Broadwing may acquire local phone companies.(BroadWing Inc. and Cincinnati Bell Inc.)(Brief Article)

Broadwing Inc. might be on the acquisition trail.

If a new business model at Broadwing's Cincinnati Bell subsidiary succeeds, analysts think Bell would like to repeat it in other markets -- by first acquiring a local telephone company and then extending a host of Broadwing services. That would solve the problem of getting data services from fiber-optic backbones to homes and offices.

"There are several [phone] companies that are trading so low, they could be bought basically for the value of their assets," says Mark Bacurin, an analyst with Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. "There have been a lot of rumors floating that [Broadwing] is going to want an acquisition to continue to build out their strategy."

Rick Ellenberger, …