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Bell Operating
Companies
The following information on the history
of Cincinnati Bell is found on the Cincinnati Bell corporate website at
https://www.cincinnatibell.com/about-us/history
Cincinnati Bell is one of the nations
most-respected and best-performing local exchange and wireless providers, with a
legacy of unparalleled customer service excellence and financial strength.
Cincinnati Bell provides a wide range of
telecommunications products and services to residential and business customers
in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. In a recent study by J.D. Power and Associates,
the company was again ranked Number One in customer satisfaction for Local
Residential Telephone Service and Residential Long Distance among Mainstream
Users for the second consecutive year.
Click on today's
Cincinnati Bell logo above
to visit Cincinnati Bell's
web site.
Previous Cincinnati Bell logo used up until
(2016)
Previous Cincinnati Bell logo used up until
(2006)
Cincinnati Bell Products & Services:
Small Business
Wireless, TV, Bundles, Internet and Voice
Enterprise &
Government
Communications for large enterprise and government
Residential
Wireless, TV, Bundles, Internet and Voice
fioptics
Fiber optic delivered TV or DirectTV (satellite)
Cincinnati Bell History
The City and Suburban Telegraph Company, later Cincinnati Bell Telephone, was
officially incorporated on July 5, 1873, becoming the first company in the city
to provide direct communication between the city's homes and businesses.
Manufacturer and philanthropist Andrew Erkenbrecher became the company's first
president in 1874. Rates were fixed at $300 a year for one line not more than a
mile in length.
By mid-1877, when the telephone was first demonstrated in Cincinnati, the
Association was maintaining about 50 private telegraph lines between offices and
plants or residences. Customers were equipped with a simple telegraph instrument
and a code book, and young men who pedaled foot treadles served as operators and
powered the call bells.
In September 1878, the City and Suburban Association signed a contract with the
Bell Telephone Company of Boston (the nation's first telephone service and
manufacturing company) for a license to furnish Bell telephone service in the
Queen City area. The Association then became the exclusive agent for Bell
telephones within a 25-mile radius of Cincinnati.
Located at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets downtown, Bell Telephonic
Exchange was the first telephonic exchange in Ohio and the 10th in the nation.
In 1879, the first telephone directory was published and the first line extended
across the Suspension Bridge to Covington, Ky. Women, or "hello girls" who had
to memorize all callers` names, took the place of men as operators, and 25
employees served more than 1,000 customers. A total of 145,392 calls had been
recorded for the year.
Other milestones in
Cincinnati Bell's history:
1883: City and Suburban first
contracted with American Bell (AT&T) for long-distance service (long distance
being about a 100-mile radius).
1891: the first underground cable was installed.
1903: the company name was changed to Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telephone.
1904: coin-operated telephones arrived in Cincinnati. The first street phone
was between Walnut and Main on Fifth Street.
1909: the company bought its first automobile -- a major technological advance
insofar as making repairs.
1913: a new headquarters building was completed on Fourth Street between Main
and Sycamore.
1915: transcontinental calls became possible.
1928: a cable to Covington was laid on the bottom of the Ohio River.
1930: conversion to dial service started; it was completed after World War II.
1931: the company opened its building at Seventh and Elm streets, the
"Telephone Building" in the public's mind, which also housed the world's longest
straight switchboard, with 88 operator positions.
1946: mobile telephones were first introduced.
1952: the conversion to dial service was completed in 1952. Cincinnati was the
first of the Bell companies to become 100 percent dial.
1968: electronic switching and musical beeps took over. Prosaic numbers
already had replaced the traditional names of the various exchanges. Dropping
Canal, Avon, East, Central, Walnut, Beechmont, Redwood, Main, Grandview and the
rest was one of the telephone company's major public relations headaches, but
expanding usage and services dictated beeps and numerals.
1971: the company's name changes to Cincinnati Bell.
1973: Happy Centennial!
1976: a larger new building at Seventh and Plum was joined to the older
"Telephone Building" at Seventh and Elm.
1981: headquarters moved from Fourth Street at Hammond Alley next door into
the new Atrium One, where Cincinnati Bell remains as the principal tenant. A
year later, the old headquarters building was razed to make way for Atrium Two.
1983: Cincinnati Bell was reorganized as a holding company to permit entry
into diversified ventures beyond the core local telephone services.
1984 Began deploying fiber for enterprise customers and network backbone
1992 First in the nation to deploy SONET ring technology.
1994: First in the nation to deploy Metro Ethernet services
1995: the "Telephone Building" at Seventh and Elm is added to the National
Register of Historic Places.
1997: First ADSL installation in North America
2002: Early IP telephony adopter
2016: Cincinnati Bell ceases to use the
Bell symbol in it's company logo, the last of the phone companies to do so.
2019: Brookfield acquires Cincinnati Bell for $2.6 billion
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/brookfield-snaps-up-cincinnati-bell-for-2-6-billion
2020: Cincinnati Bell Shareholders Overwhelmingly Approve Acquisition By
Macquarie Infrastructure Partners
https://investor.cincinnatibell.com/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/Cincinnati-Bell-Shareholders-Overwhelmingly-Approve-Acquisition-By-Macquarie-Infrastructure-Partners/default.aspx
Today: Cincinnati Bell Telephone provides
modern telecommunications products and services in a three-state area, including
portions of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and covering more than 2,400 square
miles.
Cincinnati Bell subsidiaries are Cincinnati
Bell Telephone and Hawaiian Telcom, which are the incumbent local exchange
carriers for the Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas and Hawaii.
2022: Cincinnati Bell announces new brand
altafiber as it continues to build fiber, elevate customer experience
https://www.cincinnatibell.com/about-us/news/article-20220302
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