WINTHROP – Shareholders of Community Service Communications Inc. on Wednesday approved the sale of the company to a North Carolina firm for $31.2 million.

Of the 600,700 outstanding shares, the owners of about 450,000 shares voted in favor of selling the company to FairPoint Communications Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C. The sale should be completed by the end of the year.

The sale includes the subsidiary CommTel, a 105-year-old telephone company whose coverage area includes Winthrop, Monmouth, Litchfield, Mount Vernon, Vienna and other Kennebec and Androscoggin County towns.

FairPoint already owns five telephone companies in Maine, from Fort Kent to Bridgton, making it the second largest phone company in the state behind Verizon.

Walter Leach, FairPoint’s chief financial officer and a senior vice president, said customers will see few changes when the sale is finalized, although FairPoint will offer long-distance telephone service to CommTel’s customers.

“We typically don’t do anything dramatic to the local operation,” said Leach.

Mark Blake, CommTel’s president, said he and five other senior executives will not be retained by FairPoint after the transaction is completed. The other 42 employees, including service representative and line workers, are expected to keep their jobs.

Over the past five years, larger companies have bought many of Maine’s small independent telephone companies in a wave of consolidation. In March, Country Road Communications of Morristown, N.J., announced plans to buy Community Service for $28.5 million.

FairPoint the following month upped the offer to $31.2 million, nearly a 10 percent premium for the 273 shareholders who own all the company’s stock.

“I think this is a good thing for shareholders, and for that I’m happy,” said Blake.

Leach said FairPoint has no plans to change CommTel’s name. An abbreviation for Community Telephone, the name and logo are a familiar sight in Winthrop and other communities in the area.