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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. 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 to become Vodafone New Zealand.〔http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/#history Vodafone acquires BellSouth NZ〕 It competed against Telecom New Zealand. Its operations in Australia were under the name of BellSouth Australia Pty Limited. ==Organization and services== As part of the breakup of the old AT&T during 1984, the telephone operating companies Southern Bell based in Atlanta and South Central Bell based in Birmingham, Alabama combined to operate under the name BellSouth Telecommunications. At that time a shared services company known as BellSouth Services was also 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 (often via MMDS) was provided in limited markets as BellSouth Entertainment (as part of the Americast venture). 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. 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 Inc. 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〔(yellowpages.com )〕 (formerly RealPages.com and SmartPages.com). BellSouth licensed its trademark to US Electronics, which produced telephones under the BellSouth brand. It also maintains a history sub-page at bellsouth.com/servicemarks which displays its former and recent BellSouth logo usage. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「BellSouth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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