Cincinnati Bell Wireless no longer exists. Cincinnati Bell sold its wireless spectrum to Verizon in 2014 and moved its customers off the network in early 2015.
Cincinnati Bell Wireless is gone
Cincinnati Bell announced its exit on April 7, 2014 and sold its spectrum licenses to Verizon Wireless for about $210 million. The spectrum sale closed on September 30, 2014. Cincinnati Bell’s 10-Q says all subscribers were migrated off the network by March 31, 2015; a January 2015 Fierce report said service continued through February 28, 2015.
If you were a customer
About 340,000 customers had to move to another carrier. Cincinnati Bell waived early termination fees, gave unlock codes for phones one year old or newer, and said it would help customers move to Verizon or other carriers. Verizon bought the spectrum, not the brand.
How Cincinnati Bell Wireless ended
- 1998: Cincinnati Bell began PCS service through its joint venture with AT&T Wireless.
- 1999: Cincinnati Bell bought 80% of the AT&T Wireless joint venture, and AT&T Wireless kept 19.9%.
- End of 2004: Cincinnati Bell Wireless had about 481,000 subscribers.
- April 7, 2014: Cincinnati Bell announced it would sell its spectrum and exit wireless.
- September 30, 2014: The spectrum sale to Verizon closed.
- By March 31, 2015: All subscribers had been migrated off the network.
The history of Cincinnati Bell Wireless
Cincinnati Bell Wireless ran its own network, first on TDMA and later on GSM and GPRS. The company decided to focus on its Fioptics fiber service and sold its PCS, AWS and 700 MHz licenses. Verizon then assigned the licenses to Grain Management and leased some back. Cincinnati Bell gave unlimited service to customers from August 2014 while they moved.
How to find who holds an old number now
- Check an old bill or payment record. It names the company that billed you last.
- Run the number through a carrier lookup tool. It shows the carrier that holds the number today.
- Call that carrier and ask for the account number and transfer PIN.
- Start the port from the new carrier. Never cancel the old line first.
Your right to keep a number
Number portability is federal law, not a carrier policy. The rule is the FCC’s: Portability: Keeping Your Phone Number When Changing Service Providers.
How we verified Cincinnati Bell Wireless
Best Cellular tracks active carriers and defunct ones. We keep both, because people still search for brands that no longer exist. Every fact on this Cincinnati Bell Wireless page comes from at least two independent sources, listed below, and we leave a detail out when no source states it. Where sources disagree, this page says so. If you can document a correction, tell us and we will check it against the sources.
Tracked and active are different counts on this site. Cincinnati Bell Wireless counts in our tracked total, not in our active total, so it does not appear in tools built for live carriers.
Questions about Cincinnati Bell Wireless
Is Cincinnati Bell Wireless still in business?
No. Cincinnati Bell sold its spectrum to Verizon in 2014 and moved all subscribers off the network by March 31, 2015.
Did Verizon buy Cincinnati Bell Wireless?
Verizon bought the spectrum licenses for about $210 million. It did not take over the brand.
How many customers did it have?
About 340,000 customers in 2014, according to Light Reading.
Where did customers go?
Cincinnati Bell said it would help customers move to Verizon or other carriers.
Does BestCellular.com list Cincinnati Bell Wireless as an active carrier?
No. We track Cincinnati Bell Wireless as a defunct carrier. It counts toward our tracked total but not our active total.
Sources and verification
Facts checked October 11, 2026 against at least two independent sources:
- altafiber: Cincinnati Bell to sell wireless spectrum licenses: the April 2014 announcement.
- Fierce: Cincinnati Bell quits wireless, sells spectrum to Verizon for $210M: the sale.
- Light Reading: Verizon buys Cincinnati Bell’s spectrum for $210M: customer count.
- Cincinnati Bell 10-Q, second quarter 2015: the March 31, 2015 migration.
- Fierce: Cincinnati Bell customers frustrated by transition: the transition.
- RCR Wireless: Cincinnati Bell, AT&T complete joint venture: the 1999 joint venture.
Best Cellular. “Cincinnati Bell Wireless: What Happened,” BestCellular.com. https://bestcellular.com/cincinnati-bell-wireless/
Free to reuse with credit. Licence, sources and the full dataset. All defunct carriers are listed on carriers that shut down.
Live carriers to look at instead
Verizon bought Cincinnati Bell’s spectrum, and Cincinnati Bell said it would help customers move to Verizon.