Farewell, Consolidated. Hello, Fidium

In the latest sign that telephones are the past and the internet is the future, Consolidated Communications, which operates the legacy phone network in New Hampshire, has changed its name to Fidium, the brand of its online service.

The move follows the company’s sale last year to two private investment firms for $3.1 billion, which took the company private, followed by a change in its board of directors and the upcoming retirement of CEO Bob Udell.

Consolidated launched the Fidium brand in 2021 for its fiber-optic broadband operations, an alternative to internet service provided over copper telephone lines. It says it has built fiber access to more than 324,000 homes and businesses in the state since then. In a company blog, the firm said “nearly 60% of our footprint is already upgraded to fiber, with 80%-plus targeted by 2027.”

Consolidated Communications operates phone and data systems in more than 20 states. It entered New Hampshire in 2017 when it bought FairPoint Communications.

FairPoint in 2008 had bought Verizon’s network in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Verizon had been created out of mergers between Bell Atlantic in New England and NYNEX in New York, two “baby Bells” created after the AT&T breakup in 1984.

The name Fidium was created by Consolidated Communications based on the Latin word “fides,” meaning trust. Fidium is now owned by Searchlight Capital Partners, and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.

Read this story and more from the Concord Monitor: https://www.concordmonitor.com/2025/09/24/farewell-consolidated-hello-fidium/