Verizon on Tuesday joined BellSouth in denying that it had shared customer phone call information with the National Security Agency.

A USA Today story said last week that Verizon, BellSouth and AT&T had all provided information to the NSA.

BellSouth issued a statement on Monday denying any involvement.

“As the President has made clear, the NSA program he acknowledged authorizing against al-Qaeda is highly classified. Verizon cannot and will not comment on the program. Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to it,” Verizon said in a statement.

“That said, media reports made claims about Verizon that are simply false.

“One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

“This is false.”

No business unit provided information, Verizon said. However, the company did not address the issue of whether MCI, which it recently absorbed through merger, provided data.

Verizon also denied that it tracked local calls.

BellSouth made similar remarks on Monday.

“Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA,” the company said in a statement.

The complete statement issued Monday evening reads as follows:

“There has been much speculation in the last several days about the role that BellSouth may have played in efforts by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governmental agencies to keep our nation safe.

“As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the Company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.

“BellSouth has built a successful business because of the trust that our customers have placed with us. We will continue to take our obligations to our customers seriously.”