codes and ten digit dialing though - a sharp contrast to the days when I was in college and could call long distance from Orlando, Florida to Miami, Florida (about 250 miles or 400 Kilometers) by only dialing a "1" and the seven digit number!!!  Now I can't call my neighbor across the street without dialing ten digits!

The BellSouth building in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
I live about 25 miles north of Atlanta. I took this picture while sitting at a red
light but some truck was blocking part of the lower section of the building.
Click on image to show full-size view.

BellSouth building (formerly the South Central Bell headquarters)
in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Photo courtesy of Eric Paschal.
Click on image to show full-size view.

BellSouth has carried on the tradition of the Bell System's involvement with the community as seen in the photographs below that I took at Zoo Atlanta near where I live:

The Panda exhibit is probably the most popular exhibit at the zoo in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Here is a photo of my youngest daughter posing behind one of the many BellSouth sponsored props. I wish I kept a copy of the old phone book shown with the pandas on the front cover!

A special thank you to Durwood Hunter for sharing two photos and his story of his time with BellSouth.

"We delivered telephone supplies to work centers across North and Central Florida from the BellSouth Services Warehouse (formally Western Electric). All of the drivers were BellSouth employees from all kinds of jobs. We were trained to drive by BellSouth.  We drove at night and also delivered cable on the day shift.  At the time it was kept quiet that we also picked up Pay Station money on the return to Jacksonville.

The job lasted two years and returned to contract drivers. A few years later the warehouse closed and BellSouth Services was history."

Durwood Hunter Driver BellSouth Services Jacksonville Fl. Twenty years
with Bell and this was the best job I had!

 

 

Logo for the transportation department.

 

$1,000 bond from Southern Bell dated 1939.  (Southern Bell is now BellSouth).