FairPoint Communications 2004 Annual Report Download - page 12

more densely populated markets. To the extent we experience competition for any of our services, we seek to differentiate ourselves from the
competitors providing such services by providing a superior level of service to each of our customers.
Each of our rural local exchange carriers has a long history in the communities it serves. It is our policy to maintain and enhance the
strong identity and reputation that each rural local exchange carrier enjoys in its markets, as we believe this is a significant competitive
advantage. As we market new services, we will seek to continue to utilize our identity in order to attain higher recognition with potential
customers.
To demonstrate our commitment to the markets we serve, we maintain local offices in most of the population centers within our service
territories. These offices are typically staffed by local residents and provide sales and customer support services in the community. We believe
that local offices facilitate a direct connection to the community, which improves customer satisfaction and loyalty.
In addition, our strategy is to enhance our communications services by offering comprehensive bundling of services and deploying new
technologies to build upon the strong reputation we enjoy in our markets and to further promote rural economic development in the rural
communities we serve.
Many of the rural local exchange carriers acquired by us traditionally have not devoted a substantial amount of their operating budget to
sales and marketing activities. After acquiring such rural local exchange carriers, we typically change this practice to provide additional
support for existing products and services as well as to support the introduction of new services. As of December 31, 2004, we had 207
employees engaged in sales, marketing and customer service.
We have two basic tiers of customers: (i) local customers located in our local access and transport areas who pay for local phone service
and (ii) the interexchange carriers which pay us for access to customers located within our local access and transport areas. In general, the
vast majority of our local customers are residential, as opposed to business, which is typical for rural telephone companies.
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Our approach to billing and operational support systems focuses on implementing best-of-class applications that allow consistent
communication and coordination throughout our entire organization. Our objective is to improve profitability by reducing individual company
costs through the sharing of best practices, centralization or standardization of functions and processes, and deployment of technologies and
systems that provide for greater efficiencies and profitability.
We have begun to integrate our six billing systems into a single, outsourced billing platform. When completed, we plan to use this
platform to develop a number of centralized customer service and call centers and to create a significantly improved customer data base. We
believe that such call centers and customer data base will allow us to enhance our operating efficiency and optimize our marketing initiatives.
The billing platform will also enable our customers to directly access, via the Internet, their accounts and will allow us to provide virtual call
centers.
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Our rural local exchange carrier networks consist of central office hosts and remote sites, all with advanced digital switches (primarily
manufactured by Nortel and Siemens) and operating with current software. The outside plant consists of transport and distribution delivery
networks connecting our host central office with remote central offices and ultimately with our customers. As of December 31, 2004, we
maintained over 25,000 miles of copper plant and approximately 3,300 miles of fiber optic plant. We own fiber optic cable, which has been
deployed throughout our current network and is the primary transport technology between our host and remote central offices and
interconnection points with other incumbent carriers.
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