FairPoint will begin trialing IPTV service in Portsmouth, New Hampshire over a FTTH network. The trial involves “giving away” 100 HDTVs to willing beta testers in the community. It’s part of a 90 day pilot program in which FairPoint is evaluating IPTV. We contacted Jill Wurm, FairPoint corporate communications manager and asked if this trial is a possible precursor to a rollout of IPTV services across their new New England footprint, which was acquired from Verizon. She responded “absolutely.” It’s an interesting development in that FairPoint is using FTTH facilities that were originally constructed by Verizon for their FiOS initiative. But unlike Verizon, FairPoint is going with true IPTV over these fiber facilities. Wurm says they’ve inherited approximately 24 FTTH communities from the Verizon acquisition. “From the Portsmouth trial, we will do an evaluation for a potentially broader commercial rollout of IPTV across these properties,” she said. She also emphasized that potential future rollouts of IPTV will not be limited to just FTTH communities. “The evaluation will also involve looking at the potential of IPTV over DSL,” she said.

Portsmouth is eagerly anticipating the results of the trial. Despite recently signing a ten year franchise agreement with Comcast, Portsmouth looks forward to Fairpoint entering the competitive fray. "This is the first step. Obviously we're hopeful it turns out to be successful. I don't know if prices are going to come down, but it might prevent them from going up as fast," said Portsmouth cable commission chairman John Gregg to Seacoastonline.com.

Fairpoint will provide WiMAX service in its Northeast markets using equipment from Nortel and Airspan. Fairpoint’s WiMAX network will operate in the 3.65 GHz spectrum band and will be used to deliver broadband to customers who are outside the reach of broadband from their recently acquired wired networks in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Nortel claims this network is the largest announced WiMAX network in the 3.65 GHz band. Fairpoint will use WiMAX (802.16d) for fixed purposes, as opposed to mobile WiMAX (802.16e). The 3.65 GHz spectrum band is not widely used in the U.S. yet, but it may prove to be an enabler of competitive broadband services, especially in rural communities.

Fairpoint announced a delay in the complete takeover of Verizon properties they purchased in the northeast. The official cutover is now scheduled for the end of January 2009, which is a 60 day delay from the previous announced cutover date. Fairpoint is trying to “transition to about 60 new, fully integrated state-of-the-art systems which will replace the more than 600 systems currently being utilized by Verizon to support the acquired operations.” Fairpoint is still utilizing Verizon resources during the transition.

No real surprise here. The transition is indeed complex, and Fairpoint won’t publicly say it, but I’d be willing to bet the Verizon plant they’ve inherited has seen better days. It probably needs serious rehab work. I can say that from experience, having previously worked in network ops of a large bell company. Even the markets (i.e. large urban centers) that have the attention of bell companies can leave a lot to be desired from a physical plant perspective. Smaller, less densely populated markets receive even less attention. This Fairpoint delay can be spun as a smaller, less capable company trying to inherit more than it can handle – in fact I’ve seen commentary supporting this view already. I’m sure there are some scale challenges for Fairpoint. But the reality probably has more to do with trying to absorb network assets that need some serious rehab.

FairPoint’s purchase of select Verizon assets in the northeast, including territories in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, cleared its remaining regulatory hurdles this week. The deal catapults North Carolina based Fairpoint into a top ten telecom carrier in the U.S. Fairpoint agreed to several regulatory mandates including expanding broadband to 75 percent of its telephone access lines within 18 months of closing the deal, 85 percent within two years and 95 percent within five years. The competitive implications of this transaction are somewhat unclear. Certainly Fairpoint will pay more attention to these markets than Verizon planned to, so I suspect FairPoint will be a more engaged competitor. FairPoint partners with DirecTV for the video portion of their triple play. As is the case with most transactions of this size, it will take some time for the dust to settle and the true competitive landscape to be defined.

Comcast was running ads in its New Hampshire market focusing on Verizon’s potential market departure, per Verizon’s pending deal with Fairpoint Communications. In a complex transaction, Fairpoint is acquiring Verizon local exchanges throughout New England. Comcast is seizing on apprehension among some New Englanders who fear Verizon’s departure will result in fewer broadband investments. Comcast ad copy like, “We're here for you, New Hampshire. Verizon has announced plans to leave New Hampshire. Comcast will still be here for you," has Verizon crying foul. So much so, that they launched rebuttal ads and their legal team demanded Comcast stop running “deceptive” ads.

Read the details at this New Hampshire Union Leader post.