Vermont legislative leaders are urging the Public Service Board to carefully scrutinize the latest version of a deal that would allow Verizon to sell its landlines in northern New England to FairPoint Communications.
FairPoint recently agreed on terms of a deal with the Douglas administration’s Department of Public Service, but the Public Service Board must still approve it.
Now House Speaker Gaye Symington, Senate President Peter Shumlin and the chairmen of two key legislative committees have written to the board urging caution.
They call revised terms of the deal seriously deficient, saying that North Carolina-based FairPoint isn’t being asked to bring enough money to the deal to ensure good phone and Internet service in the years to come.