FairPoint Promising Fix; Consultant Skeptical

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — FairPoint Communications Inc. is promising a short-term fix and long-term resolution to customer service problems that have dogged the company since it arrived in northern New England.

Customers are complaining of long delays to report problems by phone, e-mail troubles and billing errors. But the company said Thursday it hopes to significantly improve service by the end of June.

A consultant monitoring the company is skeptical, saying in a new report that FairPoint's early summer deadline is optimistic.

FairPoint bought Verizon Communications' landline telephone and Internet business in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont a year ago but didn't switch to its own computer systems until Jan. 30. Problems cropped up immediately.

In a plan submitted to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission this week, FairPoint acknowledged that its customer service is unacceptable and is not improving fast enough. The commission has scheduled a daylong hearing on the plan for Friday.

North Carolina-based FairPoint has had similar problems in Maine and Vermont. The company submitted an improvement plan to Maine regulators last week.