NEWTON, Mass. – New England Cable News, a 24-hour regional cable television news network, will be returning to the Ocean State this month when Verizon Communications rolls out its FiOS fiber-optic television service in central Rhode Island.

Financial details were not available, but Philip S. “Phil” Balboni, NECN’s founder and president, told Providence Business News in a telephone interview that, as is usual in such agreements, “there’s a licensing fee that’s paid per subscriber, per month.”

“This is a story with long roots,” Balboni said.

“NECN celebrated its 15th anniversary on March 2nd … we’re the largest regional network in this country, closing in on 4 million subscribers.” Yet, he said, “One of the greatest disappointments to me, as the NECN founder, has been not being able to reach the Rhode Island community.”

At one time, the network was available in some Ocean State communities, including East Providence, Pawtucket and Westerly, Balboni said. But that ended when the local cable companies were acquired by Cox Communications.

In the greater Boston area, 99 percent of homes that have cable have NECN, Balboni said, “and every cable network in New England has NECN – except for Cox.”

Replied Leigh Ann Woisard, director of public relations for Cox: “We are constantly evaluating our channel line-up and trying to add value without adding burdensome extra costs for customers. Given what NECN offers, compared to what we already have on our programming lineup, we are finding it difficult to justify the extra cost,” she said. “Today, we offer our customers our own local sports channel featuring URI and PC basketball as well as Paw Sox games plus around-the-clock local news and Boston news broadcasts.”

NECN is similar in format to CNN, except that it focuses on local news across New England. “We include things that local networks no longer do, such as documentaries, in-depth coverage,” Balboni said.

The network isn’t yet available via satellite, he said, but that’s something else NECN is trying to change. “Last year, we renegotiated our deal with Comcast, as we have with others,” he said, to allow NECN to enter the satellite market. “We’re now negotiating with the two big national satellite companies, DirecTV and EchoStar.” If those talks succeed, NECN will become the first regional network to be carried by either satellite service.

“Verizon is a relatively new affiliate [for NECN],” he added. “We launched with them last spring when they rolled out in Massachusetts.”

Verizon’s Rhode Island rollout, on or about June 18, will make NECN available as part of the basic service package to up to 100,000 potential FiOS subscribers in state Service Area 6: Warwick, West Warwick, East Greenwich, Coventry, West Greenwich, Exeter and North Kingstown.

“It’s going to be fantastic to be back,” Balboni said.

New England Cable News, an ABC News affiliate, is owned half by Hearst Corp. and half ComCast. Besides its main studios in Newton, Mass., NECN has news bureaus in Hartford; Worcester, Manchester, N.H., Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vt. Additional information is available at necn.com.