HispanicBusiness

ATLANTA, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- AMBER Alerts distributed throughout the Southeast will now have even more eyes in helping to search for abducted children, thanks to the expansion of a BellSouth effort supporting the alerts.

BellSouth announced today the BellSouth(R) Internet Services home page at http://home.bellsouth.net/ will list AMBER Alerts on the Web after the alerts are sent from regional law enforcement agencies throughout the nine BellSouth states in the Southeast. The Southeast alerts will be posted 24 hours a day seven days a week in the "Today's Guide" section near the top of the home page where they are highly visible to all Internet users.

"This is an important expansion of a public-private alliance that benefits the people we serve across the Southeast," said Rod Odom, president, BellSouth Network Services.

"We started by using our technology to bring the alerts to our technicians and have added capabilities so that we're now able to bring the alerts to the Web at any time of the day or night," Odom said.

BellSouth launched its program in March 2003 as a new alliance with law enforcement agencies in its nine-state region. These agencies distribute the AMBER Alerts to television and radio stations through the Emergency Alert System, which in turn broadcasts the urgent bulletins to the public.

The law enforcement agencies also send the alerts directly to BellSouth in e-mails, which are in turn distributed to BellSouth's 14,000 field technicians via their dispatch communications system and to other employees on the BellSouth intranet during business hours each day.

On the BellSouth Internet service home page, follow-up alerts and cancellations for the Southeast states also will be archived. To access the link, Internet users can go to the "Channels" menu on the left side of the home page and click on "News" then "U.S." The BellSouth AMBER Alert link is on the right side of the U.S. News page. The nine states in the Southeast include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created in 1997 after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl, was kidnapped and murdered in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. As a result of that tragedy, area broadcasters and law enforcement agencies developed the early warning system to help find abducted children.

Since the inception of BellSouth's program almost three years ago, 87 alerts have been distributed through its system. BellSouth employees have not been involved directly in the recovery of any child mentioned in the alerts, yet during this period, all children subject of the alerts have been recovered safely with rare exception.

Missing children experts say programs like that at BellSouth serve as deterrents to abductions because of the heightened awareness and community involvement in response to the alerts.

BellSouth has worked with several other companies in the communications industry to expand AMBER Alert even further. For example, in the fall of 2003, Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between BellSouth and AT&T Inc., formerly SBC Communications Inc., began sending AMBER Alerts to their technicians in the Southeast.

Last May, Cingular and other wireless companies joined with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to distribute alerts to customers who request notification of an abducted child in their area. Wireless customers capable of receiving text messages can visit http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/ or http://www.cingular.com/AMBERalerts to sign up to receive the geographically specified alerts for up to five zip codes. When an alert is issued, customers receive a text message with pertinent details about the missing child and contact information for reporting a sighting.

About BellSouth Corporation

BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth has joint control and 40 percent ownership of Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest wireless voice and data provider with 54.1 million customers.

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 print and online directory advertising through The Real Yellow Pages(R) and YELLOWPAGES.COM(TM) from BellSouth(R).

BellSouth believes that diversity and fostering an inclusive environment are critical in maintaining a competitive advantage in today's global marketplace. More information about BellSouth can be found at http://www.bellsouth.com/.

First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact: BellSouth Corporation

Web site: http://home.bellsouth.net/http://www.bellsouth.com/http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/http://www.cingular.com/AMBERalerts