A federal judge this week consented to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit involving 10 tennessee 911 districts suing BellSouth for unpaid fees over years of service. On August 20, 2012, Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier upheld in part and dismissed in part the lengthy lawsuit, which allows the case to move forward. Collier denied the phone company's attorneys request to dismiss claims made by the districts early in the process. Attorneys Tom Greenholtz and Frederick Hitchcock simultaneously sought a summary judgment from Collier, which he denied. All 10 cases have been consolidated into one involving the 911 districts for Hamilton, Blount, Bedford, Bradley, Coffee, Cheatham, Giles, Roane, Franklin and Knox counties. The lawsuit alleges that BellSouth did not collect legally-required remittance fees which phone service providers are to pass along to fund 911 operations.

BellSouth Corporation reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in contract negotiations. Additionally, AT&T reached on tentative agreements with the CWA on two other smaller Southeast regional agreements covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations. Paperwork is being finalized. All three agreements will be submitted to the union's membership for a ratification vote, and collectively cover more than 22,000 wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The three-year agreements include wage increases in each year and modest pension increases. The agreements come on the heels of tentative agreements AT&T reached on July 21 in contract negotiations for the AT&T Midwest region and AT&T Corp., where contracts expired on April 7.

AT&T Inc. and its unit BellSouth Corp. on May 29 provided an irrevocable notice to Bank of New York Mellon to redeem AT&T's 4.95% notes due Jan. 15, 2013, and 6.70% notes due Nov. 15, 2013. BellSouth is redeeming 4.75% notes due Nov. 15, 2012. The redemption date for each issue will be June 29, 2012, and the redemption amount for each issue will be determined on June 26, 2012. AT&T expects the aggregate cash payment of approximately $5.07 billion, including principal of $4.8 billion, accrued interest of $73 million and a call premium of $196 million, partially offset by a gain of $72 million resulting from the settlement of interest rate swaps on this debt. The redemptions are expected to be funded by cash on hand and commercial paper.