Introduction
Cincinnati Bell Telephone, now known as altafiber, has a history dating back to 1873 and remains one of the most well-respected service providers in the United States. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, altafiber provides integrated communications solutions including voice, data, high-speed internet, and video to residential and business customers across Greater Cincinnati and Dayton. For over fifteen years, ETI has supported altafiber on their mission to deliver new services to their customers, from triple-play billing to OTT platform expansion.
Background
When altafiber started offering fiber-optic communication services through its Fioptics brand in 2009, the technical complexities of activating Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and maintaining billing integrity created a clear need for automation. Manual provisioning processes couldn’t keep up with the pace of activations, and billing accuracy was at risk as the service provider scaled its fiber footprint.
ETI was brought in to deliver automated flow-through provisioning of voice, video, and data on ONT ports using a business-level XML API. That initial application laid the foundation for a partnership that would expand significantly over the following years.
Challenge
As Fioptics grew, altafiber hit a series of operational inflection points. By 2013, they were processing a record-high number of Fioptics activations while also launching Gigabit Internet speeds and OTT video services. Each new service added complexity to the provisioning process and created new integration requirements between back-end systems.
The commercial side of the business introduced another challenge. altafiber needed to migrate commercial subscribers from T1 copper circuits to fiber, a complex provisioning flow that required re-provisioning records across different technologies while keeping service uninterrupted for end users.
Throughout this growth, altafiber lacked a single, unified application to manage the full scope of provisioning, activation, and service delivery across both residential and commercial subscribers.
Solution
ETI delivered a series of solutions that expanded alongside altafiber business:
Automated fiber provisioning: Direct interfaces to service routers, set-top boxes, VOD, telephone gateways, and VoIP provisioning allowed Cincinnati Bell to automate the installation, activation, service, and billing of all fiber products through one automated workflow.
“These direct interfaces to service routers, set-top boxes, VOD, telephone gateways and VOIP provisioning allowed altafiber to improve the installation, activation, service and billing of all fiber products,” recalled Darrick Zucco, former VP/GM Carrier Market and Network Transformation. “We selected ETI because they had a proven solution.”
OTT platform integration: ETI created a real-time B/OSS integration to altafiber’s cloud-based authentication platform, allowing subscribers to be validated quickly and securely to stream content to set-tops, TVs, and mobile devices.
T1 copper-to-fiber migration: ETI’s T1 circuit management module allowed altafiber to automatically re-provision T1 copper records to its existing FTTH technologies. This “design and assign” functionality gave altafiber the ability to provision and manage its commercial inventory through a single software tool.
“ETI already provides automated provisioning for our fiber network that enables Fioptics Internet and entertainment service availability at 454,000 addresses in our footprint,” said Ron Beerman, Chief Network Officer at altafiber. “ETI’s software solutions will now manage a growing portion of the commercial side as well.”
Prepaid TV and expanded OTT: ETI also delivered prepaid television capabilities and further expanded altafiber’s OTT platform, along with an extended technical support and subscriber license agreement.
ETI was able to deliver these multi-faceted solutions in a short time frame and within scope, due in part to its long-standing relationship with altafiber and deep knowledge of their network structure and needs.
Results
Over the course of the partnership, altafiber achieved:
- Automated flow-through provisioning across voice, video, and data for both residential and commercial subscribers
- Fioptics service availability expanded to 454,000 addresses across Greater Cincinnati
- A successful migration of commercial T1 copper subscribers to fiber with no service disruption
- Real-time OTT authentication and streaming validation across multiple device types
- Prepaid television capabilities added to the service portfolio
- Market share gains driven by the ability to offer new products faster to both residential and commercial customers
“We are gaining market share because we have invested in the technology and support that we need to offer leading-edge products to both our commercial and residential customers,” said Beerman. “Our history of success is why we continue to turn to ETI Software.”
“We are pleased beyond measure to be able to assist altafiber. It’s a testament to the day-to-day partnership that we’ve developed together over many years,” said Jeff Fraleigh, President of ETI Software. “This agreement showcases the power and the scalability of our solution as it applies to a major broadband provider.”
