DOVER, N.H. (AP) – Theresa Brady has been a Verizon operator for more than 20 years – but she never thought she’d be so against the proposed sale of Verizon’s land telephone lines in northern New England to FairPoint Communications.

Brady, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2320 in Manchester, said she’s one of nearly 2,400 members of the two unions who are doing all they can to convince consumers to urge utility regulators in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to reject the deal. The unions represent Verizon employees in the three states.

Brady, one of 85 operators who work at Verizon’s Dover office, said she’s concerned FairPoint would have to lay off Verizon employees because the company may be biting off more than it can financially chew. She said she’s also concerned the company may not pay pension benefits once current union contracts expire in August 2008.

Operators in the Dover office coordinate local, long distance and international calls. FairPoint won’t need as many people if they serve three states and don’t handle long distance or international calls, Brady said.

If approved, Verizon would sell 1.6 million landlines in northern New England to FairPoint for $2.7 billion. FairPoint officials have pledged to invest $200 million to offer DSL broadband service to hundreds of communities in northern and western New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. The communities now primarily rely on dial-up phone modems or get broadband service from cable television companies, according to FairPoint.

Gene Johnson, FairPoint’s chief executive officer and board chairman, said the company plans to install new equipment throughout the service area to provide DSL, an acronym for digital subscriber line.

Johnson said the company is confident it won’t need to cut jobs or benefits.

“All of the benefits and pay for all the employees will stay the same as they are today, and we will not cut any jobs,” he said. “The pensions for the unions will be fully funded when we acquire the company.”

He said FairPoint also is willing to extend the current terms of union contracts after they run out in August 2008, and it plans to add 675 new jobs in all three states.

FairPoint, if the deal is approved, also will pick up an additional $1.2 billion in revenue, which will help fund the expansion, and consumers won’t see any rate increases, he said.

FairPoint’s upgrades should offer a signal of up to 25 megabits per second, getting faster over time as technology improves, said Michael Brown, vice president of FairPoint’s Access Network Engineering.

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Verizon advertises download speeds of about 30 mbps through FiOS, its new fiber-optic network, with higher speeds in some areas.

Brady, who’s placed signs in front of her home in Dover, such as “Keep New Hampshire on the Information Superhighway,” and show Web sites www.stop-the-sale.org, sponsored by the Communications Workers of America Local 1400 union in Portsmouth, and www.no-deal.org, sponsored by the IBEW local, said she’ll retire if the sale goes through.

“I am one of the lucky ones. I am pension-eligible, but I would have liked to have the opportunity to leave when I wanted to leave,” Brady said.

Regulators in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont must approve the deal for it to go through. Vermont’s Public Service Board held its review hearings this summer and may issue a decision by December.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission in Augusta is conducting hearings on the sale. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission’s hearings are to begin on Oct. 22. Maine and New Hampshire are expected to issue their decisions by January.

Fred Bever, a spokesman for the Maine PUC, said regulators are weighing testimony from the public and all other interested parties to determine the proposal’s financial soundness, its potential effect on rates and the level of investment in infrastructure that would occur.

Ken Traum, New Hampshire’s assistant consumer advocate, said he believes there’s a good chance at least one review board will reject the deal. He said if FairPoint can’t carry out the plan, it could be forced to seek rate increases.

“It should not go forward as it is structured now,” Traum said.

When he testified in hearings in Vermont, Glenn Brackett, business manager of the IBEW Local 2320, said FairPoint may end up laying off 1,000 Verizon employees over seven years.

He said his union, which has about 1,000 members, wishes Verizon would sell its land lines to another company financially strong enough to expand broadband without cutting jobs or benefits.

“When this deal goes through, what people need to understand is that it’s not the state of New Hampshire abandoning Verizon; it’s Verizon abandoning us,” he said.

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Information from: Foster’s Daily Democrat, http://www.fosters.com

AP-ES-10-07-07 1246EDT