PORTLAND – FairPoint Communications Inc. says it’s ready for the final step of completing its takeover of Verizon’s land lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The “cutover date” on which FairPoint assumes full responsibility for Verizon’s wired telephone and Internet business in the three states has been delayed several times since last March, when the $2.3 billion financial transaction was completed.

A status conference with the Vermont Public Service Board is scheduled for Friday; Maine and New Hampshire regulators will meet on Nov. 17 in Kittery.

FairPoint spokesman Jeff Nevins says a formal 60-day notice will be filed after those meetings. That means the earliest the final cutover could happen is in late January.