By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIDDLETOWN - Middletown residents and businesses soon will be able to call Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Dayton without long-distance charges.

Cincinnati Bell will aggressively enter the Middletown-Monroe-Trenton market early next month with local calling from Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport to Dayton International Airport.

"It's been a long time coming," says Richard Nunlist, vice president of the Palmer Group, a temporary employment agency with clients in Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Customers in the Middletown-Trenton-Monroe telephone service area in northeastern Butler County for decades have paid long-distance rates to call Hamilton, Fairfield, West Chester in Butler County - plus Cincinnati, suburban Hamilton County and Dayton.

In the past month, Cincinnati Bell has quietly approached businesses here served by SBC Communications Inc., formerly Ameritech, says Nunlist, a member of the Middletown Chamber of Commerce technology committee. He has been pushing for local calling to Cincinnati for 12 years.

On Friday, the company confirmed it will launch Middletown service in early March. No rates were announced, but Cincinnati Bell promises "to offer a significant cost savings to residential and business customers," says Michael Fry, Bell senior products manager for the Greater Dayton market.

"If your doctor is in Cincinnati, or your mother lives in Dayton, you can call them as a local call," Fry says. "This is what Middletown has been looking for for a very long time."

Cincinnati Bell also soon will start advertising competitive Middletown package deals for long-distance and unlimited wireless service, Fry says.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in August approved Cincinnati Bell's plan for "flat-rate" calling from Middletown to Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Centerville, Miamisburg, West Carrollton, Germantown and Gratis.

Only calls made from Middletown to those communities will be at a flat rate. Callers from Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Dayton to the Middletown area will pay a long-distance rate. The company's PUCO request also did not include local calling to Lebanon, Mason and most of Warren County.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com