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BellSouth says can compete with Verizon, SBC CHICAGO (Reuters) - BellSouth Corp. (BLS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the No. 3 U.S. local telephone company, will compete for large business clients against Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and SBC Communications Inc. (SBC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) by working with independent network operators, its chief technical officer said on Wednesday. SBC and Verizon, the two largest U.S. telecommunications companies, are buying AT&T Corp. (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and MCI Inc. (MCIP.O: Quote, Profile, Research) respectively to bolster their business with large corporations. Those customers typically require services at hundreds of offices, as well as nationwide or international networks. Bill Smith, BellSouth's chief technical officer, said the company could still compete after the mergers through partnerships with independent long-haul network operators such as Sprint Corp. (FON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) "If you look at that enterprise market, prices are falling pretty quickly," Smith told Reuters in an interview in Chicago. "I think by working with partners we can be very competitive against people who are trying to manage the revenue decline of the business they just bought." Smith said even after the merger, the largest players would have to rent some network access from other companies to serve their corporate clients. "We think we can still have a play in the enterprise market...Do we think we can go head-to-head against Verizon and SBC and win nine out of 10? Probably not," Smith said. "We do think (by) working with other carriers we can have a compelling price proposition." Both the $16 billion SBC-AT&T deal and the $8.5 billion Verizon-MCI deal could close as early as the end of this year. BellSouth shares have outperformed SBC and Verizon's this year, thanks in large part to the company's lack of merger activity and less-aggressive capital spending on future network upgrades. The stock was up 8 cents at $26.84 on the New York Stock Exchange. Atlanta, Georgia-based BellSouth has set a longer time frame for upgrading its residential network for high-speed data services, and has not committed to building its own video service as SBC and Verizon have. Smith said BellSouth's tests of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Internet-based video system were going well, but the company wanted to ensure the business case for the service before committing to a roll-out. "I'm optimistic that this is going to be something that will help us solve the video equation," Smith said.
http://www.microsite.reuters.com
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