AT&T will provide residential service

        Long-distance provider AT&T Tuesday said it will begin offering residential local service in Ohio in June. But for now, the company said it will limit the new service to the territory of SBC-Ameritech, the state's largest local phone provider, and won't be offering service to residential customers now served by Cincinnati Bell, Verizon or Sprint United.

        AT&T now offers business service in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.

        Initially, AT&T, which offers residential service in four states, said it will lease switches from other providers but eventually plans its own network. Earlier this year, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved new wholesale pricing for providers designed to spur residential competition.

Omni acquisition gives Cintas boost

        Shares of Cintas Corp. closed Tuesday at $56.28, up $1.45, after the Mason uniform supplier completed the biggest acquisition in its history.

        Cintas said the acquisition of Omni Services Inc., the U.S. uniform rental arm of France's Filuxel SA, would increase its annual revenues by $300 million to more than $2.5 billion annually.

        The deal, announced in March, is about 50 percent larger than Cintas' 1999 acquisition of Unitog, a Kansas City competitor, for about $220 million after divestitures which was then company's largest deal.

        Omni Services has about 80 facilities around the United States compared with about 56 for Unitog, a spokeswoman said. Omni has about 90,000 uniform rental customers, bringing Cintas' total customers to more than half a million.

— Staff reports

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