M&A allure again follows Windstream

Windstream is telco run on a very strict business model. It's line loss and broadband churn has been less than any other rural telco for the past two or three years. The reason they have stayed out of the big M/A frenzie is they know how much to bite off and chew. I predict Windstream will buy or merge with one of the new big rural telcos ( Century-Link or Frontier )on down the road but only on its terms. But to say Windstream would possibly try to buy Fairpoint... I don't think so. It just doesn't fit with the tight run standards that they have displayed so far. Windstream will be around for a long time, as long as they continue to run as they do right now

People wouldn't make noise if it wasn't for a reason. The one thing that I didn't bother pointing out because it seems trivial since I already canceled my account is that I have fought with Fairpoint for MONTHS (about 8 months to be exact) about getting my staticy phone line fixed. It would crackle and pop so bad that nobody on the other end could hear me and I'd actually been having a conversation and gotten disconnected! You know what? Fairpoint told me via phone conversations only without even sending someone to my house that the problem was with my inside wiring. I had about 25 phone calls to them over 8 months and each time was either told "What do you want us to do?" or "The problem is with the inside wires you may want to hire someone to fix it. If we come fix it we charge $100 for the first hour and $40-$50 for every hour after that." At NO time did anyone, not even someone from Fairpoints repair service ever tell me about a $5\month maintenence plan that could be put on the bill to completely cover any inside issues. My friend from my WORK told me about it! So I finally had it put on there, some guy from Fairpoint came out on a Sunday and looked all around said there was nothing wrong with the inside wires, nothing wrong with the box on the house, he either went out to the pole, back to the office (or both) and had it fixed within a half hour. 30 minutes worth of work for something that caused me 8 MONTHS of aggravation! All they had to do was give me the CORRECT answer to begin with from any rep or supervisor or repair person I talked to trying to get it fixed, but Nope, it was way easier to just say they knew what the problem was and get off the phone. Thats exactly the reason and the billing issues I listed below is why I'm not going back to any other landline phone company again. Besides I make international calls and Voip does save me a ton of money by using them so its much more convenient.

In a way I agree with Windstream only wanting to hold on for dear life, but Fairpoint has putMILLIONS into the next generation network and it's only couple months away from launching it in ME, NH and VT. This Next Generation Network (VantagePoint) is not going anywhere. It blows the capabilities of cable out of the water. Only one other place in the country has this type of network. Medium sized businesses can't survive on cable and wireless. They need SLA (service level agreements) and cable just can't provide that. Businesses need dedicated services, not shared services: cable can't provide that economically either. Many people are looking for FairPoint to succeed (like the little train who could), but the 5% of customers who are unhappy, make a LOT of noise, don't they?
FairPoint is actually LOWERING their prices for DSL and T-1's and phone packages. They are even making these discounts available to EXISTING customers!! Something the cable company doesn't EVER do! How about a 1.5Mbps T-1 for $209 a month? How about 3Mbps dedicated DSL for $35.99? How about having DSL available for even the most remote areas of ME, NH and VT? People up north? Let me hear you say, "GO FAIRPOINT!"
Cable can only do so much. Even THEY know that.

Put your money on FairPoint: They are the only company looking to go the extra mile to bring these states a fiber network.

Go ahead people, jump on the FairPoint bashing bandwagon. Seem like the cool thing to do doesn't it? But let me clarify a few things first, then, bash on:
Most of the techs are old Verizon (union) techs and they are usually VERY good (didn't hear many complains before the cutover).
Verizon knew it was getting out of the area years ago and they did NOTHING to update lines or clean up their 60 year old databases. Although the billing "worked", it was old and needed to be updated. FairPoint has a 21st century database that has not "talked to" the old Verizon database very well. This has caused billing and yes, even service issues, but they've made remarkable progress considering this is the LARGEST telecom switchover in the history of telcommunications. Verizon gave FairPoint no help in the switchover and certainly was not looked upon nicely in NH, ME and VT BEFORE the switchover if you will correctly remember. FairPoint is about to launch a fiber network (VantagePoint), which is one of only two networks like it in the entire country. State of the art, large streams of bandwidth which will attract new large businesses to the area as well as servicing the underserviced medium sized businesses in the area and will allow them to provide internet to the rural parts of these states: Something that Verizon was supposed to do, but never did.
Stop the nonsense bashing of FairPoint and realize that they are making progress and trying to do great things and bring cutting edge technology and databases to this area. SHort term pain, long term gain.
How do you think your Voip will work during another ice storm? Enhanced 911? Extended power outages? Sharing bandwidth with neighbors? Cable TV and internet is not cheap either.
We've got pros and cons on both sides, but one thing that FairPoint brings is, they are TRYING, which is more than I can say for Verizon The only thing the cable company seems to be doing is TRYING to find reasons to increase your bill.
Get some facts straight and then bash on, otherwise your just talking nonsense.

Tyzoe is right. I live in a small town too. I had fairpoint and had some of the same issues with bills and customer service. I switched to cable internet too and a Voip called ITPvoip.com. No complaints at all, very happy and no more messed up bills. So it doesn't really matter if you live in a small town. Where there's a will, there's a way. I like the Voip phone billing because it just goes on my credit card which I pay off every month and then I get to earn points toward rewards. I could never hook up Fairpoint or Verizon to my credit card, it was always bank account or nothing and I never did it, so I like the other option better for the points reason too.

Anonymous:

Windstream buying it is not the answer, I know that. That's why I left and moved to cable internet and voip phone, NEITHER of which has anything at all to do with Verizon or Faircrap. When I had the phone service for years from Verizon before Faircrap bought it, I did not have one screwed up bill. (I am serious about that). I never had billing screwups until Faircrap took it over, then I've been repeatedly mis-billed for 5 months for number screening, 3-way calling and having to call them every month to fix it, only to get another bill the next month with the same mess. Then when I call to ask them to adjust it they get all snotty and in denial until I finally get a supervisor on the phone every time to fix it. You assumed I live in a city. I dont. I live in a small town of about 6,000 and I managed to find an alternative option that has proved very stable and a great savings. I signed up to phonepower.com and called England, talked for well over an hour and only paid a bit over a dollar for the entire thing! I have friends in Sarajevo and can call there for less than 12cents\minute, very cheap by other company and online calling card standards. So I highly doubt I will be switching back to traditional phone anytime soon. Phonepower is too cool. I can log in online and see every call, who it was to, how many minutes it was and how much I was billed, turn on\off features and do live chat with tech support or billing and have pretty much everything at my fingertips. $24\month after taxes. Faircrap cant beat it.

Tyzoe... You live in a city, don't you? There is an awful lot of territory here that is rural and mountainous so much that cell or wireless is not as good an option. Like so many others who have a complaint, you paint a portrait with a very wide brush.

The guy that visited your mom is 99% likely to be the same guy that would have visited before Verizon left. Verizon employee now a Fairpoint employee... The company itself did not make the difference in your complaint, but you make it out that way.

Glad you moved to those other options? Guess whose network those guys use to get you the service you so enjoy from them... No company gets in our out of this region without going through Fairpoint network, or at least that's what those other companies complain about themselves. So, you should conclude from that that Fairpoint is doing something right if you get good service through those other companies...

Instead of continually bashing and adding to the problem, why not help solve it with positive suggestions... Windstream coming in and taking over the same crap left by Fairpoint, which was the same crap left by Verizon, which was the same crap left by a lot of other companies is NOT the answer.

Windstream would not be buying data, they'd be buying a truckload of GARBAGE! Fairpoint has NOT improved their customer service or their fix-it knowledge when coming out to your house at all. They were at my grandmothers house LAST WEEK after she called them 2-3 times and finally got them out there to look at her staticy phone connection. The guy that came out moved some wire around, didn't even test it out and then left. She's still having the problem. Not only that but she had to tell the girl on the phone when she called that she wanted to talk to a supervisor cause she didnt know how to do her job...the girl kept telling her that the problem was inside the house. You can NOT tell someone that if you haven't even looked at it! My Gram told the guy that came out there to look at it that she was told that and the guy acted like Fairpoint was the best thing since sliced bread. Of course he would, that's the only thing that they have left to try and make themselves look good cause they know that all the customers KNOW that they cant fix their computers, they can't fix their customer service, and they realize that most people are figuring out alternative options like cell phone only, Voip, Skype, Magic Jack, Witel phone and whatever else is out there. There's not really any need for a landline phone company anymore if you stop and think about it. They're way more expensive than any other option. So why use them? I don't. I have Voip Phone from ITPvoip.com and love it. $24.99\month. :-)

Dan, your article phrase "Could Windstream be just what the doctor ordered for ailing FairPoint? Maybe." could not possibly be more wrong. Regardless of whether Windstream has good history in smaller acquisitions, they have no experience in managing huge amounts of bad systems data "twice removed" as my Mom used to say about cousins.

Verizon provided Fairpoint with bad data, as a matter of record, and made little effort (if any) to correct it. Fairpoint has since exhibited that they have compounded the bad data with poor systems integration...

NO WAY could any company buying that problem expect to be "just what the doctor ordered" considering the doctor still cannot diagnose the problem at this point. An aspirin for a cancer patient?

Anyone with consideration of purchasing the ailing Fairpoint should consider they are not just buying a phone network... They are buying a warehouse load of bad data that they will need to manage immediately.

I signed up to cable internet and Voip telephone service from ITPvoip.com because of Fairpoint's bad business practice and horrible customer service. I only wish I'd done it sooner because I get much more for my money. The other person that posted is correct, Fairpoint hasn't improved at all. I cancelled my service over 2 months ago and just now got them to stop billing me! If anyone else out there is having problems with Fairpoint, write their headquarters at:

Fairpoint Communications
521 E. Morehead St 250
Charlotte, NC 28202
7043448150

Tell them your name and other information, exactly what your problem is and what you want them to do and when you want it fixed by. I did that and will never go back to another phone company again, whether Windstream or whoever buys them out I will still never switch back.

Fairpoint still sucks. They've recently put out articles saying that they're improving. They have NOT improved. My bill that arrived yesterday after I canceled my account a month ago still shows a bunch of charges and I was guaranteed that my bill would show a $0 balance at the time the account was cancelled because of all the other account issues in the last 3 months. It doesnt. Then when I called and brought it to the reps attention, without even asking a supervisor she said "Well we're not crediting your account." I was then placed on hold for an undetermined amount of time, got sick of waiting and hung up, then called back and was told that I would not be getting confirmation of $0 balance on my account for another 30+ days! So now technically they make people that are no longer customers and who no longer have active accounts wait while they pull their thumb out of their butts too! The other thing that got me on the same bill showed some number screening and 3-way calling adjustment so if they adjusted that, why didn't they adjust the entire bill to $0 BEFORE mailing it?!!! Gotta love it. You can get married but good luck getting a freaking divorce from this BS company! I hope they go bankrupt and lose everything tomorrow. :-)

While Windstream may not have done any big deals over the past few years, you should not assume that they have been idly sitting on the sidelines. It is my belief that both the CenturyTel/Embarq and Frontier/Verizon deals were precipitated by an approach from Windstream. Read the respective merger proxies.

Windstream was unable to land a big deal so the interest in Fairpoint makes a great deal of sense.

Interestingly, the market is greatly miscalculating Windstream's future. You are correct in your article that it has largely ignored investment in the future and is therefore managing a rapidly eroding customer base with no plans for growth. You might also add that is is very short on executive talent and does not currently possess the leadership horsepower of its competitors. Acquisitions are not the answer unless there is a viable plan to increase customer numbers and/or revenue per subscribers. Essentially, Windstream has adopted the Blatz beer death spiral management approach. It will purchase customers and try to hang on as long as possible as the customer base erodes away to cable and wireless. It slashes payroll, marketing, and CapX. This is a good short term plan, but don't bet your money on the company past 2012. Cable will eat its lunch.