Fleeing Customers Haunt Phone Co. In New England

By CLARKE CANFIELD

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Phone companies fear that customers will increasingly switch off their landlines in favor of wireless phones or phone service from cable TV providers. So the last thing FairPoint Communications Inc. needed was to send subscribers fleeing with a botched technical transfer.

Now the company is trying to delay a debt payment and has seen its stock crater.

It all began when FairPoint swallowed an enormous acquisition. ...