South Central Bell Telephone Company, headquartered in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, was the name of the Bell System's operations in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. South Central Bell was created in July 1968 when the Bell telephone operations in those states were split off from

Southern Bell Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was once the regional Bell Operating Company serving the states of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina prior to the breakup of AT&T. It also covered the states of Alabama, Kentuc ...

. South Central Bell was headquartered in (what is now) the

AT&T City Center The AT&T City Center is a 30-story, 390 foot (119 m) office building in Birmingham, Alabama. Completed in 1972, the building was originally known as the South Central Bell Building and was the corporate headquarters for South Central Bell and its ...

building in

. In 1984, South Central Bell became a subsidiary of

BellSouth Corporation BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

, effectively reuniting South Central Bell with Southern Bell. The two companies were officially reunited in 1992 when Southern Bell absorbed South Central Bell as

BellSouth Telecommunications BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC was an operating company of AT&T that served the southeastern United States. It consisted of the operations of Southern Bell and South Central Bell. BellSouth Telecommunications was a subsidiary of BellSout ...

. The two names were used, however, until 1995.

See also