BellSouth would "absolutely" cooperate with investigators

I had a great conversation yesterday with Joan Duncan, who works in the Kentucky legislative and regulatory office of BellSouth. She left me three messages on Tuesday to call her. Like Jeff Battcher, the VP for corporate communications, Ms. Duncan stepped away from the prepared BellSouth script and categorically denied that BellSouth had shared any information with any government agency. She said the company was "devastated" by these accusations, as they have built their corporate success on their reputation and customer goodwill. I told her I was sincerely impressed by the outpouring of response I'd received from BellSouth and that I was pleased that they were speaking in broader terms than the original public statement.

"It sounds like what needs to happen now is a broad investigation by the Public Services Commission to verify what you're saying," I said. "I'm sure BellSouth would want to cooperate with such an investigation in order to clear your name?"

"Absolutely," Ms. Duncan said. "We work with those folks on a regular basis and we'd welcome the chance to confirm our version of what happened."