New Hampshire Executive Council Approves $13 Million Contract With FairPoint

The New Hampshire Executive Council approved a $13 million contract Wednesday for FairPoint Communications to provide broadband and wireline service in state facilities through 2020. The council delayed a planned vote on the contract last month after Councilor Colin Van Ostern, a Democrat, raised concerns about the telco’s service quality in the state (see 1412230053). FairPoint agreed to hold public meetings around New Hampshire on its service quality before the contract takes effect in July. Ostern asked FairPoint to hold at least one meeting in each of the state’s five executive council districts. FairPoint has been facing ongoing service quality complaints in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont due to an ongoing strike of about 1,700 of its workers in the states. FairPoint and representatives of two unions -- the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- have been in federally mandated negotiations since Jan. 4.