BellSouth on Thursday launched a sweepstakes to promote its 411 Nationwide product and is giving away a Pontiac Solstice sports car and subscriptions to FastAccess DSL service.

AT&T, which recently completed a merger with SBC Communications, announced Monday a $67 billion deal to purchase BellSouth, in an all-stock transaction.

The Georgia Public Service Commission has delayed the implementation of the new 762 area code in north Georgia by six months.

BellSouth announced Monday that it would offer a same-day repair guarantee for its FastAccess Business DSL customers. Under the terms of the new guarantee, business customers who report trouble with their DSL connection by noon and accept the first repair appointment offered are guaranteed a same-day repair.

Telephone subscribers in northern Georgia now have less than three months to prepare for the introduction of the new 762 area code.

BellSouth on Monday announced it would lower the price of its FastAccess DSL Xtreme service, which provides up to 3Mbps downstream speed and up to 384Kbps upstream speed, from $42.95 per month to $37.95 per month.

BellSouth said that it hasn’t heard from 49,000 customers in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes after Hurricane Katrina.

BellSouth is replacing damaged copper cables in New Orleans with fiber-optic cables, even though the replacement work will mean that many customers could be without telephone service for several months.

Back in 1898, Congress passed a levy of one cent per telephone call to help raise money to fund the Spanish-American War. The tax, while temporary, has been on-again, off-again throughout the years, and was reinstated in 1990. Now it is three percent (3%) of your overall telephone bill. And some people are refusing to pay it.

BellSouth and 8×8 Inc. have reached an agreement to provide Voice over Internet Protocol services under the BellSouth brand name.