FairPoint Communications says it is on track with a $66 million effort to expand “robust” next-generation broadband throughout the state on its phone lines.
FairPoint's Vermont President Michael Smith said recently that the North Carolina-based company expects to meet a state-imposed June 30 deadline on broadband expansion in Vermont, one of several markers the company committed to when it took over Verizon landlines in 2008.
The company has run more than 1,000 miles of optical fiber and installed 300 “remote terminals or nodes” in its latest effort to boost the number of Vermonters who can get DSL (digital subscriber line) high-speed access, he said.
In Windham County, FairPoint has expanded its high-speed service in Westminster, Jamaica, Windham, Newfane, and Marlboro since the beginning of 2010.
“We've done an incredible amount of work in a very, very short amount of time,” said Smith, who is based in South Burlington. He credited the 600 FairPoint employees in Vermont for an outstanding effort working long hours and overtime to meet the latest state goal.
FairPoint's effort in the state is being matched by a similar broadband rollout the company says is bringing high-speed internet access to “hundreds more communities in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.” As of April, FairPoint said it now provides broadband access to more than 82 percent of Vermont customers, 83 percent in Maine and more than 85 percent in New Hampshire.
FairPoint spokeswoman Sabina Haskell said the Vermont number will see a big jump after the June 30 deadline. In 2008, only 66 percent of FairPoint customers had DSL access, she noted.
Top state officials have declared broadband connectivity a critical issue to ensure Vermont remains competitive in the business realm and an attractive place to live and work. Karen Marshall, who as chief of ConnectVt. is working across state, federal and private arenas to meet a goal of wiring Vermont for broadband 100 percent by 2013, said “having connection to the globe” is a necessity today, and she hears that wherever she goes.
“Every individual is passionate about it, if for different reasons,” she said.
FairPoint became northern New England's primary telephone carrier after it bought Verizon's landline business in a $2.3 billion deal in early 2008. However, FairPoint, which went from a small regional southern telephone carrier to the 8th largest in the nation with the deal, quickly stumbled with its crushing debt load and service issues associated with a switchover of the Verizon computer systems.
FairPoint filed for bankruptcy to reorganize in October of 2009 and reemerged with its debt cut in half this January. Smith said FairPoint emerged “a stronger financial company” and has resolved its service issues. He said FairPoint's focus now will be to leverage its “robust” broadband network as a result of the extensive fiber optic cable it has strung and then continue to expand and upgrade it.
“We need to make money,” he said. “That's something we have to concentrate on in the months ahead.”
Smith admitted FairPoint faces a variety of competitors for broadband and phone service, such as cable, wireless and cell phones. FairPoint has been losing landline users, but Smith said the decline has slowed and the company has seen a dramatic jump in broadband signups, which is where FairPoint hopes to concentrate.
“More and more people have gone to cell phones, obviously,” he said. FairPoint reported revenue was $254.8 million in the first quarter of 2011 as compared to $270.8 million a year earlier and attributed the $16 million decrease primarily to a 9.6 percent decline in voice access lines year-over-year. The number of wireless-only households has risen from 18 percent in the first half of 2008 to 27 percent in the first half of 2010, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
But FairPoint reported high-speed Internet subscribers increased over 13,600, or 4.8 percent in year-over-year comparison, with over 56 percent of the increase coming during the first quarter of 2011.
According to FairPoint, 7,700 high-speed subscribers were added in the first three months of this year, the largest quarterly increase since it took over from Verizon.
High-speed Internet penetration increased to 27 percent of voice access lines by April 2011, which represents the highest level since FairPoint acquired Verizon's landlines.
Smith labeled the so-called “VantagePoint” broadband system FairPoint is rolling out as a “next generation network.” A key part of the effort has been running fiber optic cable to 1,600 wireless communication towers FairPoint serves in the three northern New England states, he said.
Wireless communication on mobile devices are seeing exponential increases in use, and new uses for them arise every day. Smith said FairPoint now is set up to address that area of big growth.
“As needs for that bandwidth continues, we have built this next generation network to accommodate that need,” he said.
As for home and small-business users, Smith said FairPoint's latest upgrade will mean much faster browsing and downloads.
Based on improved DSL technology called ADSL2 plus, already in use in many other countries, it's described as “turbocharged” broadband that can double or triple current phone line broadband capabilities, according to the technology website CNET.
What that means is users are able to stream a movie, make a phone call and download music at the same time, for example. (In tech talk, ADSL2 Plus can deliver up to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds. Actual performance will depend on the distance of copper phone line from the equipment cabinets located along Vermont's back roads, according to Haskell, who said home users can expect up to 15 Mbps.)
Because it's a “dedicated service,” unlike cable, speed is not affected by the number of users on the line sharing bandwidth. Haskell said businesses will be able to obtain vastly higher speeds on the new network.
According to Smith, changes in technology no longer mean copper phone wires are a second-rate solution for broadband. He predicted that copper wires will be able to carry over 100 Mbps in the future and extolled the surprising “robustness of copper.”
Gov. James Douglas was the first to signal broadband as a high priority with his e-State initiative and set a deadline of 2010 for wiring up the entire state. That goal proved overly optimistic, given Vermont's rural landscape, rugged signal-eating hills and the technical and fiscal challenges.
According to ConnectVt.'s Marshall, Vermont may have lagged behind but is catching up fast. Nearly $200 million in federal monies has been allocated to Vermont to connect up the entire state, and that doesn't include private investment like the $66 million FairPoint has spent.
And the state Legislature and numerous agencies worked hard this session to streamline the process for adding wireless and to create one-stop shopping for permits involving broadband.
“This is dramatically changing the landscape for us,” she said.