The unions employees who warned regulators that Fairpoint wasn't equipped to handle the acquisition of Verizon's New England DSL and landline networks last year are rightfully saying "we told you so." As Fairpoint teeters toward possible bankruptcy, union officials tell Vermont locals that they can thank Verizon for all the fun everyone's having. Instead of simply selling to the highest bidder, Verizon used a Reverse Morris Trust to incur huge tax savings while dumping a huge debt load on Fairpoint. That debt load may ultimately be what crushes Fairpoint:For their part, Vermont regulators insist that allowing the Fairpoint sale was "the least imperfect choice" in "in a universe of imperfect choices" given that Verizon simply had no interest in upgrading any of the networks in New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine. That doesn't really answer why they approved a Reverse Morris Trust deal instead of a straight sale, or why regulators have continually allowed Fairpoint to set their own secret improvement goals.

Meanwhile, Fairpoint has announced several bits of good news despite their possible looming bankruptcy. The company says they've completed a core network upgrade, hired 45 new Maine customer support reps, and have expanded DSL availability in Southern Vermont.