Fairpoint Blackout On Service

If you need a new landline phone service, DSL, or even a home security system, you may want to set up a service call as soon as possible. Fairpoint is planning a blackout of service starting this week as it completes its transition from the old Verizon systems. The blackout is scheduled for January 23rd to February 8th. Setting up service, changing existing plans and even some repairs will be delayed. And with the backlog of calls Fairpoint expects will accumulate during that time, that delay could be as much as 30 to 45 days.

FairPoint's takeover of Verizon's landline operations will be completed on January 31st. The company says it has 300,000 access lines in Vermont -- and most of those customers won't notice a thing. But if you need a new phone or DSL line or changes to an old one, you should schedule it now. During the period they are transitioning they won't have access to their systems. They have to bring the old systems down, transfer all the data and bring the new systems up. That takes about 6 business days. To get ready for that, they are not going to place any new orders into the systems beginning January 23rd because they don't want to have any orders in progress during that period. If you are aware of something you are going to need from the company, now is the time to act.

Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien says the blackout and transition process are being monitored. It's been in the planning process for the better part of a year, and is ultimately in the consumer's best interest. Hopefully, this transition will go fairly smoothly.

It's important to note 911 service will NOT be disrupted. And again, for most of Fairpoint's customers, there won't be any impact at all. If you have questions, you can call FairPoint's customer service line or the Public Service Department's consumer affairs division.

What if you have an internet service through Fairpoint? Will that be affected? They say, No. Service will not be affected -- you'll still have e-mail access during the transition. But eventually people who have a verizon-dot-net e-mail address will be changing to a myfairpoint-dot-net e-mail address. That won't take effect until April 30, so people will have time to let their friends know to update their address books.