BellSouth Corp. announced Wednesday receiving federal approval to provide long-distance telephone service in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The Atlanta-based company said the five states represent 35 percent of its phone lines.
The FCC granted the Bell company long distance approval in Georgia and Louisiana in May.
BellSouth will begin marketing long-distance service in the five states in which it just received approval beginning this month. The company also said Wednesday it plans to seek authorization to provide long-distance service in Florida and Tennessee “in the very near future.”
“We will be in the marketplace in these five states on Sept. 27 with the competitive long-distance offers and packages our customers want,” said BellSouth Chairman and CEO Duane Ackerman, in a statement released Wednesday. “With the successful launch of our long-distance services in Georgia and Louisiana earlier this year, and with this five-state decision today, over 60 percent of our customer base can now choose BellSouth as its long-distance provider.”
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, BellSouth had to show state and federal regulators its local network is open to competition before it could receive approval to provide long-distance service within its nine-state local territory. Ackerman said the company is on track to obtain long-distance approval in its entire region by the end of the year.
