FairPoint promotes Fastiggi to president of Vermont operations

FairPoint (Nasdaq: FRP) is realigning its Vermont management team, announcing that Vermont President Mike Smith is leaving the telco in August. Taking over from Smith will be Beth Fastiggi, the company's vice president of government relations for Vermont.

Beth Fastiggi, FairPoint

Fastiggi (Image source: FairPoint / VermontBiz.com)

A 26-year company veteran, Fastiggi has worked for FairPoint and before that at Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and its predecessor companies NYNEX and New England Telephone in various roles, including outside plant engineering, real estate, external relations and communications.

Fastiggi takes over the Vermont operations after Smith helped to open up new opportunities for the telco in Vermont. FairPoint is shifting its revenue mix away from traditional voice service to residential broadband and IP-based business services such as Ethernet.  

In his three-year tenure, Smith was credited with helping to update the state's outdated telecommunications regulations.

Similar to efforts that it took in Maine and New Hampshire, FairPoint said the updated regulations in Vermont gave it a more level playing field to compete with cable operators and CLECs and respond to the needs of its customers.

Under the four-year regulatory plan that the Vermont PUC approved last January, FairPoint can offer competitive pricing while maintaining pricing on basic PSTN service. Before the new regulatory structure, it would take FairPoint up to seven weeks to get PUC approval to offer competitive pricing, for example.

In addition to realigning the regulatory structure, FairPoint has been expanding the reach of its broadband network in Vermont. Last August, it allocated $6.6 million to extend broadband DSL service to 19 rural communities in Vermont, including Chelsea and Washington. Complementing that was a $2.2 million Connect America Fund grant from the FCC that will be used to extend broadband service in 53 Vermont towns that it said were either unserved or did not have broadband access.

For more:
- see the release

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