ATLANTA-BellSouth Corp. reported a first-quarter drop of 11 percent in net income but was redeemed by the success of its joint venture, Cingular Wireless.
The company’s net income was $891 million, down 11 percent from $1 billion during last year’s first quarter. But, BellSouth’s first-quarter revenues hit $7.2 billion, up 10.5 percent from the year-ago quarter, when adjusted to include its 40-percent share of Cingular. The company also reported earnings of 52 cents per share. BellSouth said that as of March 31, Cingular had 20.5 million cellular and personal communications services customers, and an annual growth rate of 18.7 percent. Revenues totaled $1.3 billion during the quarter, a 38.8-percent increase from last year.
