American telecommunications company
Altafiber, Inc.
, formerly
Cincinnati Bell
,
[3]
is a regional
telecommunications service provider
based in
Cincinnati
,
Ohio
, United States. It provides
landline
telephone,
fiber-optic
Internet, and
IPTV
services through its
subsidiaries
Altafiber Home Phone
and
Hawaiian Telcom
, which are the
incumbent local exchange carriers
for the
Greater Cincinnati
metropolitan area (aka "The Tri-State") and
Hawaii
. Other subsidiaries provide enterprise
information technology
services and
long distance calling
.
Cincinnati Bell was founded in 1873 as a
telegraph
company and for much of its history was a
Bell System
franchisee. In the 1990s, Cincinnati Bell expanded into
Internet access
and
mobile phone
services. The company divested its mobile phone service in 2014 to focus on enterprise and fiber-optic services.
[4]
It was acquired in September 2021 by
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
, and rebranded as Altafiber in March 2022.
[5]
[6]
History
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell was founded as the
City and Suburban Telegraph Association
on July 5, 1873. Founder Charles Kilgour had run the
Cincinnati Street Railway
with his brother John but became homebound after an accident and began running his business from home via
telegraph
. The City and Suburban Telegraph Association ran telegraph lines between homes and businesses beginning in 1873, three years before the invention of the
telephone
. In 1878, it gained exclusive rights to the
Bell
franchise within a 25-mile (40 km) radius of Cincinnati, becoming the first telephone exchange in Ohio and the tenth in the United States. It has substantially the same three-state
incumbent local exchange carrier
territory today. On August 21, 1877, it signed its first telephone customer, the Cincinnati Gas-Light and Coke Company (later known as
Cincinnati Gas and Electric
).
[7]
[8]
The company was renamed
Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telephone Company
in 1903.
From 1930 to 1952, the company converted its exchanges from staffed switchboards to
dial service
. Seven-digit dialing was introduced in 1962.
[7]
In 1968, electromechanical switching equipment was replaced by one of the first
electronic switching systems
.
[8]
The company formally simplified its name to Cincinnati Bell in 1971.
In May 1999, the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
awarded Cincinnati Bell Long Distance the right to offer local wireline telephone service in 55 counties outside its incumbent territory and the company began to resell business local phone service in these counties, in competition with incumbent carrier
Ameritech
.
[9]
[10]
During the 1990s, Cincinnati Bell acquired a nationwide transmission network formerly known as
IXC Communications
and changed its corporate name to "Broadwing Communications," although the local telephone operations continued to operate under the traditional Cincinnati Bell name. The acquisition fell short of expectations due to intense competition and lackluster demand and left Broadwing with over $2 billion in debt.
[11]
In 2004, the holding company divested the long-distance operation as
Broadwing Corporation
and changed its name back to Cincinnati Bell.
In 2002, Cincinnati Bell sold Cincinnati Bell Directory, consisting of its directory operations, to Spectrum Equity. The resulting company is named
CBD Media
. The sale marked the first time a former
Bell System
-affiliated company had sold off its directory operations. In 2003, when
BellSouth
exited the payphone market, some former BellSouth payphones in Kentucky were sold to Cincinnati Bell.
In 2017, Cincinnati Bell acquired
Toronto
-based
OnX Enterprise Solutions
for $201 million.
[12]
[1]
On July 2, 2018, Cincinnati Bell acquired
Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc.
, parent of local telephone company Hawaiian Telcom, for $650 million.
[13]
The Hawaiian Telcom acquisition grew Cincinnati Bell's fiber network to over 14,000 route miles (23,000 km).
[14]
In September 2021, Cincinnati Bell was acquired by
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
.
[5]
On March 2, 2022, shortly after its acquisition by Macquarie, the company announced it would begin
doing business as
"Altafiber". The company's legal name, Cincinnati Bell Inc., was not immediately affected.
[6]
Relationship to the Bell System
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell and
Southern New England Telephone
(SNET) were the only two companies in the old
Bell System
that operated independently because
AT&T Corporation
only owned minority stakes in the companies. Therefore, neither is considered a
Regional Bell Operating Company
(RBOC), AT&T was not obligated to dispose of their ownership stakes in the companies, and restrictions placed on the Baby Bells did not apply to these two companies. AT&T owned 32.6% of Cincinnati Bell until 1984, at which point the shares AT&T owned were placed into a trust and then sold.
[16]
In 1998, SNET was bought by
SBC Communications
(now
AT&T Inc.
), an RBOC, and in 2014 was sold to
Frontier Communications
, a company with no relation to the former Bell System.
Cincinnati Bell was, from 2006 to 2022, the only former Bell System company that continued to publicly do business under the "Bell" name.
[4]
[6]
In July 2006, Cincinnati Bell removed the final iteration of the Bell logo?designed in 1969 by
Saul Bass
?from most of its corporate branding, leaving only a stylized wordmark. However, the company continued to use the Bell logo in promotional materials for residential landline and long-distance service
[17]
[
failed verification
]
until another it adopted a new logo in 2016.
[
citation needed
]
As of 2022, the Bell logo appears on the bottom of the webpage underneath the Cincinnati Bell copyright notice.
Service area
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell's conventional telecommunications services are concentrated in markets where its subsidiaries have historically enjoyed
incumbent local exchange carrier
(ILEC) status. Since the 1870s, Cincinnati Bell Telephone has been the ILEC within a radius of approximately 25 miles (40 km) from downtown
Cincinnati
. As of 2019
[update]
, the three-state territory consists of:
Beyond its ILEC territory, Cincinnati Bell Telephone additionally serves
Mason
,
Lebanon
, and the
Dayton metropolitan area
through its subsidiary Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories.
Hawaiian Telcom
, which Cincinnati Bell acquired in 2018, is the ILEC for the entire state of
Hawaii
.
[1]
OnX provides enterprise IT solutions in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.
[1]
Services
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell has historically focused on traditional landline service, but in recent decades it has expanded into adjacent communications and entertainment services. As of 2017
[update]
, legacy voice service makes up only a quarter of the company's revenue.
[21]
Landline service
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell provides
landline
PSTN
local and
long-distance calling
. In recent years, the company has seen subscriptions to these traditional services decline due to competition from cable and wireless providers.
[22]
Internet access
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell offers Internet access to customers in its service area. Its primary competitor for broadband Internet access is
Charter
Spectrum Internet
.
Fiber optics
[
edit
]
In late 2009, Cincinnati Bell started offering a
fiber-optic communications
(Internet, telephone, and
IPTV
) service called
Fioptics
, similar to the
U-verse
service offered by
AT&T
and the
FiOS
service offered by
Verizon Communications
.
[23]
Cincinnati Bell's
Fioptics
provides Internet at speeds from 5 Mbit/s up to 2 Gbit/s to over 500,000 homes in the
Cincinnati metropolitan area
. The availability is limited to areas wired for Fioptics, and other Fioptics services are not required. In areas now covered by Fioptics, Cincinnati Bell no longer offers ADSL-only speeds greater than 5 Mbit/s.
As of 2019
[update]
, Cincinnati Bell's fiber optic network extends nearly 16,500 route miles (26,600 km).
Electricity
[
edit
]
In 2011, Cincinnati Bell became the first telecommunications company to also provide retail energy service.
[24]
Through a partnership with
Viridian Energy
, Cincinnati Bell Energy competes with several other alternative
electricity retailers
for the power generation portion of customers' electricity bills.
[22]
The subsidiary advertises that its service is entirely sourced from
National Wind
.
[25]
Former services
[
edit
]
Wireless telephony
[
edit
]
From 1998 until 2015,
Cincinnati Bell Wireless
(CBW) offered
GSM
wireless service
in southeastern
Indiana
, southwestern
Ohio
, and northwestern
Kentucky
. It was sold at
Best Buy
,
Circuit City
(until 2009),
Office Depot
, and participating
Kroger
locations. It offered
HSPA+
[26]
service in most of
Hamilton County, Ohio
, and parts of surrounding counties;
EDGE
[27]
service in
Dayton
and
Oxford
; and
GSM
service elsewhere. The local coverage area extended north to
Celina
and
Urbana
, east to
Hillsboro
, south to
Corinth
and
Warsaw
, and west to
Batesville
.
[28]
Cincinnati Bell's
prepaid mobile phone
products were sold under the same
i-wireless
brand as an
unrelated service
by locally based
Kroger
.
[29]
Cincinnati Bell made its first foray into wireless telephony around 1986, when it acquired a 45% stake in
Ameritech Cellular
. On February 2, 1998, Cincinnati Bell acquired 80% of
AT&T Wireless Services
's new Cincinnati-Dayton
PCS
network for over $100 million. Cincinnati Bell's subsidiary Cincinnati Bell Wireless was responsible for marketing and sales, while AT&T Wireless handled technical operations for the joint venture. Wireless service began by June in Cincinnati and by September in Dayton, eventually covering a 21-county area.
[30]
[31]
[32]
When AT&T Wireless was purchased by Cingular, now known as
AT&T Mobility
, control of its 20% stake also passed to Cingular. On February 17, 2006, Cincinnati Bell took full control of CBW by purchasing Cingular's stake for $83 million. As a part of the deal, Cincinnati Bell and Cingular secured lower
roaming
charges on each other's respective GSM networks.
[33]
On April 7, 2014, Cincinnati Bell announced plans to sell its wireless spectrum and other assets to
Verizon Wireless
, as part of a planned emphasis on enterprise and entertainment services such as Fioptics.
[4]
[34]
Cincinnati Bell Wireless ended service on February 28, 2015, and the company's retail locations began selling Verizon products.
[35]
Directories
[
edit
]
Like other
Bell System
?affiliated companies, Cincinnati Bell published a series of local
telephone directories
, beginning in 1879.
[7]
In 2002, it spun off these operations as
CBD Media
.
Retail presence
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell originally operated a chain of Cincinnati Bell Phone Center locations until 1992, when it sold the retail chain to
AT&T
.
[36]
It reentered the retail space in 1998 with three Store@Cincinnati Bell retail locations.
[31]
[30]
As of 2018
[update]
, the company operates nine Cincinnati Bell Stores.
[37]
Downtown Cincinnati presence
[
edit
]
Cincinnati Bell's headquarters are located in the Atrium Two building on 4th Street in
Downtown Cincinnati
.
[38]
[39]
The company's former headquarters and
telephone exchange
on 7th Street is known as the
Cincinnati and Suburban Telephone Company Building
. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
in 1995. Next door is a
data center
operated by
CyrusOne
, a former Cincinnati Bell subsidiary.
[40]
It originally opened in 1975 as Cincinnati Bell's central Switching Center.
[8]
Cincinnati Bell owns the naming rights to the
Cincinnati Bell Connector
streetcar line that traverses the downtown area. In August 2016, Cincinnati Bell paid $3.4 million to rename the line for 10 years.
[41]
From 2007 to 2014 Cincinnati Bell also sponsored the annual
Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Riverfest
, one of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest.
[42]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Form 10-K"
(PDF)
. Cincinnati Bell. February 22, 2019
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Cincinnati Bell, Inc. 2020 Annual Report"
(PDF)
.
Cincinnati Bell
. 31 December 2020
. Retrieved
29 July
2021
.
- ^
Staff, FOX19 Digital (2021-09-07).
"Cincinnati Bell bought in $2.9B deal"
.
www.fox19.com
. Retrieved
2024-02-19
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
Pichler, Josh (August 5, 2013).
"IN-DEPTH: A new calling for the last of the Bells"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
April 8,
2014
.
Bell is the last of its breed, the only surviving regional Bell company still bearing the monicker of the telephone's inventor.
- ^
a
b
Brownfield, Andy (March 13, 2020).
"It's now official: Cincinnati Bell acquired"
.
American City Business Journals
.
- ^
a
b
c
Tucker, Randy (March 2, 2022).
"Cincinnati Bell changes name to Altafiber. Cincinnati will be going all-fiber, CEO says"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
March 2,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Suess, Jeff (March 4, 2019).
"Cincinnati Bell service is older than the telephone"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
Smith, Frank E. (December 1973).
"A salute to Cincinnati Bell"
.
Cincinnati
. Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. p. 4 – via Google Books.
- ^
"Bell to compete with Ameritech"
.
American City Business Journals
. May 6, 1999.
- ^
"Bell taking on Ameritech in Ohio markets"
.
American City Business Journals
. July 19, 1999.
- ^
"Broadwing sells broadband unit for $129M"
.
American City Business Journals
. February 23, 2003.
- ^
Moritz, Scott (July 10, 2017).
"Cincinnati Bell to Buy Hawaiian Telcom, OnX for $851 Million"
.
Bloomberg
. Retrieved
October 25,
2017
.
- ^
Hrushka, Anna (July 2, 2018).
"Cincinnati Bell completes acquisition of Hawaiian Telcom, Komeiji named president"
.
American City Business Journals
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell's OnX, Hawaiian Telcom acquisitions solidify fiber and consulting capabilities, but investors expect execution | FierceTelecom"
.
www.fiercetelecom.com
. December 2017
. Retrieved
2017-12-06
.
- ^
"Reliable Home Phone Service from Cincinnati Bell"
. Cincinnati Bell
. Retrieved
April 8,
2014
.
- ^
"1983 Annual Report American Telephone & Telegraph Company- AT&T"
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-03-05
. Retrieved
2012-04-27
.
- ^
"Long Distance Calling"
. Cincinnati Bell.
Archived
from the original on April 13, 2014
. Retrieved
April 8,
2014
.
- ^
"Telephone Service Areas"
(PDF)
.
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
. February 14, 2018
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
"Kentucky Exchange Boundaries"
(PDF)
.
Kentucky Public Service Commission
. August 30, 2007
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
Bellaire, James (February 13, 2017).
"Southern Indiana"
.
Telecom Indiana
. Retrieved
October 3,
2019
.
- ^
Coolidge, Alexander (March 30, 2017).
"Incoming Cincinnati Bell CEO: What's in a name?"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Buckley, Sean (2011-07-07).
"Cincinnati Bell's new broadband and energy ventures are all about survival"
.
FierceTelecom
. FierceMarkets
. Retrieved
2011-09-12
.
- ^
Arnason, Bernie (September 29, 2009).
"Cincinnati Bell Makes GPON Moves, Follows FiOS Lead"
. Retrieved
November 10,
2009
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Energy Launches Green Energy Service"
(Press release). Cincinnati Bell Energy (
Business Wire
). 2011-07-21
. Retrieved
2011-09-12
.
- ^
"Energy"
. Cincinnati Bell. Archived from
the original
on April 7, 2022
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
Goldstein, Phil (July 6, 2011).
"Cincinnati Bell joins 4G parade with HSPA+ rollout"
.
FierceWireless
. Retrieved
December 27,
2014
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Wireless Network Policies"
(PDF)
. Cincinnati Bell Wireless. August 18, 2014. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on April 2, 2015
. Retrieved
December 27,
2014
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Wireless Coverage"
. Cincinnati Bell. Archived from
the original
on January 3, 2015
. Retrieved
December 27,
2014
.
- ^
"i-wireless"
. Cincinnati Bell Wireless. Archived from
the original
on December 22, 2014
. Retrieved
December 27,
2014
.
- ^
a
b
Boyer, Mike (February 4, 1998).
"Cincinnati Bell adding wireless"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
March 29,
2015
.
Cincinnati Bell made its long-awaited entry into wireless communications Tuesday, acquiring 80 percent of AT&T Wireless Services' new Cincinnati-Dayton network for more than $100 million. ... Under the agreement, Cincinnati Bell Wireless will handle the business side of the venture, and AT&T Wireless will concentrate on the technical side of the digital Personal Communications Service (PCS) network. AT&T Wireless is building the network over 21 counties, stretching from Springfield south to the Interstate 75-71 split in Northern Kentucky and from Clermont County on the east to Lawrenceburg on the west.
- ^
a
b
Boyer, Mike (October 21, 1997).
"Bell will open 3 stores"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
March 29,
2015
.
- ^
"Company News; AT&T and Cincinnati Bell agree on wireless partnership"
.
The New York Times
. February 4, 1998
. Retrieved
March 29,
2015
.
- ^
"AT&T Corporate Information - News Room"
. Archived from
the original
on October 18, 2006.
- ^
McCarthy, Erin (April 7, 2014).
"Cincinnati Bell to Sell Wireless Spectrum Licenses to Verizon Wireless"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
April 8,
2014
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Wireless: We have some exciting news!"
. Cincinnati Bell. 2014. Archived from
the original
on December 28, 2014
. Retrieved
December 27,
2014
.
- ^
"Index"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Vol. 2. 1992. p. 1462 – via Google Books.
Cincinnati Bell Inc. agreed to sell its telephone equipment leasing and Phone Center Store business to AT&T Co. AT&T will provide telephone lease service to Cincinnati Bell's residential lease customers and operate AT&T Phone Centers in the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky region beginning Feb 1, 1993.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Store & Payment Locations"
. Cincinnati Bell
. Retrieved
August 28,
2018
.
- ^
Pichler, Josh (June 9, 2014).
"Cincinnati Bell to bring 600 more employees downtown"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
Brownfield, Andy (November 2, 2015).
"Cool Places: Look inside Cincinnati Bell's new HQ"
.
American City Business Journals
.
- ^
"Cincinnati ? 7th Street Data Center"
. CyrusOne. Archived from
the original
on September 7, 2022
. Retrieved
October 23,
2019
.
- ^
"Cincinnati Bell Named Sponsor of the Cincinnati Streetcar"
.
Go-metro.com
(Press release).
SORTA
. August 18, 2016. Archived from
the original
on September 11, 2016
. Retrieved
September 10,
2016
.
- ^
Murray, Sydney (May 27, 2015).
"New sponsor for WEBN Fireworks"
.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Retrieved
2019-10-23
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Corporate
directors
|
- Leigh Fox (President & CEO)
- Lynn Wentworth (Chairman)
|
---|
Operating companies
| |
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Services
|
- Cincinnati Bell Entertainment & Communications (E&C)
- Cincinnati Bell Fioptics
- Cincinnati Bell Business
- ZoomTown ADSL Internet access
- CBTS
- OnX Canada
|
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Spin-offs
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Local telephone companies still extant
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Wholly owned
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Partially owned
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Other subsidiaries
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Manufacturing
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Research
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Long distance
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Wireless
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Regional Bell companies
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Current subsidiaries
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Former subsidiaries
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Notable people
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National
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Regional
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MVNOs
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Defunct operators
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