Thursday, May 06, 1999
Bell gets OK to operate in 55 counties
Service offered to businesses
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After waiting more than a year, Cincinnati Bell Inc. Wednesday won approval to resell local exchange service to business customers across Ameritech's Ohio service area.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved certification for Bell's long-distance subsidiary, Cincinnati Bell Long Distance (CBLD), to offer local service in the 55 counties where Ameritech provides service.
Offering local access is a key part of the total telecommunications package that Bell offers — including long-distance, Internet access, call management services and data transmission services that CBLD is marketing to businesses across the Midwest.
“We are pleased that this application has been approved and are excited to expand our integrated offerings to customers. ... Business customers in Ameritech territories throughout Ohio can now choose CBLD as their local-access provider,” Rick Ellenberger, Bell president and chief executive, said.
Expanding the telecommunications offerings of CBLD, which has resold long-distance service for more than a decade, is a key part of Bell's strategy to compete beyond its Cincinnati market area as competition increases in the telecommunications industry.
Bell officials have been increasingly frustrated by PUCO's inaction on their request, filed in March 1998.
The company originally sought permission to resell local service in the territories of GTE, AllTel, Sprint United and Western Reserve Telephone Co. as well as Ameritech, but later limited the request to Ameritech, the state's largest local telephone provider.
Under PUCO rules local telephone providers must establish separate affiliates and obtain PUCO approval before competing outside their service areas.
In addition, Bell objected to PUCO rules that it said were different from those allowing new competitors to enter their markets.
CBLD has been reselling local service to businesses in Indiana for almost a year and almost as long in Kentucky.
Asked about the delay in Ohio, following Bell's recent annual shareholders' meeting, Mr. Ellenberger said, “It's a sore spot with me.”
The salt in the wound was the PUCO's recent approval of the acquisition of Ameritech by SBC Communications Corp. As one of the conditions of that approval, the PUCO required Ameritech to provide business and residential service in Cin cinnati and other parts of the state it doesn't now serve.
Before the SBC-Ameritech approval, Bell took the unusual step of attempting an 11th-hour intervention in the PUCO review of the merger to try and make its case.
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