FairPoint Continues to Focus on Fiber and Ethernet Presence in Northern New England; Offering Wholesale Providers Increasing Access to Their Customers

PORTLAND, Maine, April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- FairPoint Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRP), a leading northern New England retail and wholesale communications provider, today reinforced the importance of its investment in technology and infrastructure to wholesale customers looking for improved access to their customers in the region.

Since 2008, FairPoint has invested more than $700 million in its infrastructure and technology to reach new customers, upgrade its network and enable the next-generation of communications technology. With more than 16,000 fiber route miles and counting, FairPoint offers the largest fully-owned and managed fiber-based network in the region. FairPoint's fiber network, combined with its copper network, can deliver broadband services that can reach 87 percent of consumers and 95 percent of all businesses in the region, providing excellent access to these users by wholesale customers.

"FairPoint's fully-owned and managed network is the platform upon which we are providing the wholesale community access to the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery," said Chris Alberding, FairPoint Vice President of Product Management. "Through our investment, FairPoint is bringing our network even closer to wholesale customers' end users, which gives wholesale re-sellers better reach into our footprint than ever before."

Key Facts about FairPoint's Fiber and Ethernet Focus in Northern New England:

• In 2013, FairPoint launched Extended Connect for Carrier Ethernet Services to give wholesale providers access to its footprint through connection points in New York and Boston.
• In 2014, FairPoint announced that it could provide more than 35,000 eligible service addresses in 32 markets with Ethernet connections capable of symmetrical, dedicated data transport speeds of up to 1 Gbps (located less than one mile from the serving equipment).
• Within the past year, FairPoint announced it would offer direct connections to its Ethernet network from two new data centers in Laconia, N.H. and Manchester, N.H.
• FairPoint has more than 16,000 fiber route miles and counting in the region.
• Within the past year, FairPoint has increased the number of its central offices that are fully-enabled to serve Carrier Ethernet Services to more than 90 percent of its central offices.
• Across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, FairPoint has direct fiber connections to nearly 3,000 buildings, meaning that businesses in those buildings can quickly and easily access FairPoint's Ethernet network without construction.

"In many cases, our existing fiber routes and fiber-lit buildings can be leveraged, but not every customer situation or design is exactly the same," said Alberding. "We have decades of experience designing and installing custom network solutions in a variety of physically and environmentally challenging locations.  Whether it's cabling through the remote woods of northern New England or running fiber to a cell tower at the top of a mountain, FairPoint has done it all.  Our technicians live and work in northern New England and are adept at overcoming the region's physical and environmental challenges."

A highly scalable core MPLS network allows FairPoint to quickly and seamlessly implement new Ethernet solutions and delivers exceptional performance with 99.999 percent core network availability. Also, with both class and quality of service capabilities, FairPoint can deliver Ethernet services to northern New England customers through its diverse network paths.

FairPoint's wholesale business team will be on hand at the COMPTEL PLUS Spring 2015 Convention & EXPO from April 12-15, 2015, at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida to discuss services for wholesale customers. To schedule a time to meet with a wholesale account manager at the event, visit www.fairpoint.com/wholesale. Contact [email protected] for the infographic explaining FairPoint's continued focus on fiber and Ethernet presence in northern New England.

Map Infographic Caption: Since 2008, FairPoint has invested more than $700 million in its infrastructure and technology to reach new customers, upgrade its network and enable the next-generation of communications technology. With more than 16,000 fiber route miles and counting, FairPoint offers the largest fully-owned and managed fiber-based network in the region, including direct fiber connections to nearly 3,000 buildings, meaning that businesses in those buildings can quickly and easily access FairPoint's Ethernet network without construction. In addition, businesses located in 32 markets have access to FairPoint's Ethernet connections capable of symmetrical, dedicated data transport speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

About FairPoint Communications, Inc.
FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP) provides advanced data, voice and video technologies to single and multi-site businesses, public and private institutions, consumers, wireless companies and wholesale re-sellers in 17 states.  Leveraging an owned, fiber-core Ethernet network — including more than 16,000 route miles of fiber in northern New England — FairPoint has the network coverage, scalable bandwidth and transport capacity to support enhanced applications, including the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery.  For more information, visit www.FairPoint.com.

SOURCE FairPoint Communications, Inc.

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http://www.fairpoint.com