PORTLAND, Maine – FairPoint Communications has been awarded a four-year contract worth more than $16 million to provide broadband connections among more than 400 health care sites in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont as part of the New England Telehealth Consortium.
NETC, a three-state consortium, received $24.6 million from tje Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program several years ago. That FCC program is designed to spread so-called telemedicine – the ability to link doctors and other care-givers with far-away patients – to areas underserved by health care.
NETC received the largest award issued by the FCC under the pilot program.
NETC participants will be receiving upgrades and improvements to their broadband capabilities and connections while paying 15 percent of the initial upfront costs.
The network will deliver remote trauma consultation and expansive telemedicine by linking facilities including hospitals, behavioral health sites, and community health care centers in rural areas to urban hospitals and universities throughout northern New England.
“FairPoint has invested more than $190 million in communication infrastructure and technology to upgrade our state-of-the-art fiber network in northern New England and we will leverage this network to serve the technology needs of the consortium.![]()
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