Altafiber

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Cincinnati Bell
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Altafiber, Inc.
Altafiber
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1873; 151 years ago (1873)
HeadquartersCincinnati, Ohio, United States
Area served
Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Hawaii
Key people
Products
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
Subsidiaries
  • Cincinnati Bell Telephone
  • CBTS
  • Cincinnati Bell Any Distance
  • OnX Canada
  • Agile Networks
  • Hawaiian Telcom
Websitewww.altafiber.com

Altafiber, Inc., formerly Cincinnati Bell,

long distance calling
.

Cincinnati Bell was founded in 1873 as a

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, and rebranded as Altafiber in March 2022.[5][6]

History

The Cincinnati and Suburban Telephone Company Building is a registered historic building.

Cincinnati Bell was founded as the City and Suburban Telegraph Association on July 5, 1873. Founder Charles Kilgour had run the

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

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

Cincinnati Bell's residential landline service continued to use the 1969 Saul Bass-designed classic Bell logo until 2016.[15]

Cincinnati Bell and

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

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, 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

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, legacy voice service makes up only a quarter of the company's revenue.[21]

Landline service

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

Cincinnati Bell offers Internet access to customers in its service area. Its primary competitor for broadband Internet access is

Spectrum Internet
.

Fiber optics

In late 2009, Cincinnati Bell started offering a

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, Cincinnati Bell's fiber optic network extends nearly 16,500 route miles (26,600 km).

Electricity

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

Wireless telephony

From 1998 until 2015, Cincinnati Bell Wireless (CBW) offered

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

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

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, the company operates nine Cincinnati Bell Stores.[37]

Downtown Cincinnati presence

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/WEBN Riverfest, one of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest.[42]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Form 10-K" (PDF). Cincinnati Bell. February 22, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ a b c d e "Cincinnati Bell, Inc. 2020 Annual Report" (PDF). Cincinnati Bell. 31 December 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b Brownfield, Andy (March 13, 2020). "It's now official: Cincinnati Bell acquired". American City Business Journals.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b c Suess, Jeff (March 4, 2019). "Cincinnati Bell service is older than the telephone". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c Smith, Frank E. (December 1973). "A salute to Cincinnati Bell". Cincinnati. Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. p. 4 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Bell to compete with Ameritech". American City Business Journals. May 6, 1999.
  10. ^ "Bell taking on Ameritech in Ohio markets". American City Business Journals. July 19, 1999.
  11. ^ "Broadwing sells broadband unit for $129M". American City Business Journals. February 23, 2003.
  12. ^ Moritz, Scott (July 10, 2017). "Cincinnati Bell to Buy Hawaiian Telcom, OnX for $851 Million". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  13. ^ Hrushka, Anna (July 2, 2018). "Cincinnati Bell completes acquisition of Hawaiian Telcom, Komeiji named president". American City Business Journals.
  14. ^ "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.
  15. ^ "Reliable Home Phone Service from Cincinnati Bell". Cincinnati Bell. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  16. ^ "1983 Annual Report American Telephone & Telegraph Company- AT&T". Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  17. ^ "Long Distance Calling". Cincinnati Bell. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  18. ^ "Telephone Service Areas" (PDF). Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. February 14, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  19. ^ "Kentucky Exchange Boundaries" (PDF). Kentucky Public Service Commission. August 30, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  20. ^ Bellaire, James (February 13, 2017). "Southern Indiana". Telecom Indiana. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  21. ^ Coolidge, Alexander (March 30, 2017). "Incoming Cincinnati Bell CEO: What's in a name?". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Arnason, Bernie (September 29, 2009). "Cincinnati Bell Makes GPON Moves, Follows FiOS Lead". Retrieved November 10, 2009.
  24. ^ "Cincinnati Bell Energy Launches Green Energy Service" (Press release). Cincinnati Bell Energy (Business Wire). 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  25. ^ "Energy". Cincinnati Bell. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  26. ^ Goldstein, Phil (July 6, 2011). "Cincinnati Bell joins 4G parade with HSPA+ rollout". FierceWireless. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  27. ^ "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.
  28. ^ "Cincinnati Bell Wireless Coverage". Cincinnati Bell. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  29. ^ "i-wireless". Cincinnati Bell Wireless. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ a b Boyer, Mike (October 21, 1997). "Bell will open 3 stores". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  32. ^ "Company News; AT&T and Cincinnati Bell agree on wireless partnership". The New York Times. February 4, 1998. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  33. ^ "AT&T Corporate Information - News Room". Archived from the original on October 18, 2006.
  34. ^ McCarthy, Erin (April 7, 2014). "Cincinnati Bell to Sell Wireless Spectrum Licenses to Verizon Wireless". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  35. ^ "Cincinnati Bell Wireless: We have some exciting news!". Cincinnati Bell. 2014. Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  36. ^ "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.
  37. ^ "Cincinnati Bell Store & Payment Locations". Cincinnati Bell. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  38. ^ Pichler, Josh (June 9, 2014). "Cincinnati Bell to bring 600 more employees downtown". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  39. ^ Brownfield, Andy (November 2, 2015). "Cool Places: Look inside Cincinnati Bell's new HQ". American City Business Journals.
  40. ^ "Cincinnati – 7th Street Data Center". CyrusOne. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  41. ^ "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.
  42. ^ Murray, Sydney (May 27, 2015). "New sponsor for WEBN Fireworks". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved 2019-10-23.

External links