FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) continues to make progress with extending broadband DSL services to more communities with two recent drives to bring connectivity to nearly 600 households in Maine and New Hampshire.
In Maine, the telco has begun offering service to over 535 homes and businesses in Northport, Belfast, Gray, Pownal, New Gloucester, Freeport and Saco, Maine.
The network buildout in Maine will be funded through a mix of its own capital and Connect America Fund Phase I funds.
The telco announced in August that it would leverage part of its $3.3 million Connect America Fund Phase I allocation from the FCC to expand and upgrade broadband service in 44 Maine towns that have either no Internet access at all or can only get low-speed dial-up services.
At that time, service provider said it would use $1.03 million of the funding to extend broadband access or offer higher speeds of 4/1 Mbps and above to about 6,000 locations--of which more than 1,659 qualify for CAF funding.
In New Hampshire, the telco has extended broadband service to 55 additional homes and businesses in Marlow.
This deployment is being driven by the FairPoint's proposal with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC) to allow the company to invest approximately $2.8 million of service quality monies incurred from 2009 through 2011 to further expand broadband in New Hampshire. The total amount to be invested through this plan is $3.3 million with FairPoint's contribution of $500,000.
These new deployments follow earlier efforts it made in Maine and New Hampshire in October to bring broadband to an additional six towns.
By the end of the year, the telco said it will increase broadband availability to 95 percent of its access lines.
For more:
- see the Maine release
- and the New Hampshire release
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