BellSouth launches bundled offering

BellSouth today launched “BellSouth Answers,” a bundled service offering that combines local, long-distance, wireless and Internet–either dial-up or DSL, depending on customer preference–on one bill.

A customer-education program featuring print advertisements throughout BellSouth’s nine-state territory will begin in about a week. Customers opting for BellSouth Answers would receive a bundled bill for the next applicable billing cycle.

The bundled offering will include long-distance only in Georgia and Louisiana, where the FCC has approved the carrier’s provisioning of interLATA service. BellSouth will provide additional wireless minutes to compensate customers in its other seven states where long-distance service isn’t yet available.

“Pre-designed introductory” packages start at $60 per month, with costs varying by state and by the number of services selected. Four core packages designed to meet the majority of customers needs as defined by market research are being offered, but customized packages are also available.

The average BellSouth Answers customer would realize savings of about 10% compared to purchasing services individually, though some customers would realize greater savings depending on the services selected, said Robert McFarland, senior marketing manager of offer development.

While BellSouth has bundled some of its products for several years, according to Chad Lilly, manager of the carrier’s competitive response assessment group, the timing wasn’t right for a comprehensive strategy – until now.

“Customers are more comfortable now with the concept of getting all of their services from one provider at one price. They’re not as concerned with sticker shock,” Lilly said.

One thing they’re not comfortable with is billing problems. Though the back office – specifically billing– continues to be a major headache for many carriers and has thwarted several previous efforts to offer single bills, BellSouth believes it has taken the necessary measures to make sure its new bundled strategy comes off without a hitch, said Bjorn Leigvold, director of strategy for consumer services.

“We’ve made significant investment in our systems and back office across our different affiliates over several years,” Leigvold said. “Though it does require a lot of work, we will be able to pull everything together on one bill, and do it seamlessly.”

The ability to keep the operation transparent to the customer depends on how well BellSouth’s corporate marketing team, which designed the bundles, and the carrier’s affiliates, which will provide the services, communicate with each other.

So far, so good, said Sonja Allen, manager of consumer sales operations. “We send them particular information that determines what services a customer is eligible to receive, and they’ve been able to quickly and efficiently confirm that information,” she said.

-- Glenn Bischoff