Speaking as someone in your general area who also uses BellSouth FastAccess DSL, I can say that something similar has been happening to me recently. That page sometimes (but not always) comes up when the modem is connecting to the Internet after being disconnected, but I don't think my connection drops that often. (Maybe yours does? I'm not too sure of the particulars of why it'll say my connection has died when the modem lights say it hasn't.) I'm fairly sure it's a problem on my end and not an issue with the service, though.

However, I can say that in the "Please wait 15 seconds" screen, you can actually still type in an address or go to bookmarks without having to wait. You know that you can do this when the "Internet" light turns green on your modem. I'm assuming here that you have the standard-issue Westell modem that BellSouth provides. It has five lights: the first says it's plugged into the wall, the second means it's plugged into your computer with an Ethernet cable, the third says it's connected by a USB cable, the fourth says that it's connected to the phone service, and the bottom that it's actually connected to the Internet. You'll probably see (if yours is like mine) that this last light comes on at the "Please wait 15 seconds message." When that "Internet" light comes on, you can go to websites without having to wait for the screen to say you can. I do this routinely.

At least I think this will be true for you. Good luck.