MIAMI, FL -- BellSouth Corporation is honored to be selected as National Corporation of the Year by the Florida Regional Minority Business Council. The presentation, at FRMBC's 29th Annual Awards Gala on Friday, Sept. 17, cited BellSouth for its leadership in providing business and developmental opportunities for minority-owned firms in South Florida.

"We at BellSouth are proud to have FRMBC - one of the premier organizations of minority business enterprises in the Southeast - recognize our long-standing commitment to including minority suppliers in all areas of procurement within our company," said Joe Lacher, president of Florida operations. "In the past four years, BellSouth has spent more than $2 billion with diverse suppliers."

BellSouth has an active supplier diversity program and works constantly to expand participation by minority-, woman-, and disabled veteran-owned firms. Earlier this year, BellSouth announced that it had met - and exceeded - the 1999 SUPERCOMM Supplier Diversity Challenge. The SUPERCOMM Challenge had set a goal for the telecommunications industry to increase its business with diversity suppliers to least 10 percent of total procurement by 2003.

The company is consistently recognized in its region as a champion of minority business development. The Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council has given BellSouth its prestigious Crystal Award twice in the last three years and also honored key leaders in the procurement organization. The South Regions Minority Business Council presented BellSouth with its Crystal Award and Executive of the Year award in 2003.

Nationally, BellSouth has been named for the past two years to DiversityBusiness.com's Div 50 listing of top corporations for multicultural business opportunities. For five consecutive years, BellSouth has ranked first on the NAACP's telecommunications industry report card, with supplier diversity performance being an increasingly significant differentiating factor.

The FRMBC is a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting business development opportunities for minority owned businesses. FRMBC is an affiliate member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, a network of more than 3,500 corporations and 15,000 certified minority businesses. For more information on the FRMBC, visit http://www.frmbc.org.

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®, 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® 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® RealPages.com® and The Real Yellow Pages®.

More information about BellSouth can be found at http://www.bellsouth.com.