MONTPELIER, Vt. – A top official of the company hoping to buy Verizon’s telephone operations in northern New England was grilled about his company’s financial stability Wednesday as a three-day hearing before Vermont regulators got under way.

FairPoint Communications Inc. Vice President Walter Leach told the state Public Service Board that if his company is allowed to buy Verizon’s operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the operations in the region would be largely self contained.

“There will be very limited reliance on, when the northern New England operation operates, very little reliance on the rest of the FairPoint structure, because it will be basically a self-contained, fully operational kind of business with almost 3,000 employees,” Leach said.

The $2.7 billion deal must be approved by utility regulators in all three states to go forward.

Leach, who filed his written testimony beforehand, was the first witness at Wednesday’s hearing, which gave parties interested in the sale a chance to question company officials.

Critics say FairPoint wouldn’t have the financial clout to increase broadband Internet access to customers in largely rural northern New England. The company says it plans to increase Internet access from 62 percent across the region now to 90 percent and has promised 675 new jobs.

But one of the first questioners Wednesday was an attorney for the Vermont Public Service Department, which advocates for rate payers before the board, about technical details of FairPoint’s plans.

June Tierney asked Leach about FairPoint’s credit ratings from major agencies, wanting to know if the company wants its bonds to be “investment grade,” which they aren’t now.

Leach said Standard & Poor’s rated FairPoint BB-minus, while Moody’s rates it B-plus, but that FairPoint had no plans to seek the higher bond rating.

Under questioning from Tierney, he acknowledged that no Vermonters were on FairPoint’s board of directors, but said the company plans to work to appoint at least one.

“Our objective is to manage the capital structure for the company in the form that provides the greatest return for shareholders. If things change in the future such that an investment grade rating would result in that kind of objective, then we certainly could revisit that,” Leach said.