PORTLAND (AP) – A survey conducted by a union that opposes the sale of Verizon’s northern New England holdings says Maine has slower Internet speeds than any other New England state.
The Communications Workers of America is releasing a 50-state study this month on Internet speeds in each state.
The union is using the results in Maine to advance its argument against FairPoint Communications’ proposed $2.7 billion purchase of Verizon Communications’ landline telephone and Internet businesses in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Union officials say Maine needs faster Internet speeds and FairPoint lacks the resources to deliver them.
FairPoint disagrees, saying it plans to spend $200 million on infrastructure improvements to expand and improve high-speed Internet service in northern New England.
“One of the most compelling reasons we believe this transaction makes sense is we’re committing to very quickly building out and rolling out high-speed Internet to new customers who otherwise wouldn’t get it from Verizon,” said Walter Leach, FairPoint’s executive vice president of corporate development.
According to the survey, the median download speed in Maine was 1.53 megabits per second, which was 35th in the country and below the U.S. median of 1.97 megabits per second.
Peter McLaughlin, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1468 in Augusta, said Maine’s homes, schools and businesses need faster Internet connections to be competitive in the 21st century. The union represents about 900 of Verizon’s 1,200 employees in Maine.
Many fear that FairPoint doesn’t have the financial strength to fill the need, he said.
“It’s certainly going to affect our ability to compete economically in the region,” he said.
FairPoint, based in Charlotte, N.C., announced in January that it planned to buy Verizon’s telephone and broadband assets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The proposal is being reviewed by regulators in each state.
FairPoint owns and operates 31 small rural phone companies in 18 states, and had $270.1 million in revenues last year. By comparison, Verizon’s 2006 revenues were $88.1 billion.
The communications workers’ survey consisted of nearly 80,000 speed tests between September and May on the union’s “Speed Matters” Web site. The median U.S. download speed was 1.97 megabits per second, according to the test results. At that speed, it would take about 100 minutes to download a two-hour movie, said Debbie Goldman, coordinator of the Speed Matters campaign advocating a national broadband policy.
The survey is not scientific, but is the only one that compares Internet speeds state by state, Goldman said.
Nationally, Rhode Island had the fastest Internet speeds while Alaska had the slowest.
Maine ranked 35th for download speeds, and 28th for upload speeds.
New Hampshire had a median download speed of 2.7 megabits per second, eight-fastest nationally. Vermont’s 2 megabits per second was 21st nationally. Massachusetts ranked fifth and Connecticut 15th.
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On the Net: www.speedmatters.org
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