N.E. lawmakers stress need for broadband access

AUGUSTA – Leading lawmakers from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont released a joint statement Tuesday strongly suggesting that FairPoint Communications Inc. may not have the financial capacity to bring Internet connections in northern New England up to speed.

Following a meeting in Concord, N.H., the House speakers and Senate presidents from all three states issued a statement expressing the need for expanded high-speed Internet, or broadband, access in northern New England and urging the states’ public utilities commissions to look closely at FairPoint’s human and financial resources.

In January, Verizon Communications Inc. announced it planned to sell its 1.6 million residential telephone lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to FairPoint in a deal worth $2.72 billion in cash and stocks. FairPoint now awaits approval from its stockholders, the public utilities commissions in the three states, and the Federal Communications Commission.

“Broadband access is crucial to the rural economies of our states and we need to be certain that whoever owns the telecommunications infrastructure that they are capable of meeting the changing needs of the businesses and residents of rural areas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont,” Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday.

Cummings said New England legislators have concerns about FairPoint’s financial liability in the deal and are listening to Verizon workers’ concerns about job security and customers’ concerns about FairPoint’s service and sustainability.

“We anticipate that the PUC will be rigorously pursuing their long-term sustainability in the state,” Cummings said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “We as lawmakers have an interest” in ensuring that rural areas have broadband access. He said such access “is vital to our economic future.”

Maine Senate President Beth Edmonds said the group of lawmakers will continue to collaborate “while the telecommunications industry grows and changes.”

The group statement did not propose alternative companies to FairPoint, but said it was “willing to investigate ways to partner with a successful company to ensure the best and most modern technology is employed throughout the region.”

FairPoint spokesman Walt Leach could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.