FairPoint close to reaching VT broadband expansion goals

FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) has nearly completed its $66 million broadband expansion project in its Vermont serving territory.

Michael Smith, FairPoint's Vermont President, said that the service provider will finish its network expansion on the state's June 30 deadline, one of the various concessions it agreed to before acquiring Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) New England phone lines in 2008.

In order to reach its broadband expansion goals, FairPoint has installed over 1,000 miles of fiber that are connected to 300 remote terminals that will house remote DSLAMs to deliver DSL service to residential and business customers.   

 "We've done an incredible amount of work in a very, very short amount of time," said Smith.

According to numbers culled in April, FairPoint has made DSL available to over 82 percent of Vermont customers, 83 percent in Maine and 85 percent in New Hampshire.

Sabina Haskell, a FairPoint spokeswoman, said that the telco expects the DSL subscriber number will rise significantly after it meets its broadband deployment deadline at the end of the month. By comparison, Haskell added that only 66 percent of FairPoint customers could get DSL in 2008.

Only months out of bankruptcy protection, broadband service has been a bright spot for FairPoint, adding 13,600 subscribers in Q1 2011. 

FairPoint said it has been expanding DSL access to "hundreds more communities in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont." In April, FairPoint extended broadband into Hampton, in Alton, Gilford and Moultonborough, N.H., while in January it announced it extended broadband to 83.4 percent of Maine homes and businesses.

For more:
- VTDigger has this article

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