Telecom firms to fund FairPoint costs
A legislative committee has approved charging Maine's telecommunications companies $100,000 for an attorney to represent the state in FairPoint's bankruptcy case.
The Utilities and Energy Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved LD 1643, which directs the funds to be collected through a special assessment on the gross interstate revenues of the 82 telecom companies that operate in Maine, the Kennebec Journal reported. Companies would pay 2.6 cents on every $100 worth of interstate phone calls. North Carolina-based FairPoint, one of the 82 companies, would pay about $55,000 of the total.
Maine Public Advocate Richard Davies told the committee that the future reliability of the state's telecommunication network is at stake in the bankruptcy proceedings, according to the paper. Nearly all phone calls placed or received in the state, including cellular, rely on FairPoint's network. The Maine Public Utilities Commission already has retained a lawyer in the case to defend the conditions it imposed on FairPoint in the company's $2.3 billion purchase of Verizon's landlines in Northern New England in 2008. The Telephone Association of Maine opposed the bill, saying that hiring two lawyers was "wasteful."
Phone companies are unlikely immediately to pass along the costs to consumers, because raising prices to cover the assessment requires a rate-making proceeding, Ben Sanborn, the association's external affairs manager, told Mainebiz. But as companies periodically refigure their rates in coming years, the extra cost will be factored into those calculations, he said. "It will eventually be worked into the rates for consumers," he said.
FairPoint filed for bankruptcy in October 2009, but has repeatedly delayed filing its reorganization plan.
Go to the article from the Kennebec Journal >>
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