BellSouth Ready to Keep Customers Connected if Hurricane Frances Comes Calling Key BellSouth tips to remember during hurricanes; COLUMBIA, S.C., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Having recently withstood the winds and rains of Tropical Storm Gaston and Hurricane Charley in Charleston, BellSouth's network throughout South Carolina is ready to face the threat of Hurricane Frances. With its network design of fiber optics, underground cables and redundant routing, back-up power generators on hand, and repair crews on standby; BellSouth is ready to deliver the reliable service customers depend upon. "Years of dealing with hurricanes and other severe weather have helped us earn a reputation for reliability that is second to none," said Harry Lightsey, president of BellSouth in South Carolina. "Even though the telecommunications industry is dramatically changing and competition is everywhere, the one constant is our employees' dedication to disaster readiness and maintenance of the BellSouth network. Our customers have learned that BellSouth's network is resilient and reliable. We are as ready as ever to maintain the excellent service they've learned to count on." The first major threat to telecommunications services during and after a storm is an electrical power outage that could cut off service for telecommunications switching offices and area distribution facilities. To prevent such interruption of service, BellSouth provides immediate back-up through batteries followed by electric power provided by diesel-powered electric generators. Additionally, trees toppling in rain-soaked soil may bring down aerial telephone cables. Should this occur, BellSouth crews are on call to begin repairs as soon as safety permits. "BellSouth has a significant amount of underground, fiber optic cable that is much less susceptible to damage from wind, rain and debris," Lightsey said. "We also have many redundant or alternate network paths we use to deliver voice, data and Internet communications. This greatly reduces the number of customer outages we experience from a storm." Key BellSouth tips to remember during hurricanes and other major storms: - Use your phone for necessary calls only, leaving lines open for emergency calls. - As calling volumes increase, customers may experience a slow dial tone. If you don't hear a dial tone immediately when you pick up your phone, wait a few seconds and you should get one. If not, hang up and try your call later. - During a power outage, your phone line may be inoperable if your cordless phone, caller ID unit or other telephone equipment requires external power. Plug a non-electrical telephone directly into a phone jack to verify if you have service. - For customers and the news media, BellSouth has compiled a list of emergency contact information on its website at http://www.bellsouthcorp.com/emergency . This information can be downloaded in advance for use as reference. During a hurricane or other severe storm, BellSouth will update the site with status information on the BellSouth network. - The front section of The Real Yellow Pages provides many helpful hints, telephone numbers to call for repair service, information for customers with disabilities and more. - If you have a question but cannot find the answer in The Real Yellow Pages, call the number listed for residential or business services depending on your need. BellSouth services that may be helpful during a hurricane - BellSouth's CrisisLink(SM) service for businesses can designate alternate routing of voice, data and video communications in the event normal business operations at the usual locations are interrupted. For example, if a major storm causes authorities to evacuate a community where a business is located, a pre-established CrisisLink plan would allow the business to reroute calls to another location. CrisisLink service can also give a business the capability to place test calls during or after a crisis to check the status of the business' regular service or location before returning it to normal operations. And the service can provide a customer with reports on the number of lines affected during a crisis, the number of calls rerouted and downtime experienced. - Remote Access to Call Forwarding allows customers to activate or deactivate Call Forwarding from any telephone equipped with touch-tone. - Call Forwarding Don't Answer automatically routes calls that are not answered within a designated number of rings to another pre-selected telephone number. - Call Forwarding Busy Line service automatically routes calls to another pre-selected telephone number when the line is busy. Instead of the caller getting a busy signal, the call is routed to the secondary number. - Memory Call(SM) answering service provides for your calls to be answered and allows the caller to leave a message when you are unable to answer your telephone. You can retrieve the messages from any touch- tone telephone. BellSouth tips for identifying possible service problems For customers who experience a service problem, the following questions will help them isolate, and perhaps resolve immediately, the problem. - Using a cordless phone? In the event of a commercial power outage, cordless phones will not work. Use a traditional corded telephone. - Dial tone on one of your phones but not all? Chances are the problem is in the phone itself. Unplug it from the network. - Noise or static on the line? Try disconnecting all of your telephones and related equipment (answering machines, computers, FAX, caller-ID devices, etc.) and waiting at least one minute. Then, reconnect your telephones one at a time to see if the trouble still exists. Check for dial tone as you plug in each one. If the problem stops, it is most likely associated with a specific telephone or related equipment. If static returns once you have reconnected a telephone device, the problem is most likely associated with that item of equipment or the cord attached to that equipment. - Can't receive telephone calls even though you have dial tone? It is possible that Call forwarding has been activated on your telephone. Try dialing *73 (or 1173 from a rotary dial telephone) to disable this feature. - Can't make long distance telephone call? For trouble completing long distance calls, please call 1-700-555-4141 from the line where the trouble occurs or call your chosen long distance carrier for additional support. If your chosen carrier is BellSouth Long Distance, call 1-888-REPAIR8. Residence customers who need to report a problem with their BellSouth service should call 611 from their home phone. If calling form a wireless phone, anon-BellSouth telephone number, or from outside South Carolina, residence customers should call 1-800-642-0544. Business customers should call 1-866-620-6900 from their business or 1-800-252-0803, if calling from a cellular phone. About BellSouth Corporation BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and a parent company of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless voice and data provider. Backed by award winning customer service, BellSouth offers the most comprehensive and innovative package of voice and data services available in the market. Through BellSouth Answers(SM), residential and small business customers can bundle their local and long distance service with dial up and high speed DSL Internet access, satellite television and Cingular(R) Wireless service. For businesses, BellSouth provides secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also offers online and directory advertising through BellSouth(R) RealPages.com(SM) and The Real Yellow Pages(R). More information about BellSouth can be found at http://www.bellsouth.com/ . DATASOURCE: BellSouth Corporation CONTACT: Marcia Purday, APR of BellSouth Corporation, +1-803-401-2228 Web site: http://www.bellsouth.com/ http://www.bellsouthcorp.com/emergency Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/095650.html

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