In Brief: BellSouth denies having NSA contract

Atlanta-based BellSouth denied that it has a contract with the U.S. National Security Agency to provide customer calling information.

"As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," the carrier said in a news release.

It concluded that "BellSouth has built a successful business because of the trust that our customers have placed with us. We will continue to take our obligations to our customers seriously."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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