FairPoint fiber outages irk N.H. residents

FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) acquired a handful of FiOS Internet customers from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) when it acquired the company's New England landlines in 2008--a deal that has spawned a lawsuit from a group of FairPoint creditors.

Those FiOS customers, now renamed FAST customers, also may be looking for some legal recourse. Knocked offline by an October storm, they remain without service long after power customers saw their service restored.

The problem, according to a report in the Nashua Telegram, appears to be a software problem at FairPoint's central office.

A FairPoint spokesman told the paper it would be "resyncing" optical line terminals and advised residents to call its repair center if they were still offline Tuesday morning.

The larger problem? Callers get an automated message saying there are outages in their area.

D'oh.

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