Formed after the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was forced to break up its regional companies, Bellsouth is based in Atlanta. Strangely enough, it is also the only one of those companies left that uses an actual bell symbol in its company logo. Bellsouth is a combination of Southern Bell and South Central Bell and provides services to 9 southern states in the eastern United States

In the 1990's, when mergers were the name of the game, this company took a pass. Still serving the same states they did when they were first peeled out from under the AT& T umbrella, they have gone from the largest of the bells to one of the smallest. In 2004, in fact, their revenue was only about $28 billion.

In order to provide many of the services this company does to its customers, they operate a number of other smaller companies. For instance Bellsouth Telecommunications provides local phone, while Bellsouth is a provider of internet service. Long distance comes to the region via Bellsouth Long Distance and Bellsouth international provides international operations. Cell phone services are provided by Cingular Wireless, which also provides other wireless services to customers. Bellsouth also operates a number of other companies to bring all of their advertised services to the customers. It is important to note, though, that all of this is held under the corporate name of The BellSouth Corporation.

BellSouth does not own all of the companies alone. For instance, Cingular Wireless is jointly owned by this company and AT&T. In addition, the same two companies together co-own yellowpages, which used to be RealPages and SmartPages. These partnerships and individual company ownership allows this company to be the important company that it is today.

BellSouth was founded in 1984. They are a publicly traded company chaired by F. Duane Akcerman, who also operates as the company's Chief Operating Officer (CEO). As of recent years, This company has begun to concentrate on the areas of wireless and broadband service. The joint, 40% venture with AT&T to put together Cingular provides a big part of the revenue of the company. The company's strategy keys on the increase of broadband use among the general public. Their main competition comes from companies such as Spring, MCI, Qwest, and Vorizen wireless.

All of the move toward wireless is a move to save the future of the bell south company. This company, like many phone companies, continues to lose home phone customers on a regular basis. With internet voice protocol and cell phone use up, home phone use is down and many of the old bell companies are feeling the heat. Bellsouth remains committed to the wireless and broadband industries so that in the coming communications wars they don't get left out in the cold.