Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE: CBB) Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC, and Cincinnati Bell Wireless provides mobile phone services. Other subsidiaries handle services such as payphones and long distance calling. Since the 2000s, Cincinnati Bell has diversified into other utilities, such as IPTV and household electricity.

Cincinnati Bell started out as the City and Suburban Telegraph Company and was providing telegraph lines between homes and businesses in 1873, three years before the invention of the telephone. In 1878, it gained exclusive rights to the Bell franchise within a 25-mile (40-km) radius of Cincinnati; it has substantially the same incumbent local exchange carrier territory today: straddling a 3-state area.

Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone were the only two companies in the old Bell System that operated independently because AT&T only owned minority stakes in the companies. Therefore, neither is considered a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC), AT&T was not obligated to dispose of their ownership stakes in the companies, and restrictions placed on the Baby Bells did not apply to these two companies. AT&T owned 32.6% of Cincinnati Bell until 1984, at which point the shares AT&T owned were placed into a trust and then sold. In 1998, SNET was bought by SBC, a RBOC, but Cincinnati Bell has remained independent.

Cincinnati (pronounced /sɪnsɨˈnæti/) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Settled in 1788, the city is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits was 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's third-largest city. According to the 2011 Census Bureau estimate, the Cincinnati metropolitan area had a population of 2,138,038, the 27th most populous Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States, and the most populous in Ohio. Residents of Cincinnati are called Cincinnatians.

In the early 19th century, Cincinnati was the first American boomtown in the heart of the country to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city. It developed initially without as much recent European immigration or influence as took place in eastern cities. However, by the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably and the city became surpassed in population and prominence by another inland city, Chicago.

Nicholas Scott "Nick" Lachey ( /ləˈʃeɪ/ lə-SHAY; born November 9, 1973) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and television personality. Lachey rose to fame as a member of the boy band 98 Degrees. He later starred in the reality television series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica with his then-wife, Jessica Simpson. He has released two solo albums, SoulO and What's Left of Me. As a solo artist Nick Lachey sold over 600,000 records and with 98 Degrees, over 10 million records worldwide. He had a recurring role on the television series Charmed.

Lachey was born near the border of Kentucky and Virginia in Harlan, Kentucky to Cate Fopma-Leimbach and John Lachey. He has a brother, Drew, a stepsister, Josie, a half brother, Isaac, and two adopted siblings, Zach and Caitlin Leimbach. Growing up in Ohio, he attended Cincinnati Public Schools-School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), developing his vocal talent while excelling in sports and academics. After graduation he attended the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. After a year at USC, he wanted to be closer to his family and transferred to Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, where he studied sports medicine and became a brother in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.