Recently approved changes in the regulation of landline phone service provided by FairPoint Communications have worried some Mainers who depend on the company for affordable, no-frills service. But even the most persistent opponents to the changes say consumers, including thousands of low-income older Mainers in urban and rural areas, are unlikely to notice much of a difference.
And, one history buff says, while change can be difficult, this isn’t the first time telephone customers have had to deal with disruptions linked to new technology.
“I would call this a very conservative deregulation,” Amy Gallant, advocacy director at AARP Maine, said. The pro-seniors organization has for several years vigorously opposed FairPoint’s repeated proposals to weaken or eliminate its status as the state’s designated “provider of last resort.” But the most recent proposal, submitted to Maine lawmakers in 2015, was effectively amended “to allow a path forward for some deregulation while addressing some of our strongest concerns,” she said.
AARP did not support the final legislation, which was enacted in April, but the organization didn’t officially oppose it.
In broad strokes, the changes allow FairPoint to stop providing low-cost, basic service to new accounts in 22 Maine communities where competitively priced alternatives exist. Deregulation will begin in seven communities — Bangor, Portland, Auburn, Biddeford, Lewiston, Sanford and South Portland — in August 2016. The others will be phased in over the next 18 months with monitoring by the Maine Office of the Public Advocate for utility ratepayers.
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The law prohibits the impairment, reduction or discontinuation of existing services and holds FairPoint accountable for complying with specific consumer protection standards, including the quality of transmission and the timeliness of repairs and new installations.
With each new group of communities, FairPoint must comply with all provisions or risk losing the changes. “If things go off the rails in the first seven communities, further deregulation could be on hold indefinitely,” Gallant said.
Public Advocate Tim Schneider said his office rebuffed FairPoint’s previous proposals to deregulate, citing consumer protection concerns. But there’s growing evidence that the company is losing more profitable business to the growing popularity of mobile phones and Internet-based calling options, he said, threatening its ability to maintain its less profitable provider-of-last-resort accounts.
“Normally, we would say, ‘Hell, no. Go away,’” he said. “But this time we decided to try to find a solution that addresses both FairPoint’s concerns and consumers needs.”
Schneider said he will be surprised if the process results in hardship for Mainers. “There’s been a lot of anxiety,” he said. “But what we’ve put in place will make it so people really don’t have to think about it much.”
This isn’t the first time in recent memory that new technology has disrupted telephone service, according to Charles Dunne, founder and board member of The Telephone Museum in Ellsworth. Older Mainers will remember when home phones connected callers to a local operator, he said. “You picked up the phone and the operator said ‘Hello, there — what do you need?’” The operator knew where everyone lived, kept up on local gossip and was able to contact local emergency services when needed.
Many Maine homes, especially in rural areas, were connected by “party lines” shared by two or more households. “People still like to tell us stories about how one household hogged the line or how people used to listen in on each other’s calls,” Dunne said. Improving technology and growing demand eventually moved everyone away from party lines and the operator-based systems.
“It’s just inevitable that the copper wire phone service that so many of us are comfortable with will eventually be eliminated,” he said. Even now, he said, many landline users don’t realize their service relies at some level on innovations like fiber optic cable, microwave transmission and Internet connectivity.
Whatever problems may lie ahead in the weakening of FairPoint regulation, Dunne said, new technology will be part of the solution. And resilient Mainers will adapt to change, as they always have.
