Bob Sanders, longtime reporter at New Hampshire Business Reporter, took a look at the upcoming sale of FairPoint and some reassuring news for those who were around in 2008 when Verizon unloaded its Northern New England landlines.
There won’t be a change in service or in any contracts. Even the email domains will remain the same. And that, stressed everybody involved, would be a welcome improvement compared to 2008, when ownership of the bulk of the telephone landlines in northern New England last changed hands. That was when FairPoint embarked on what turned out to be the disastrous $2.4 billion acquisition of Verizon’s assets in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
This time around, the buyer is in much better shape and will be acquiring a more robust communication system with fewer expenses in a more favorable economic and regulatory environment in all three states. Indeed, New Hampshire has deregulated telecommunications so much that it no longer has to determine whether the deal is in the public good, just whether it is financially viable.
The whole, very detailed story, can be read here.
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