BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC is an operating company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. It consists of the former operations of Southern Bell and South Central Bell. BellSouth Telecommunications is a subsidiary of BellSouth Corporation which was acquired by AT&T Inc. on December 29, 2006; it continues as an indirect subsidiary of AT&T as a direct subsidiary of BellSouth. BellSouth Telecommunications/AT&T Southeast regional headquarters are located in the AT&T Midtown Center building in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth Corporation's headquarters were located in the Campanile building in Atlanta.
History
BellSouth Telecommunications was formed in 1983 as SBT&T Co.. Incorporated in Georgia in 1983, it replaced the original Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company that was incorporated in New York in 1879. SBT&T Co. and Southern Bell merged on December 31, 1983, and the merged company took the Southern Bell name.
BellSouth Services, Inc. was the name of the shared service company formed to provide common functions such as engineering and information technology across the nine state Southern Bell and South Central Bell operating region. The division was headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama in what is now the AT&T Colonnade North and South buildings.
Operating company merger
On January 1, 1992, BellSouth merged South Central Bell and BellSouth Services into Southern Bell, creating a single operating company which was renamed BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., one year after U S WEST had done the same by merging its operations into Mountain Bell which was renamed U S WEST Communications. The merger reconstituted the size of the original Southern Bell before the South Central Bell split-off. BellSouth Telecommunications continued to do business as Southern Bell and South Central Bell until 1995, when corporate name BellSouth was used.
Acquisition
On March 5, 2006, AT&T announced its intentions to acquire BellSouth Corporation, and on December 29, 2006 BellSouth Telecommunications became an operating company of AT&T The merger also consolidated the ownership of Cingular Wireless, which became AT&T Mobility. BellSouth Telecommunications ceased doing business under the BellSouth name on June 30, 2007. It now does business under the following names:
