Bellsouth Deal Revised

BellSouth, the nation’s largest regional Bell operating company, restructured a partnership deal with Prime Cable on Thursday to meet Justice Department objections that it might reduce competition in the cable television market.

The restructuring, announced by the department’s antitrust division, would prohibit BellSouth Corp. from acquiring cable television systems in areas where it provides telephone service.

As originally proposed, the government said the partnership would have kept the two companies from competing against each other and would have given BellSouth control over both video and telephone lines into people’s homes.