BellSouth sale of Chile Ops

Bellsouth Corp
07 January 2005


More information
Brent Fowler
BellSouth Media Relations
404-249-2839
[e-mail]




   BellSouth and Telefonica Moviles Complete Transfer of Operations in Chile


             -- Brings total operations transferred to nine --


ATLANTA - January 7, 2005  - BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS) and Telefonica
Moviles S.A. (NYSE: TEM), the wireless affiliate of Telefonica, S.A. (NYSE:
TEF), announced today that the two companies have completed the transfer of
BellSouth's wireless operations ownership interest in Chile. Telefonica Moviles
has taken control of the operations of this property, effective immediately.

BellSouth will receive $406 million for its interest in the Chilean property and
will recognize an after-tax gain of approximately $55 to 65 million, or
approximately .03 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2005.

The two companies announced in March 2004 that they had reached a definitive
agreement for BellSouth to sell its interests in 10 Latin American operations to
Telefonica Moviles. The agreement provided a purchase price based on total
enterprise value of $5.85 billion.  As previously announced, BellSouth sold its
interest in the operations in Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama on October 14, 2004
and Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela on October 28, 2004.



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 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(R), 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(R) and The Real Yellow Pages(R).

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


In addition to historical information, this document may contain forward-looking
statements regarding events and financial trends. Factors that could affect
future results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include: (i) a change in
economic conditions in domestic or international markets where we operate or
have material investments which would affect demand for our services; (ii)
currency devaluations and continued economic weakness in certain international
markets in which we operate or have material investments; (iii) the intensity of
competitive activity and its resulting impact on pricing strategies and new
product offerings; (iv) higher than anticipated cash requirements for
investments, new business initiatives and acquisitions; (v) unfavorable
regulatory actions and (vi) those factors contained in the Company's periodic
reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking information in this document is
given as of this date only, and, BellSouth assumes no duty to update this
information.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange