Cincinnati Bell,
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
Altafiber (typeset as altafiber), is a regional
telecommunications service provider
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
based in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, United States. It provides
landline
A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...
telephone,
fiber-optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...
Internet, and
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
services through its
subsidiaries
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
Altafiber Home Phone and
Hawaiian Telcom
Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian ...
, which are the
incumbent local exchange carriers for the
Greater Cincinnati
The Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The area i ...
metropolitan area (aka "The Tri-State") and
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...
. Other subsidiaries provide enterprise
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system ...
services and
long distance calling
In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the U.K. ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate ...
.
Cincinnati Bell was founded in 1873 as a
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
company and for much of its history was a
Bell System franchisee. In the 1990s, Cincinnati Bell expanded into
Internet access
Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...
and
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...
services. The company divested its mobile phone service in 2014 to focus on enterprise and fiber-optic services.
It was acquired in September 2021 by
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...
, and rebranded as Altafiber in March 2022.
History

Cincinnati Bell was founded as the City and Suburban Telegraph Association on July 5, 1873. Founder Charles Kilgour had run the
Cincinnati Street Railway
Cincinnati Street Railway (CSR) was the public transit operator in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1859 to 1952. The company ceased streetcar operations and was renamed Cincinnati Transit Company.
The company was founded in 1859 and was one of several op ...
with his brother John but became homebound after an accident and began running his business from home via
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
. The City and Suburban Telegraph Association ran telegraph lines between homes and businesses beginning in 1873, three years before the invention of the
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
. In 1878, it gained exclusive rights to the
Bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
franchise within a 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
Cinergy Corp. ( ) was an energy company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, from 1994 to 2006. Its name is a play on the words "synergy", "energy", and "Cincinnati".
History
Cinergy was created on October 24, 1994, from the merger of the C ...
).
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.
In 1968, electromechanical switching equipment was replaced by one of the first
electronic switching systems.
The company formally simplified its name to Cincinnati Bell in 1971.
In May 1999, the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is the public utilities commission of the U.S. state of Ohio, charged with the regulation of utility service providers such as those of electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications as well as rail ...
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
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation (and before that American Information Technologies Corporation), is an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the sev ...
.
During the 1990s, Cincinnati Bell acquired a nationwide transmission network formerly known as
IXC Communications IXC may refer to:
* InnovationXchange, a UK innovation management consultancy
* Interexchange carrier, a long-distance telephone company
* Chandigarh Airport (IATA codes, IATA code: IXC), a customs airport in Chandigarh, India
* German Type IX subm ...
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 $ in debt. In 2004, the holding company divested the long-distance operation as
Broadwing Corporation
Broadwing may refer to:
* broad-winged hawk, a bird of prey.
* Broadwing, a bird of prey with broad wings such as eagles, falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distri ...
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
CBD Media LLC (formerly Cincinnati Bell Directory) is a division of Local Insight Media that publishes telephone directories under the Cincinnati Bell name. The company was created in 2002 following the sale of Cincinnati Bell Directory to a conso ...
. The sale marked the first time a former
Bell System-affiliated company had sold off its directory operations. In 2003, when
BellSouth
BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies aft ...
exited the payphone market, some former BellSouth payphones in Kentucky were sold to Cincinnati Bell.
In 2017, Cincinnati Bell acquired
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
-based
OnX Enterprise Solutions for $.
On July 2, 2018, Cincinnati Bell acquired
Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., parent of local telephone company Hawaiian Telcom, for $. The Hawaiian Telcom acquisition grew Cincinnati Bell's fiber network to over .
In September 2021, Cincinnati Bell was acquired by
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...
.
On March 2, 2022, shortly after its acquisition by Macquarie, the company announced it would begin
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
"Altafiber". The company's legal name, Cincinnati Bell Inc., was not immediately affected.
Relationship to the Bell System

Cincinnati Bell and
Southern New England Telephone
The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNETCo by its customers), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications.
History
It started operations o ...
(SNET) were the only two companies in the old
Bell System that operated independently because
AT&T Corporation
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...
only owned minority stakes in the companies. Therefore, neither is considered a
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) are the result of '' United States v. AT&T'', the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company (later known as AT&T Corp.). On January 8, 1 ...
(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. In 1998, SNET was bought by
SBC Communications
The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell ...
(now
AT&T Inc.), an RBOC, and in 2014 was sold to
Frontier Communications
Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. (known as Citizens Utilities Company until May 2000 and Citizens Communications Company until July 31, 2008) is an American telecommunications company. The company previously served primarily rural areas and s ...
, 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.
In July 2006, Cincinnati Bell removed the final iteration of the Bell logo—designed in 1969 by
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.
During his 40-year career, Bass wor ...
—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 until another it adopted a new logo in 2016. 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 from downtown
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
. , the three-state territory consists of:
*
Hamilton County, most of
Clermont and
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some al ...
counties, and a small part of
Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War:
* Warren County, Georgia
* Warren County, Illinois
* Warren County ...
in Ohio
*
Boone,
Campbell,
Gallatin,
Grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
* Castle Grant
United States
*Grant, Alabama
* Grant, Inyo County, ...
,
Kenton, and
Pendleton counties in Kentucky
*
West Harrison, Indiana
West Harrison is a town in Harrison Township, Dearborn County, Indiana, United States. The population was 289 at the 2010 census.
History
Settlers at West Harrison found numerous mounds constructed by Indians. West Harrison was laid out in 18 ...
Beyond its ILEC territory, Cincinnati Bell Telephone additionally serves
Mason
Mason may refer to:
Occupations
* Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces
* Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, and the
Dayton metropolitan area
The Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Greater Dayton and the Miami Valley, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in the Miami Valley region of Ohio and is anchored by the cit ...
through its subsidiary Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories.
Hawaiian Telcom
Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian ...
, which Cincinnati Bell acquired in 2018, is the ILEC for the entire state of
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...
.
OnX provides enterprise IT solutions in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.
Services
Cincinnati Bell has historically focused on traditional landline service, but in recent decades it has expanded into adjacent communications and entertainment services. , legacy voice service makes up only a quarter of the company's revenue.
Landline service
Cincinnati Bell provides
landline
A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...
PSTN
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other el ...
local and
long-distance calling
In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the U.K. ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate ...
. In recent years, the company has seen subscriptions to these traditional services decline due to competition from cable and wireless providers.
Internet access
Cincinnati Bell offers Internet access to customers in its service area. Its primary competitor for broadband Internet access is
Charter Spectrum Internet
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
.
Fiber optics
In late 2009, Cincinnati Bell started offering a
fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is pr ...
s (Internet, telephone, and
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
) service called Fioptics, similar to the
U-verse
U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states.[AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...]
and the
FiOS service offered by
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...
. 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 Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The area i ...
. 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.
, Cincinnati Bell's fiber optic network extends nearly .
Electricity
In 2011, Cincinnati Bell became the first telecommunications company to also provide retail energy service.
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.
The subsidiary advertises that its service is entirely sourced from
National Wind.
Former services
Wireless telephony
From 1998 until 2015, Cincinnati Bell Wireless (CBW) offered
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...
wireless service in southeastern
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
, southwestern
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, and northwestern
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
. It was sold at
Best Buy
Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...
,
Circuit City
Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...
(until 2009),
Office Depot
The ODP Corporation is an American office supply holding company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 associates with businesses in the United States. ...
, and participating
Kroger
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...
locations. It offered
HSPA+
Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...
service in most of
Hamilton County, Ohio
Hamilton County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 830,639, making it the third-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat and largest city is Cincinnati. The county ...
, and parts of surrounding counties;
EDGE
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed b ...
service in
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
and
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...
; and
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...
service elsewhere. The local coverage area extended north to
Celina and
Urbana, east to
Hillsboro, south to
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part ...
and
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
, and west to
Batesville. Cincinnati Bell's
prepaid mobile phone
A prepaid mobile device, also known as a, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is ...
products were sold under the same i-wireless brand as an
unrelated service by locally based
Kroger
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...
.
Cincinnati Bell made its first foray into wireless telephony around 1986, when it acquired a 45% stake in
Ameritech Cellular
Ameritech Mobile Communications, LLC was the first company in the United States to provide cellular mobile phone service to the general public. Cell service became publicly available in Chicago on October 13, 1983. The company was a division of ...
. On February 2, 1998, Cincinnati Bell acquired 80% of
AT&T Wireless Services
AT&T Wireless Services, formerly part of AT&T Corp., was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separat ...
's new Cincinnati-Dayton
PCS
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...
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.
When AT&T Wireless was purchased by Cingular, now known as
AT&T Mobility
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and Trade name, marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobi ...
, 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.
On April 7, 2014, Cincinnati Bell announced plans to sell its wireless spectrum and other assets to
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
, as part of a planned emphasis on enterprise and entertainment services such as Fioptics.
Cincinnati Bell Wireless ended service on February 28, 2015, and the company's retail locations began selling Verizon products.
Directories
Like other
Bell System–affiliated companies, Cincinnati Bell published a series of local
telephone directories
A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...
, beginning in 1879.
In 2002, it spun off these operations as
CBD Media
CBD Media LLC (formerly Cincinnati Bell Directory) is a division of Local Insight Media that publishes telephone directories under the Cincinnati Bell name. The company was created in 2002 following the sale of Cincinnati Bell Directory to a conso ...
.
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
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
.
It reentered the retail space in 1998 with three Store@Cincinnati Bell retail locations.
, the company operates nine Cincinnati Bell Stores.
Downtown Cincinnati presence
Cincinnati Bell's headquarters are located in the Atrium Two building on 4th Street in
Downtown Cincinnati
Downtown Cincinnati is the central business district of Cincinnati, Ohio, as well the economic and symbiotic center of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. It also contains a number of urban neighborhoods in the low land area between the Ohio R ...
.
The company's former headquarters and
telephone exchange
telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syste ...
on 7th Street is known as the
Cincinnati and Suburban Telephone Company Building. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
in 1995. Next door is a
data center operated by
CyrusOne
CyrusOne owns and operates over 40 carrier-neutral data centers in North America, Europe, and South America, where it provides colocation and peering services. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and is owned by funds managed by Kohlberg Kravis ...
, a former Cincinnati Bell subsidiary. It originally opened in 1975 as Cincinnati Bell's central Switching Center.
Cincinnati Bell owns the naming rights to the
Cincinnati Bell Connector
The Connector is a streetcar system in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The system opened to passengers on September 9, 2016. The streetcar operates on a loop from The Banks, Great American Ball Park, and Smale Riverfront Park through Downto ...
streetcar line that traverses the downtown area. In August 2016, Cincinnati Bell paid $ to rename the line for 10 years.
From 2007 to 2014 Cincinnati Bell also sponsored the annual
Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Riverfest
The Cincinnati Riverfest (officially the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks) is an annual festival that takes place on Labor Day weekend on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. It has taken place annually since 1977. The highlight of the event, the firew ...
, one of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest.
See also
*
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...
*
Bell System
*
Bell System divestiture
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided lo ...
*
Ohio Bell
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, now doing business as AT&T Ohio, is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio and parts of West Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.
Its headquarters is the Ohio Bell Building at 750 Huron Ro ...
References
External links
*
Bell Operating Companies (from Bell System Memorial)
{{Authority control
Bell System
Internet service providers of the United States
Broadband
American companies established in 1873
Telecommunications companies established in 1873
Companies based in Cincinnati
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Communications in Indiana
Communications in Kentucky
Communications in Ohio
1873 establishments in Ohio
2021 mergers and acquisitions
Private equity portfolio companies
Privately held companies based in Ohio