WINTHROP – The $28.5 million sale of Commtel, the telephone company that serves 12,000 customers in central Maine, may lead to job reductions and lower long-distance rates, officials said.

Country Road Communications plans to incorporate the 105-year-old independent firm into its Maine operations, known as Pine Tree Networks, said Peter Saulnier, the company’s chief financial officer.

The Morristown, N.J, company has bought Saco River Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Bar Mills and Pine Tree Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Gray in the last three years. It has also established a division that serves business customers in the Portland and Lewiston-Auburn areas.

Saulnier said that Country Road’s combined customer base in Maine will allow it to buy large blocks of minutes from traditional long-distance companies at lower rates and pass savings along to customers.

But the company’s larger presence in Maine will also produce efficiencies that could lead officials to reduce the size of the 45-person work force in Winthrop through attrition or layoffs, he said.

Before the sale is completed, Commtel’s shareholders and state regulators must approve the deal, which was announced Wednesday.

Customers in towns including Winthrop, Mount Vernon, Vienna, Litchfield and Monmouth will notice no change in service while regulators scrutinize the sale over the coming months, said Matt Blake, Commtel’s president.

Maine Public Advocate Stephen Ward said he expects that other independent telephone companies in Maine will also be bought out.

Saulnier said that Country Road may consider buying Mid-Maine Communications, which has customers in 26 towns in the Greater Bangor area.

In the cash purchase, Commtel’s owners will receive about $12 a share for their stock in Community Service Communications, Inc., the corporate holding company of Commtel.

About half of the $28.5 million sale price will be used to pay off Commtel’s debt, taxes and transaction costs, Saulnier said, while the rest will go to shareholders.