PORTLAND, Maine — FairPoint Communications last month raised its price for local and national directory assistance to $5 per call, up from $3, which the company’s leader in Maine said is a result of declining directory assistance call volumes.
“This is an indication not of the way the companies are going but the way consumers are going,” said Mike Reed, the Maine state president for FairPoint.
Reed said directory assistance service has certain fixed costs such as staff and database maintenance, as customer interest in that service drops off.
The price change took effect Feb. 1, also raising the price for completing a call through directory assistance to $2.25, up from $1.01, per call.
The issue of directory assistance came up during discussions in the Legislature about potential changes to FairPoint’s provider-of-last-resort landline service, which aims to ensure access to phone service and directory assistance.
Reed said that proposal does not change access to directory assistance service and preserves protected access to directory assistance for people with visual or hearing impairment and for low-income subscribers who qualify for the federally subsidized Lifeline service.