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FairPoint Cutting 260 Positions In Restructuring

FairPoint Communications says it will cut about 260 positions, including many in northern New England, as part of a restructuring. 

In its statement, FairPoint did not specify the number of job cuts in the region, but the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America, which represent many FairPoint workers, say there will be 219 layoffs in the region, which they say would comprise about 10 percent of the workforce. 

North Carolina-based FairPoint has been operating landline telephone service in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont since taking over Verizon's landline business in 2009. But the company’s voice services revenue fell nearly $4 million dollars in the first quarter of this year. In a statement, FairPoint  says the job cuts, and the closing of a call center in South Burlington, Vermont, reflect the decline in the landline market.

CEO Paul Sunu says the company’s future is in broadband and data services, revenue streams that rose in the first quarter. To that end, FairPoint says it plans to boost staffing at its data center in Manchester.

In February, about 1,700 FairPoint workers returned to the job after a roughly four month strike.

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