Altafiber
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.
Altafiber
1873
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Hawaii
5,350 (2023)
- Cincinnati Bell Telephone
- CBTS
- Cincinnati Bell Any Distance
- OnX Canada
- Agile Networks
- Hawaiian Telcom
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]
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]
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, 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]