New England Telehealth Consortium Connects 300th Healthcare Location onto Network

PORTLAND, Maine, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The New England Telehealth Consortium (NETC), announced today it has connected the 300^th healthcare facility to its network. NETC worked with FairPoint Communications, one of several vendors, to link healthcare facilities in northern New England to the network.

NETC is a federally funded consortium of healthcare providers whose mandate is to create a shared network among rural and urban healthcare facilities across the region. Based in Bangor, Maine – NETC received a $24.6 million Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rural Health Care Pilot Program award to bring telemedicine to the region. 

"We are excited to announce that we now have 300 facilities connected to the NETC network," said Jim Rogers, the founder of NETC and president of ProInfoNet, the company managing the implementation of the NETC network. "We have fully committed the funding award and now provide the NETC health care providers a sustainable, redundant, high quality broadband network. The response from the participants has been incredible, and as a result, we recently upgraded our redundant core network from 80 Gigabits to 120 Gigabits to handle the capacity needs of the users."

"We are extremely pleased to have reached this milestone after eight years of diligent work and appreciate the dedication of our project management contractor, ProInfoNet, for executing the implementation professionally and effectively," said Brian Thibeau, the president of NETC.

Through the connection to the NETC network, health care providers are now able to deliver remote trauma consultation and expansive telemedicine by linking many rural health care facilities – including hospitals, behavioral health sites, and community health care centers – in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine – to urban hospitals and health clinics throughout New England.

Rogers stated that the network will greatly improve the capability and efficiency of healthcare in northern New England and will help these institutions share information that will ultimately benefit patients all across the region. Healthcare facilities linked to NETC's network can quickly share potentially life-saving information from remote areas around the region.

"FairPoint has made many investments in Maine. The most important is our investment to upgrade the communication infrastructure and technology of our fiber-based network which allowed us to meet the technology needs of NETC," said Mike Reed, Maine state president for FairPoint Communications.  "This network was designed and built as a data network with the capability to move large files quickly and efficiently, and as a result, FairPoint can meet the high bandwidth needs of the NETC participants."

Rogers added, "We originally thought NETC would not be able to get the bulk of our services from one service provider. However, because of FairPoint's investment in its network they had NETC's needs almost completely covered." 

A list of the facilities that have been connected to the NETC network can be found at: http://www.netelc.org/sites.html. 

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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