FairPoint Communications Secures Contract to Provide New Maine E9-1-1 System

        






FairPoint Communications Secures Contract to Provide New Maine E9-1-1 System

PORTLAND, Maine, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The State of Maine has awarded FairPoint Communications a 5-year contract worth $32 million to provide the state's next generation 9-1-1 system.

FairPoint will provide the system and support to serve Maine's 26 Public Safety Answering Points – known as PSAPs – which have responsibility to answer all 9-1-1 calls in their local coverage area. Every Maine community is matched with a local PSAP.  The Emergency Services Communication Bureau manages both the implementation and operation of the statewide Enhanced 9-1-1 service that FairPoint currently provides.

FairPoint responded to the state's request for proposals with a next generation system designed to handle emergency communications in Maine. It will make Maine one of the first states in the nation to deploy a Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) system compliant with the National Emergency Number Association standards published in June 2011.  The new system solidifies the state's leadership role in providing NG 9-1-1. It also paves the way for the state to support advanced communications services that is designed to help protect the lives and property of Maine's citizens.

"The new Maine E9-1-1 system will use leading edge technology to handle current legacy and next-generation communication technologies such as voice, instant messaging, video and text messaging," said Karen Romano, FairPoint's vice president – government, education and research.  "FairPoint will provide a fully integrated turnkey solution that will not only link voice, data and video elements to E9-1-1 call facilities, but will transfer data seamlessly, and it will provide the capability to read text messages and view video when the industry standards are developed."

"FairPoint's service will provide Maine with a 'next generation' E9-1-1 system," said Mike Reed, FairPoint Maine state president. "FairPoint brings a state-of-the-art technical solution, a robust and resilient network, and the skill, commitment and capabilities of our people who maintain our network."

NG 9-1-1 also provides a reliable and flexible solution that allows dynamic and robust call handling configurations to adapt to disasters and emergency events that create a high 9-1-1 call volume.  Finally, it utilizes a commoditized transport infrastructure incorporating Internet Protocol related technologies that are affordable, readily available and easily maintained.

FairPoint has invested more than $190 million in communication infrastructure and technology to upgrade its state-of-the-art, fiber-based core network in northern New England.  This investment has paved the way for FairPoint to serve the growing needs of the Maine 9-1-1 system.  This network is designed and built as a data network and is the largest of its kind in the three-state region. 

About FairPoint Communications, Inc.

FairPoint Communications, Inc. (NasdaqCM: FRP) is a leading communications provider of broadband Internet access, local and long-distance phone, television and other high-capacity data services to customers in communities across 18 states. Through its fast, reliable fiber network, FairPoint delivers high-quality data and voice networking communications solutions to residential, business and wholesale customers. FairPoint delivers VantagePoint^(sm) services through its resilient IP-based network in northern New England. This state-of-the-art fiber network provides carrier Ethernet connections to support the surging bandwidth and performance requirements for cloud-based applications like network storage, disaster recovery, distance learning, medical imaging, video conferencing and CAD/CAM along with traditional voice, VoIP, video and Internet access solutions. Additional information about FairPoint products and services is available at www.FairPoint.com. You can also connect with FairPoint on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/fairpoint) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/myfairpoint).

SOURCE FairPoint Communications, Inc.

Copyright 2012 PR Newswire