NTCA's The New Edge » FairPoint

FairPoint Files for Bankruptcy

Jesse Ward — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Fairpoint Communications announced today that it has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., FairPoint owns and operates phone companies in 18 states with a total of 1.65 million lines. Its largest holdings are in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In fact, FairPoint purchased Verizon Communications’ landline and Internet operations in those three states just 18 months ago. At the time critics were skeptical about Fairpoint’s ability to weather the economic storm, and successfully complete the technology transfer from Verzion’s systems to its own. Indeed FairPoint has been plagued with customer-service, order-fulfillment and billing problems, resulting in increased costs and a shrinking customer base.

Fairpoint has agreed on a deal with key lenders that will lower its debt from $2.7 billion to $1 billion and significantly cut its interest expenses, but the plan is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

“The day-to-day operations of our business will not be impacted by today’s actions,” said David Hauser, Chairman and CEO of FairPoint. “We want to assure our customers, employees and vendors that we remain committed to continuing to provide reliable, uninterrupted service to all of our customers.”

Fairpoint Applies for $37M in Stimulus Funds

Jesse Ward — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:42:26 +0000

In an effort to bring broadband to unserved and underserved and areas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, FairPoint Communications filed grant applications with the Broadband Initiatives Program and Broadband Technology Opportunity Program.

The regional telco submitted five applications totaling $37.8 million. In Maine, the service provider applied for grants of $9.8 million grant to improve service in its Aroostook County market and $5.9 million to upgrade its Washington County regions. In New Hampshire it applied for both a $9.4 million grant for its Coos County properties and $1.4 million in funding grant for its Grafton County regions. Finally, in Vermont FairPoint applied for a $7.3 million grant to expand service in the state’s Essex and Caledonia counties.

“The citizens and businesses throughout northern New England have been waiting a long time for an affordable broadband Internet connection. These grants would enable the building of the next-generation network to more rural and less populated areas where construction and deployment costs are very high – areas we are eager to serve,” said Peter Nixon, president of FairPoint.

FairPoint also applied for $900,000 and $1 million grants in its Missouri and Northern Florida markets respectively.

Read the release.