Saturday, June 30, 2007
Bruce Ballantyne, director of operations and engineering for FairPoint, told the monthly meeting of the Somerset Economic Development Corp. that bringing high-speed Internet access to the region is of utmost importance to the company. The Somerset development group has identified broadband service as a priority in its economic plan for the mostly rural county.
"Our goal is to increase high-speed data penetration to 85 percent in the next three years," said Ballantyne, a China native and 1975 graduate of Erskine Academy. "In the next two weeks, we will name the towns we have planned for phases one and two."
FairPoint has offered $2.7 billion to purchase Verizon's interests in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Ballantyne said the company will use $1 billion of its stock and $1.7 billion in bank financing to secure the acquisition. Projected annual revenues of $1.2 billion will help, he said.
The state Public Utilities Commission is expected to decide on approval of the transaction in late November or early December, Ballantyne said.
Ballantyne said that while Verizon has focused on building its metropolitan markets, FairPoint is concentrating on rural and small urban areas.
Based in Charlotte, N.C., FairPoint has Northeast headquarters in South Portland, with customer-service centers in South China and Winthrop.
Jim Batey, executive director of the Somerset board, has identified a lack of broadband as an economic liability in rural Maine. FairPoint takes that seriously, Ballantyne said.
"Our DSL penetration has been our focus," Ballantyne said. "We'll invest more than $44 million to improve high-speed data in the three states."
There will be no increase in customer rates, he added.
Jeff Hewett, Skowhegan's director of economic development, asked what remedy there might be for remote areas that do not have the electronics to support a new system. Ballantyne said that some form of public funding might be necessary.
FairPoint plans to create 675 new jobs in the three states, including 280 in Maine -- mostly in Bangor and Portland, he said.
Following the meeting, Hewett said that a certain percentage of the county will get broadband quickly.
"It's the last 20 or 30 percent that will be an issue," Hewett said. "We have a lot of people who live here and would like to work here, and a lot of Somerset County is still dial-up."
During the Somerset group's April meeting, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson stated that improved information technology would help create the business clusters needed to bolster the state's economy.
Richardson said that Maine is among three states in line for a $5 million information technology grant that would help companies with related interests to cluster their efforts.
The effort is earmarked for Somerset, Franklin, Oxford counties, and part of Androscoggin.
"We have to have the technology necessary to compete," Richardson said. "(Information technology) is going to drive every single business in the 21st century."
Larry Grard -- 474-9534, Ext. 343
lgrard@centralmaine.com
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