Telco Wars: Southern Belle Has Strong Arms

BellSouth is telling builders that it may choose not to outfit a housing development for phone service if the builder signs an exclusive deal with a rival for video and high- speed data. "These types of arrangements with alternate communications providers or infrastructure providers may affect BellSouth’s provision of service to the developments," it wrote in a letter to a southern US condominium builder. The condo builder signed a deal with a local cable operator. Cfax obtained a copy of the letter. In the missive, BellSouth wrote it would provide voice service because of the amount of provisioning work it completed before it learned of an exclusive deal with the cable operator. But an official warned it might not do the same again. "Several state regulatory commissions and legislative bodies in BellSouth’s region are redefining the existing carrier of last resort obligations, as they apply to carriers when exclusive communication package agreements are signed with other providers," a BellSouth official said when we called. "We recommend any developer considering such an agreement fully research the current rules and laws to insure they understand how they might impact their homeowners’ or tenants’ choices for service." BellSouth is pursuing IPTV deals with multifamily communities, having inked its 1st commercial IP deal for launch by mid-’07 (Cfax, 6/2).