BY DAVID HENCH

MaineToday Media, Inc.

FairPoint Communications officials told state legislators Tuesday that they are confident the state's 911 system has recovered from problems that plagued it earlier this spring.

Between April and June, emergency communications systems at the Cumberland County regional communications center, the state dispatch center in Gray and the Penobscot County regional center had problems receiving 911 calls. The most severe problems were at Cumberland County's system in Windham where a series of seven system shutdowns in April and May left callers getting no answer, in one case for as much as an hour.

Members of the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee were eager to know the extent of the 911 problems, what FairPoint had done to fix them and whether the problems had anything to do with FairPoint's takeover of Verizon's northern New England assets this spring.

To the latter point, Verizon's 911 service manager John Eon told committee members that the equipment and the technicians that serviced it had not changed when FairPoint took over. Instead, he speculated that a year-long equipment overhaul that was completed in February may have contributed to the software configurations problems at the heart of the malfunctions.

"It is my opinion these problems would have occurred whether it was Verizon or FairPoint. There's no doubt in my mind," he said.

The problems came to light following the series of shutdowns at Cumberland County's Windham facility and delays in transferring 911 calls to the backup center, the state facility in Gray. The inability to transfer calls to the backup center, because of what FairPoint described as "human error" at an out-of-state call center, was most frustrating for public safety officials.

FairPoint assured state officials they were on top of the situation, but then problems surfaced in Gray and at the Penobscot County center. Those two centers were able to quickly switch to backup systems.

In response, FairPoint installed a switch allowing dispatch centers to immediately transfer calls to a backup center when there is a problem, and a designated a separate telephone line to alert staff when there is a problem. The equipment was installed in the six dispatching centers in the state that had the type of equipment affected by the malfunctions.

Legislators wanted to know that the company's recent assurances could be relied upon.

"If you're telling us it's under control, we want to be sure it's under control," committee co-chairman Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, told FairPoint's executive vice president, Jeffrey Allen. "If you're not there yet, tell us you're not there yet."

Allen responded that the new equipment installed since the spate of malfunctions will ensure that people will reach help in an emergency.

"There is a general question in the public: 'If I dial 911, is somebody going to answer at the other end of the line?'" Allen said after the meeting. "We all are very confident if someone dials 911, it's going to get answered and it's going to get answered by someone who can take care of that call."

Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre, chair of the Cumberland County Communications Center board of directors, told the committee that since the episodes in Windham and the installation of new equipment, there have been no new problems there and he feels confident the system should handle the public's 911 needs.