FCC Ruling on Verizon-FairPoint Deal Fails to Protect Interests of Consumers

Contact: Jeff Miller and Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, jmiller@cwa-union.org and cjohnson@cwa-union.org, 202-415-6566, and Rand Wilson, AFL-CIO, 617-803-0799

Washington, D.C. -- The decision by the Federal Communications Commission to approve the sale of Verizon Communications telephone access lines to FairPoint Communications ahead of the final determinations by regulators in Vermont and New Hampshire is unfortunate, the Communications Workers of America said. 

This sale – to a financially risky FairPoint – would saddle northern New England residents with a company that lacks sufficient resources to improve service quality and especially important, to expand high speed broadband, CWA said.  

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont already rank near or at the bottom of states in terms of broadband availability. If FairPoint is permitted to buy these lines, most residents will have almost no opportunity to obtain high-speed Internet access. The company's financial resources and operational capacity make it extremely unlikely that FairPoint will improve service quality or expand broadband availability, according to regulatory experts, CWA said.

CWA appreciates the dissenting statements of Commissioners Copps and Adelstein who acknowledged the critical need to expand broadband availability and make higher speed available to consumers.