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States probing BellSouth
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August 31, 2001: 7:25 a.m. ET
Report says regulators in three states eye efforts to win back customers
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - BellSouth Corp. is being investigated by three states and Florida's attorney general for alleged anti-competitive behavior, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal said Friday that regulators in Florida, Georgia and Alabama are probing BellSouth's campaign to win back former customers who switched to an upstart local phone service.
The paper said Georgia regulators in late July issued a three-month order requiring BellSouth to wait seven days after customers have switched service in order to solicit them. The paper says BellSouth is offering customers discounts as deep as 20 percent if they return and sign a three-year contract.
Georgia and Florida regulators also are investigating charges that BellSouth is disparaging rivals by telling customers the upstart phone companies are about to go out of business and that they offer poor service, even though BellSouth is providing the service itself through its wholesale business unit.
The complaints come as the so-called Baby Bells, which won the franchise to offer local phone service when AT&T was split up, are seeking permission from regulators to offer long distance service by proving that they have opened their local phone networks to competitors.
A BellSouth spokeswoman told the Journal there had been some problems with the programs to win back customers and that it has suspended those efforts in Georgia and Florida. But it says the problems were due to a telemarketing firm the company had hired and that the problems were being addressed.
Shares of BellSouth (BLS: Research, Estimates) gained 31 cents to $38.11 in trading Thursday. 
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BellSouth
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