From bad to worse for FairPoint in Vermont

FairPoint Communications, which already can be accused of offering customers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine communications services Third World users might find subpar, ran into another glitch yesterday that left 12,000 of its customers in Vermont without Internet service for much of the day. Dial-up and high-speed customers lost service at 2:50 p.m. and couldn't connect again until almost 10:30 p.m. FairPoint blamed hardware issues and said only customers in Vermont were affected.

The company took over operations from Verizon in January and has had a miserable time debugging everything from Internet, to landline service, to local exchanges in the three states.

"Essentially FairPoint is suffering from difficulties in the market that have made it difficult for them to keep up with their promises," said Stephen Wark, a spokesman with the state Department of Public Service. "Nonetheless, Vermont consumers deserve to have quality service, and we're going to continue to fight to make sure that they get decent quality telecommunications."

For more:
- see this Rutland Herald article [1]

Related articles
New Hampshire puts FairPoint on notice [2] 
Fairpoint seeks delay in debt repayment
[3]Fairpoint reports Q4 loss, suspends dividend [4]