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Middletown fiber optic telecomm

Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown Community
Forum Name: About Middletown
Forum Description: History and information about Middletown, Ohio
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3556
Printed Date: Nov 04 2025 at 8:49am


Topic: Middletown fiber optic telecomm
Posted By: squeemy
Subject: Middletown fiber optic telecomm
Date Posted: Dec 25 2010 at 12:06pm
I thought this might be a good time to review the history of the Butler County fiber ring, iFiber, Cincinnati Bell and Dynus.

Let's start with how Dynus got it's start. It was spun off from Cincinnati Bell. Here's an article from 2000.

"Broadwing Sells Cincinnati Bell Supply to Management; Management Buyout Creates One of the Largest Minority-Owned Businesses in Cincinnati.

May 23, 2000

Broadwing Continues To Hone Focus On Data and Internet Space

Broadwing Inc. (NYSE:BRW), today announced it has facilitated the management buyout of Cincinnati Bell Supply (CBS), a proven leader in business technologies, to Tom Revely III, the former president of CBS.

Mr. Revely, a 13-year employee of Cincinnati Bell, has served as president of CBS for the past 5 years. The new company will be named CBS Technologies LLC and has 80 employees.

"This is an exciting time for us as we become one of the largest minority-owned businesses in Cincinnati," said Tom Revely …"

Cincinnati Bell Supply was the wholly owned subsidiary of Cin. Bell that basically operated to refurbish phones - remember how we rented our phones from AT&T back before the Bell Breakup? Someone had to keep them running...

Oh yeah - and remember Broadwing? yet another stellar move by Cincinnati's own Baby Bell that almost killed the company.

This seems like a good place to start the story given that Middletown's iFiber is now defunct because of these guys.




Replies:
Posted By: squeemy
Date Posted: Dec 26 2010 at 11:48am
iFiber got its start in the technology incubator on Monument in downtown Dayton. Innovative Fiber Optic Solutions were three guys that applied for 30+ patents on the use of optical fiber using the computer communication protocol Ethernet. They called it EOAN - Ethernet Optical Area Network.

The Butler County commission and in particular, Mike Fox finalized negotiations with a gentleman named Irshad Ansari for the construction of the Butler County Fiber Ring - 96 strands of fiber that started at the POP (internet point of presence) in Evendale and made it's way north through West Chester, Monroe and Middletown where it made it's way through town past MUM and the Midd City schools along Girard, out Rt. 4 to Trenton then Oxford, then south to Hamilton, Fairfield and back to complete the loop near Union Center. Cincinnati Bell was contracted by the Butler County Commission to do the construction.

A single pair of optical fiber can carry a lot of traffic - dozens of channels each with a capacity of 160Gb/s - so 96 pair is a lot of capacity.

iFiber saw the possibility of the Butler County Fiber Ring and so did Perry Thatcher. In the summer of 2002 PT lured iFiber from Dayton to the basement vaults of the old First National Bank building to set up shop on the cheap. In 2003 iFiber connected its Network Operating Center to the Butler County Fiber Ring and extended underground spurs to the then Cinergy and Bank One buildings.

By then, the company that financed the Butler County Fiber Ring was bankrupt - even before the ring was completed. The deal with the county guarnteed 30 pair to the financiers and these went into recievership with NORMAP.

Throughout 2003 and 2004, iFiber began providing very high speed internet access to Middletown and surrounding communities via optical fiber to the premises and WiMax, a newly emerging wireless technology that is part of what some today call 4G.

In 2005 Cincinnati Bell Supply Technologies changed its name to Dynus Technologies and the world of optical fiber in Butler County began to get strange.


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