Fairpoint Communications - the North Carolina company that bought Verizon's landline phone network in northern New England last year - says bankruptcy is a possibility if it doesn't get more time to pay the interest on $530 million in loans.

The prospect of bankruptcy has been raised by analysts, but the company had never mentioned it directly until Wednesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Concord Monitor reports that the company has asked its lenders to postpone interest payments due in October and says if lenders won't agree, it will need to restructure. That could include filing for bankruptcy.

Fairpoint, which has been beset with consumer complaints in recent months, lost $8.78 million in the first quarter of this year.