New Hampshire Delays Vote on FairPoint Service Contract Over Quality Questions
The New Hampshire Executive Council delayed a vote Tuesday on a $13 million state contract with FairPoint Communications to provide phone and Internet service to the state government. Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, a Democrat, asked for the contract to…
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be withdrawn from the council’s agenda over what he said were concerns about FairPoint’s current service quality. FairPoint would provide services to the state through 2020 under the contract. A FairPoint spokeswoman said the telco is working with New Hampshire officials to address concerns. The contract delay is occurring amid a protracted strike involving more than 1,700 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that has drawn criticism from members of all three states’ congressional delegations. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., sent a joint letter Monday to FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu urging the company to negotiate with the striking workers. Kuster and Shaheen said the New Hampshire Public Utility Commission has received almost 500 complaints about poor service quality and outages since the strike began Oct. 17. Sunu responded Tuesday, telling Kuster and Shaheen that FairPoint has been negotiating in good faith and that issues with service quality are primarily due to a recent series of storms in the state. The elected five-member council is part of the executive branch of the state's government.