Bell Atlantic

WASHINGTON -- Bell Atlantic Corp., the No. 2 local telephone company, said yesterday that it has agreed to hire at least 2,000 employees over the next year in a U.S. Labor Department program that also will help cut recruiting costs.The program will place welfare recipients, people with disabilities and other disadvantaged adults in union jobs across the company's 13-state East Coast region, including Maryland. New York-based Bell Atlantic is the largest company to join the Workforce Development System, which supports local and state job placement programs.

Every weekday morning, Fran McDonough gets up and commutes to her job at Bell Atlantic -- walking through the kitchen, down the stairs and into the basement where she turns on her computer."

NEW YORK -- Bell Atlantic Corp., the No. 2 U.S. local phone company, said yesterday that third-quarter profit rose 10 percent as sales of data services soared. Profit from operations rose to $1.2 billion, or 76 cents a share, from $1.09 billion, or 69 cents, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 5 percent to $8.3 billion from $7.91 billion. Per-share earnings matched the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. After a charge of $27 million, or 2 cents a share, related to its acquisition of Nynex Corp.

In a move that could lead to major changes in the telephone industry nationwide, Bell Atlantic Corp. filed yesterday for permission to sell long-distance telephone service in New York state.If the Federal Communications Commission grants the company's request, the stage would be set for Bell Atlantic and the other regional local-service phone companies to become major players in the $80 billion national long-distance market.This would cause a furious new round of competition in the industry and put new pressure on current long-distance kings such as AT&T Corp.

The path of an early adopter is not an easy one.Last month, I became one of the first Baltimore City residents to have Bell Atlantic install high-speed Internet access in my home.Getting there was definitely not half the fun.I'm hooked up to an Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), a new technology that's supposed to carry large quantities of data over existing copper telephone wires. In theory, ADSL should allow me to surf the Web at least 10 times faster than with my 56K modem while I chat on the phone at the same time.

Good news, city-dwelling Internet junkies: Affordable high-speed Web access has arrived.Bell Atlantic has quietly started offering its digital subscriber line service, Infospeed DSL, to parts of Baltimore and the surrounding counties. The technology is more than 12 times as fast as the quickest dial-up modems and allows subscribers to surf the Web and chat on the phone at the same time -- all over a standard copper telephone wire.The company plans to officially unveil the service early next month.

I needed the phone number for the hospital in Stroudsburg, Pa. It was 3:30 a.m. My 70-year-old father-in-law, who lives with his 72-year-old wife in a rural area about 10 miles from Stroudsburg, had just left an upsetting message on our answering machine. "I'm taking mommy to the hospital," was all he said, and his voice cracked. Having slept through the rings, I hadn't reached the phone in time to speak with him. When I called back, there was no answer at his house. I knew he'd be going to Stroudsburg.

NEW YORK -- Although some companies, including Bell Atlantic Corp., are improving the racial diversity of their operations, NAACP leaders yesterday criticized major hotel and telecommunications companies of failing to adequately hire, promote and contract with minorities.In all, 13 hotels and 15 telecommunications companies were rated.Alltel Corp. of Little Rock, Ark., was awarded an F, the lowest grade for a telecommunications company.The lowest-ranked hotel chain was Omni Hotels, which received a C."

Prison officials pointed their fingers at Bell Atlantic yesterday for the failure of four alarms to sound an alert to nearby communities when two inmates escaped last month from Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup.Richard Rosenblatt, director of neighboring Patuxent Institution, told legislators that a phone company employee diverted wires from the Jessup complex to the remote alarms while doing maintenance work. He said company representatives had repeatedly assured state officials that such a failure would not occur.

Lockheed will test missile-interceptor system again today Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor, will test its missile-interceptor system today after six consecutive failures, the last of which cost the Bethesda-based company a $15 million penalty. The Theater High-Altitude Area Air Defense System, or Thaad, missile being tested at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., is part of a $4 billion Pentagon program that could rise to $13 billion. The system is designed to destroy short-range ballistic missiles, such as the Scuds Iraq used in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Bell Atlantic asks Mass.