BellSouth Corp. reports one out of three small businesses in Georgia and Louisiana use the phone company as their long distance provider one year after the company entered the market.
Georgia and Louisiana mark the first two states in BellSouth’s nine-state territory where state and federal regulators said the phone giant had opened its local network to competition.
Rex Adams, president of BellSouth Long Distance Services, said Tuesday he is pleased with his company’s market penetration among business and residential customers.
Adams says BellSouth has achieved notable gains in Georgia and Louisiana among businesses that need to connect multiple locations. He named retail banking, grocery store chains, clothing department stores and franchises.
In the residential market, Adams says he also is satisfied with BellSouth’s growing market share. BellSouth reports that 18.5 percent of local phone customers have signed up for long distance.
“I guess the surprise about that … is the success of unlimited long distance,” he says.
BellSouth sells an unlimited local and long distance plan called Unlimited Answers for $54.99. That includes 20 local calling features, such as voice mail and caller ID.
BellSouth does not break out how many customers signed up for Unlimited Answers, but the company reports 1.6 million customers had purchased some type of bundled package by the end of the first quarter.
In Georgia, where BellSouth is headquartered, the company sells unlimited local and long-distance phone service, high-speed Internet access and wireless service, including 350 anytime minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes, for $139.93.
BellSouth, which was the first regional Bell operating company to receive long-distance authority throughout its local phone territory, projects $500 million in long-distance revenue for the year.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 blocked the Bell companies from providing long-distance services in their territories until they opened their local networks to competition.
Last December BellSouth received long-distance approval in Florida and Tennessee, the final states where it was granted clearance to provide customers long-distance services throughout its local region: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
