EXHIBIT 99.1

NEWS RELEASE                                  EASTERLY
                                              INVESTOR RELATIONS
==============================================================================

                            Contacts:   For:  Crown Castle International Corp.
                                              Ken Dennard, Easterly Investor
                                              Relations
                                              kdennard@easterly.com
                                              713-529-6600
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                        For:  BellSouth Corporation
                                              Jeff Battcher
                                              404-713-0274

                    CROWN CASTLE AND BELLSOUTH PARTNER AGAIN
                 FOR MORE TOWER INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION

                   New Pact Includes 773 Towers, $317 Million

 HOUSTON and ATLANTA - JULY 12, 1999 - Crown Castle International Corp. (NASDAQ:
TWRS) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS) affiliates: BellSouth Carolinas PCS,
L.P., and BellSouth Personal Communications, Inc., have reached a preliminary
agreement, subject to BellSouth's board approval and, with respect to certain
assets, the consents of certain BellSouth partners, for BellSouth to sublease
through a master sublease agreement all unused space on its 773 personal
communications services (PCS) towers to Crown Castle for $317 million in cash.
In addition, Crown Castle and BellSouth's affiliates have agreed to enter into a
new exclusive three-year build-to-suit agreement.

   With this transaction, Crown Castle will be responsible for managing,
maintaining and leasing the available space on BellSouth's 773 PCS towers
located in North Carolina, South Carolina, east Tennessee, and parts of Georgia.
Crown Castle will also help BellSouth keep up with infrastructure demand for its
wireless service network through exclusive construction of its build-to-suit
towers.  While Crown Castle will have complete responsibility for the towers and
their monitoring and maintenance, BellSouth will continue to fully own its
communications components including transmitters, receivers, switching
equipment, etc.  BellSouth will pay a fee of $1,200 per month to Crown Castle
for its services with respect to BellSouth's retained space on existing and
build-to-suit towers.

   "We are proud to have been chosen by BellSouth to manage, operate and lease-
up its digital PCS tower footprint and construct their new builds going
forward," stated Ted B. Miller, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Crown Castle
International.  "These clustered assets are prime properties in excellent growth
markets and have no overlap with our earlier BellSouth transaction that involved
over 1,850 tower sites. Additionally, these assets currently average
approximately two tenants per tower, generating significant cashflow
immediately. These towers are also relatively new and 85 percent are over 150
feet tall, ideally positioned for co-location and lease-up."


   "We have again chosen Crown Castle based on their overall competitive bid and
their existing operational expertise, allowing us to quickly close this deal,"
said Ed Reynolds, president of BellSouth Mobility DCS.  "While our towers were
bid upon by the major participants in the tower sector, pricing was not the
differentiating factor and Crown Castle did not offer the highest `per tower'
bid.  We chose Crown Castle based on our belief that they are the premier
outsourcing partner in the tower business."

   Crown Castle will provide a full array of services for BellSouth's existing
and build-to-suit towers including marketing, securing all the necessary
clearances, site location, procurement, tower design, construction, installation
and maintenance.

   The deal is expected to close by December 31, 1999.

   BellSouth is a $23 billion communications services company. It provides
telecommunications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV, directory
advertising and publishing, and Internet and data services to more than 34
million customers in 19 countries worldwide.  For more information visit:
www.bellsouth.com.
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   Crown Castle International Corp. is a leading provider of communication sites
and wireless network services and provides an array of related infrastructure
and network support services to the wireless communications and radio and
television broadcasting industries in the United States and United Kingdom. Pro
forma for all closed and previously announced transactions, Crown Castle
International owns, operates and manages over 7,000 wireless communication
towers internationally. For more information on Crown Castle International,
visit: www.crowncastle.com.
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   This press release contains various forward-looking statements and
information that are based on Crown Castle International management's belief as
well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-
looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such
expectations will prove to have been correct.  Such statements are subject to
certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions.  Should one or more of these risks
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results
may vary materially from those expected.

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