SubscribeAnn Burr, chairman and general manager of the Rochester division of Frontier Corporation, wrote a Letter to the Editor in this morning’s Democrat & Chronicle, claiming the company’s usage caps and limits were “rumors” and untrue.
Broadband usage won’t be limited
The popularity of the Internet continues to grow. Today, the average residential customer on Frontier’s network uses 1.5 gigabytes of bandwidth each month. A smaller percentage of heavy users may consume as much as 1,000 times that amount. All customers, urban and rural, should have choices based on their individual use. Beginning next year, Frontier will provide customers with tools to measure their bandwidth usage. We believe customers should be in control and pay only for the bandwidth they need. If a customer needs capacity for streaming video or simple e-mails, customers will have a choice of plans.
There are rumors that Frontier plans to limit bandwidth usage. That is not true. We do not limit or control bandwidth consumption. We believe in providing the best Internet experience with a dedicated line to each customer. Frontier customers want reliability, choice, and most of all, value for all of their Internet needs, large and small. We strive to bring innovative solutions to our customers every day.
ANN BURR
ROCHESTERThe writer is chairman and general manager, Frontier Communications of Rochester.
Burr should fully be aware her company is not the victim of some Internet rumor and smear campaign. As StoptheCap! has documented since this summer, Frontier’s public relations crisis is one of their own making, starting with the company’s unreasonable definition of reasonable use at just 5GB per month, comparable to most mobile telephone data plans. The company’s own acceptable use policies gave them the right to terminate accounts that exceeded their definition of reasonable use, not to mention what other costs may eventually be imposed for those that exceed that definition.
We will be publishing an expanded rebuttal to this letter here shortly. A much more limited response may be published in the Democrat & Chronicle. Eager readers who don’t want to wait can simply click the Frontier category and review our entire collection of reports on Frontier’s debacle and see the ever-evolving positions of this company and decide for themselves whether Frontier is the victim, or their customers are.
Other stories of interest:
- Management At Frontier Still Gung Ho For 5GB Cap… Just Not Until They Can Sell You On It
- Taking the “Citizens” Out of Citizens Communications
- Breaking News: Frontier Modifies Their Position On Usage Caps… Again
- Frontier Tells Customers “Not to Worry”; The Cap is a “Guideline”
- Frontier: Now With Prices Up To $10.80 Per Gigabyte, Limit Five GB
To add fuel to the fire, I was told on Friday that Frontier was indeed intending to put a cap on their DSL service but that it would NOT be implemented on current customers. Only new subscribers would be subjected to this cap. This came from someone who is associated with a fellow from Frontier. As to *exactly* what this fellow’s position is with Frontier I have no clue and couldn’t seem to get an exact answer to my query about that. All this “information” floating around out there is making a lot of people either very nervous/upset or very complacent. Current customers, like my friend, who hear this believe this cap won’t touch them and thus have no concerns…in other words, have on big blinders, IMO of course.
I await your rebuttal.
I submitted a letter to Frontier’s Consumer Affairs department back in AUGUST. The just got back to me. Almost 2.5 months later. I think I’m going to respond and thank them for their prompt attention to this matter.
My original letter:
Hello,
I have recently found that Frontier will be imposing a 5GB/month usage cap on DSL service. I found this out not through any official communications from Frontier, but through The Consumerist (http://consumerist.com/5032824/frontier-charges-up-to-1080-per-gigabyte-for-high-speed-internet) and DSLReports (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Frontier-Imposes-5-GB-Cap-For-DSL-96546). I would like to go on record as saying that this upsets me greatly. In this day and age, a 5GB limit is absolutely ludicrous. For example, you offer access to ESPN360 for your customers. This is a streaming video service. It would not take watching many live sports events to reach this limit. I am also a Linux user, and as such, I tend to download the newest releases. Each release is approximately 4.5GB, so you could see how I could easily reach this cap in 1 day. I can assure you that, early termination fee or not, if these caps are imposed, I will most certainly cancel all of my services with you (which is 2 phone lines plus my DSL), and move to a competitor that is much more reasonable. I have thus far been extremely satisfied with your service, but having a limit of this nature would absolutely be a deal-breaker.
I look forward to discussing this issue further.
Their Response:
Frontier is providing (NOT LIMITING) all customers with a minimum of 5GB of usage on a monthly basis. The Company has made NO DECISION at this time to charge for additional usage but wants to start to educate customers about their usage. Frontier is working on a set of tools for customers that will give them visibility to their usage and a simulator to better understand how much usage different internet activities like movie downloads or gaming consume. Today, our average customer uses around 1GB per month so we are providing ample usage for their day to day activities.
Looks like a heated debate is going on…
debate for sure…but lots of valid points….
debate? frontier is making that stuff up “our average customer uses around 1GB per month” maybe in 1986
What i find funny is they first said “our average customer uses around 1.5 GB per month” now they are back pedaling and say it’s 1 GB per month. Whats next another change in the story and it’s really only 900 MB.
At the rate frontier is going we will be back in the stone age at the end of the year. I can see frontier next replacing all phones with your own personal smoke signal.
So let me get this straight. They are providing a minimum of 5GB per month? I didn’t know there was a minimum? Sounds like a bunch of BS. And the 1.5 or 1GB per month average probably tallies their dial up users to drive the average down. I seriously doubt that a high speed subscriber is going to, on-average, spend 1GB a month of bandwidth. So much for “Cloud Computing.” As more and more becomes available online, we are simply going to be paying more because they know we will have no choice.
So watch this, I’m going to predict the future:
They will begin by “educating you” on your usage. Then they will change the plans to match what you use giving you a guilt trip because you are “above the average use.” Maybe they will even throw in some “green” terminology saying that you have exceeded your TCP/IP fingerprint on the planet.
I’ve got a dsl line with frontier with, unfortunately, no other choice for high speed internet in the area. I have also been having line issues lately (First reported to frontier on 12/31/08) and am still waiting to get those resolved. I get static on my phone line just about every other time I pick up and my dsl upload speeds have gone down the tubes. I’m sure the issue is related.
After contacting them the first time my dsl max connection speed also dropped from 1344 to 768 which has me pretty upset as well.
Strangely the issue is worse at night as the connection was fairly stable during most of the daytime hours today.
A quick scan of the logs from my modem reveal quite a few disconnects though:
First uptime in log: 2009-01-04 18:26:45
Last time in log: 2009-01-06 00:50:54
First uptime to end: 1 day, 6:24:09
Number of disconnects: 493
I also don’t find all the talk of the 5GB cap all that amusing when I think about how much I can go through in a single evening. Online videos, music, streaming radio, youtube. It’s a good thimg I’m not a gamer because buying two games online per month would likely blow that cap as well. If they think 5GB is plenty then they have no clue what the internet can be used for in recent times.
I even have some video taken from Christmas that my parents would like me to upload but at the speed I have with the lousy connection lately each one would take well over 3 hours and the longest uptime I’ve had in the past two days is under 4 hours.
I wish I had another choice.
I am completely irate at this point. I finally got these assholes to get my parents a fair rate (not the best) on 768kb DSL at $30 (definitely not paying $50 when AT&T and all the rest have plainly been selling much higher speeds at even $20-25 for the past 8 years).
So I get this good rate now this crap. This company is always pulling shit, they should be brought down.
I don’t even mind these caps as much as the service given. I have called numerous times regarding the poor service given to people in the south Georgia area. I’ve seen packet loss reaching 20%. On average I get 5 – 10% loss hitting Google.com. Its not my equipment as this problem is affecting multiple people at multiple locations. If there is anything on my end I can try, I’ve done it. Technicians make “appointments” and never show.
I’m sorry that I have derailed the subject but TO ME this is more frustrating than caps. If I could get 5GB of great speed with ZERO packet loss I would be thrilled. This is just a poor company looking for more excuses to make an extra buck.
Dear Frontier,
I have contacted you to get DSL service only. I was told a bunch of crap about how it can’t be separated from the phone. Not long ago my connection failed I called, and was updated to a nice SEPARATE DSL only line if I try to use it as my phone I get noise. And, I my old CRAPPY phone line still.
Limit people and we WILL simply go do other things instead of PAY over inflated prices for crap like this. I suggest someone talk to Renee at 1-888-281-7501 EXT 8113 and tell her to return phone calls left for her LAZY self.
I would like the DSL I have NOW ONLY at the same price of 29.98 a month which is unlimited NO NEED to install anything as it is BOTH wired and wireless in one neat little package. You took care of that with the FREE upgrade to the proper new equipment recently installed to bring my connection back to life.
You overcharge as it is on things, and really offer poor service. When you where in Rochester, NY as in really here not in Florida and out of the country the service ROCKED! The prices where much better, and well… I would HOPE this would have remained your core focus.
LMAO! Like hell it is, it’s money. Tell you what on my 11k a year I will sooner go without your companies services after 15 or 16 years of it and go totally cell phone on you. Surf the net from a web able cell phone, and get a great discount of25% or MORE for where I work.
A
I like your blog and wanted to say keep up the good work. Do you plan on posting more soon?
[...] Frontier Communications: “Today, the average residential customer on Frontier’s network uses 1.5 gigabytes of bandwidth each month.” — Ann Burr 10/10/2008 [...]