SubscribeA well placed source at Frontier told Stop the Cap! that the response to the quietly introduced 5GB monthly usage cap has not been positive among some of the more online aware employees at the company, who have expressed concern to management about how exactly they can explain and justify a monthly cap which is as low, if not lower, than many cell phone companies charge for their wireless plans.
The source told us that the impetus for the cap wasn’t just a concern about a few bad apples “overusing” their resources, but individuals in some markets purchasing multiple commercial or residential accounts and attempting to resell that bandwidth as part of some home-grown ISP business. The legal department quickly assembled some changes which were quietly introduced, without any fanfare, as part of Frontier’s residential acceptable use policy.
Our take? The logic train derailed on this one. Assuming for a moment that resellers were the driving force behind this action, Frontier’s response fails on several counts:
- Commercial DSL customers are not currently subject to any usage caps so a reseller need only configure multiple commercial accounts and go right on reselling without any fear of breaking a usage cap.
- Existing provisions in Frontier’s policies forbid the resale or repurposing of their product already. Resellers can be turned off today without any punitive measures taken against their entire residential customer base.
- The imposition of this change in terms buried in fine print is a sneaky way to attempt to force customers under multi-year contract to agree to the changes by default. Under the provisions of Frontier’s contract, customers automatically agree to any changes in terms published on their website unless they opt out in writing within 30 days. Frontier assumes most people will never notice, and considering the lousy quality of their website, where finding definitive information about anything is an all-day affair, that would not be a surprising outcome.
Those who are aware of the local broadband market who are also working at Frontier have every right to be worried. Their careers may evaporate along with Frontier’s customer base who will almost certainly flee the service the moment they become aware of the outrageous limitations Frontier seeks to impose on their customers. It’s a boneheaded move by Frontier, but just another in a long line of foolish mistakes on the part of this company, which is frittering away their core business with rate increases, a deteriorating network, and now this.
On a side note, we are also told that Frontier is no longer actually providing anything close to the 10mbps download/1mbps upload service they are now advertising. Our source tells us the network could not sustain anything close to those speeds, so they have quietly cut back to speeds closer to 7mbps/450kbps. Aging infrastructure and lack of investment will do that to you.
Other stories of interest:
Hi Phil,
That excuse is lame but are they saying that this is a big misunderstanding or are the caps going to apply anyway?
Robb Topolski
(on VZ, fortunately)
I have an article forthcoming later today to add more to the mix here. The caps are real in the sense they are now a part of the Acceptable Use Policy, but Frontier reps as of this afternoon as saying they are not currently being enforced.
However, as you’ll learn, that false sense of security helps them run the clock out on the 30 day window of opportunity people will have to opt out of the caps or their contract (assuming they are on a contract). A lot of folks will simply think that the fact they are not being enforced protects them, but come fall, if they decide they will enforce them, anyone on one of Frontier’s 12-36 month contracts is screwed, because their continued use of the service 30 days after notice was provided of the change constitutes their acceptance of the new policy.
Our position here will always be, no formal usage cap is the best policy. The existing terms and conditions of every ISP provide plenty of weasel words and wiggle room to individually deal with anyone truly abusing the service (running a server, doing BitTorrent 24/7 and maxing out your connection, reselling the service, etc.)
I am opposed to arguing over what cap is the best cap because it means we already forfeit the argument. It also means guaranteed extra profits for the broadband industry as new applications come online which will naturally consume additional bandwidth, bringing people closer and closer to what may have sounded reasonable in 2008, but is pitiful in 2010. Just ten years ago, nobody would have thought 5GB was an unreasonable amount. Now it’s a DVD or a couple of Linux builds.
Thanks for commenting!
After having nothing but problems with Frontier , being lied to by thier customer service , and spending over 2 hours tonight on the phone with people that do not care about the over $1400. bucks a year I spend on thier shitty service, I will be calling comcast cable monday for that $42 true 12 meg download. and the wife and I will just use our cell phones.
FYI Frontier can change anything they want , and will not tell the cusomer crap, I just went from having a 8 meg dl for $39.99 service for over 2 years , to a 3 meg dl for the same price , with NO explaination , and when I called they treated me like s**t.
Frontier thinks they have us by the “short ones” here in Elk Grove, CA
I’m guessing they have never heard of VONAGE.
Russ