Vermont's telecom regulators are losing patience with FairPoint

FairPoint's time as an operating service provider in Vermont continues to be on the ropes as frustrated regulators launched an investigation to possibly revoke the ILEC's right to continue operating in the state. On Monday, Vermont's Public Service Board pressed current FairPoint President Peter Nixon in a meeting about the ILEC's inability to resolve customer service issues. The board also mandated that FairPoint respond to a formal petition filed in July where Vermont state officials wanted an investigation into whether the operator should be allowed to operate in the state.

"As we said in our petition, if FairPoint cannot raise its service quality to an acceptable level, it's our opinion that we've got to look at whether they should be operating the incumbent phone company here," said James Porter III, special counsel to the Public Service Board in an Associated Press article [1].

Vermont is not the only state where FairPoint has had network and operational issues. Both Maine [2] and New Hampshire [3] have had similar issues that the ILEC has yet to resolve. Maine regulators turned down FairPoint's plea to waive $845,000 in penalties it owed to local wholesale service competitive service provider customers that leverage the ILEC's network facilities. Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, the state Public Utilities Commission wants to launch a new investigation to get to the bottom of FairPoint's issues.

For more:
- Forbes/Associated Press has this article [1]

Related articles
Note to FairPoint Communications: Focus on the fundamentals [4]
FairPoint's Vermont network problems continue to swell [5]
From bad to worse for FairPoint in Vermont [6]
FairPoint tries to tackle New Hampshire billing issues [3]