WASHINGTON -- As a result of a 4-0 vote today by the Federal Communications Commission, BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) has become the first regional Bell to have all of its states approved to offer long-distance services. In an order released earlier today, the FCC today approved the company's application to offer long-distance telephone service to its business and residential customers in Florida and Tennessee.

These two states represent approximately 9.4 million of BellSouth's phone lines, about 38% of the company's network lines. The FCC granted approval of an application for Georgia and Louisiana in May of this year, and then approved a 5-state filing covering Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina this past September. This approval closes out BellSouth's application process with federal regulators now that approval has been granted for all nine states in BellSouth's serving territory.

"This is a watershed day for BellSouth and our customers as it represents almost seven years of hard work by our dedicated staff in proving that our markets are open to competition. We are pleased that the Federal Communications Commission has again affirmed this," said BellSouth Chairman and CEO Duane Ackerman. "We will launch our long-distance offerings in Florida and Tennessee on Monday, December 30 with calling plans and other long-distance services that residence and business customers in our other states have found to meet their long-distance calling needs at rates that are competitive with other providers in the marketplace."

BellSouth Corp.