FairPoint Completes Bentleyville Acquisition

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 9 -- FairPoint Communications Inc., a provider of communications services to rural communities nationwide, announced that it has completed a merger with Bentleyville Communications Corp., with Bentleyville now a subsidiary of FairPoint. The net cost of this merger to FairPoint is $9.3 million. Bentleyville, a 90-year-old company, provides telecommunications, cable and Internet services to rural areas of southwestern Pennsylvania and has approximately 3,600 access line equivalents currently in operation. Bentleyville is one of two rural local exchange carriers FairPoint currently operates in Pennsylvania; FairPoint acquired Marianna and Scenery Hill Telephone Co. in September 2001.