Could the Dayton region be a beneficiary from our carrier neighbor to the immediate south? Cincinnati Bell is in the process of shedding their wireless business to Verizon for an estimated $210 million and plans to focus more attention on meeting the demand for their Fioptics service. In the April 7, 2014, press release, Ted Torbeck, President and CEO of Cincinnati Bell, comments:
“This transaction is an important step toward increasing focus on our growing strategic product base,” commented Torbeck. “It has become economically challenging for us to invest in our wireless business at the levels necessary to deliver best-in-class service to our customers. This transaction not only ensures that our customers have access to top-tier wireless service, but it also gives us increased flexibility to meet their growing demand for our Fioptics suite of products.”
Fioptics is Cincinnati Bell’s fiber to the home service currently offering speeds up to 100mbps down and 20mbps up. However, in an April 14 announcement, Cincinnati Bell is planning to provide up to 1gbps speeds to the startup accelerator at The Brandery.
According to FierceTelecom, Cincinnati Bell now has a total of 80,000 Fioptics customers and has “passed 71,000 units and gained 29 percent penetration.” during this past year. There are indications that Cincinnati Bell may have plans to cover 60 to 70 percent of the Cincinnati market with Fioptics.
There remain a few big questions, though. Will Fioptics be available at gigabit speeds? And, what will it cost when the current 100mbps is between $80 and $90 per month.
There is no doubt that fiber to the home is the ideal solution for carriers in delivering broadband to homes and is the favored solution for home users. If Cincinnati Bell does expand their Fioptics service into the Dayton region, this will be good for Daytonians.
Leigh Sandy is the founder of Extra Mile Fiber and has been building and operating networks connected to the Internet since 1995.