Recent Headlines
October 2, 2009
Be Sure to Read Part One: Astroturf Overload — Broadband for America = One Giant Industry Front Group for an important introduction to what this super-sized industry front group is all about. Members of Broadband for America Red: A company or group actively engaging in anti-consumer lobbying, opposes Net Neutrality, supports Internet Overcharging, belongs to […]
October 2, 2009
Astroturf: One of the underhanded tactics increasingly being used by telecom companies is “Astroturf lobbying” – creating front groups that try to mimic true grassroots, but that are all about corporate money, not citizen power. Astroturf lobbying is hardly a new approach. Senator Lloyd Bentsen is credited with coining the term in the 1980s to […]
September 27, 2009
Hong Kong remains bullish on broadband. Despite the economic downturn, City Telecom continues to invest millions in constructing one of Hong Kong’s largest fiber optic broadband networks, providing fiber to the home connections to residents. City Telecom’s HK Broadband service relies on an all-fiber optic network, and has been dubbed “the Verizon FiOS of Hong […]
September 23, 2009
BendBroadband, a small provider serving central Oregon, breathlessly announced the imminent launch of new higher speed broadband service for its customers after completing an upgrade to DOCSIS 3. Along with the launch announcement came a new logo of a sprinting dog the company attaches its new tagline to: “We’re the local dog. We better be […]
September 23, 2009
Stop the Cap! reader Rick has been educating me about some of the new-found aggression by Shaw Communications, one of western Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, in expanding its business reach across Canada. Woe to those who get in the way. Novus Entertainment is already familiar with this story. As Stop the Cap! reported previously, Shaw […]
September 22, 2009
The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, the Canadian equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, may be forced to consider American broadband policy before defining Net Neutrality and its role in Canadian broadband, according to an article published today in The Globe & Mail. [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s] proposal – to codify and enforce some […]
September 21, 2009
In March 2000, two cable magnates sat down for the cable industry equivalent of My Dinner With Andre. Fine wine, beautiful table linens, an exquisite meal, and a Monopoly board with pieces swapped back and forth representing hundreds of thousands of Canadian consumers. Ted Rogers and Jim Shaw drew a line on the western Ontario […]
September 11, 2009
Just like FairPoint Communications, the Towering Inferno of phone companies haunting New England, Frontier Communications is making a whole lot of promises to state regulators and consumers, if they’ll only support the deal to transfer ownership of phone service from Verizon to them. This time, Frontier is issuing a self-serving press release touting their investment […]
September 7, 2009
I see it took all of five minutes for George Ou and his friends at Digital Society to be swayed by the tunnel vision myopia of last week’s latest effort to justify Internet Overcharging schemes. Until recently, I’ve always rationalized my distain for smaller usage caps by ignoring the fact that I’m being subsidized by […]
September 1, 2009
In 2007, we took our first major trip away from western New York in 20 years and spent two weeks an hour away from Calgary, Alberta. After two weeks in Kananaskis Country, Banff, Calgary, and other spots all over southern Alberta, we came away with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Good Alberta […]
August 31, 2009
A federal appeals court in Washington has struck down, for a second time, a rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission to limit the size of the nation’s largest cable operators to 30% of the nation’s pay television marketplace, calling the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The 30% rule, designed to keep no single company from controlling […]
August 27, 2009
Less than half of Americans surveyed by PC Magazine report they are very satisfied with the broadband speed delivered by their Internet service provider. PC Magazine released a comprehensive study this month on speed, provider satisfaction, and consumer opinions about the state of broadband in their community. The publisher sampled more than 17,000 participants, checking […]
Subscribe
Frontier Communications has found a new way to make a little extra from customers who disconnect their Internet service.
According to Frontier, broadband services subject to the new fee include:
A brilliant business move by Frontier executives to profit off the rampant bleeding of their customers.
Normally companies try to profit from the aquisition and retention of customers, but clearly Frontier has figured out some devious new way to increase revenue as people cancel and flee from their sub-par service and high rates.
They should take this opportunity and lay off more service people, increase broadband rates another 5%, and double the “disconnect fee” to easily triple their income from this new scheme.
Funny you should mention that. Customers are reporting a significant increase in the USF fees and some are seeing a $1 rate hike for Internet service later this year.
Not only is Frontier at/near the bottom of broadban ISP rankings “by a leading US consumer magazine”, but they are the stupidest utility that I have ever dealt with personally. It took them weeks to respond to an email question, without giving an answer to me. And now, they pull this stunt!! Have you ever heard of competition? You are headed for the scrap heap! In economic theory, it’s called “creative destruction”, if memory serves. Capitalism.. you can’t handle it.!?!. I would rather deal with Comcast, and they are one of the most hated companies in the US(as judged by… Read more »
(corrected for spelling) Not only is Frontier at/near the bottom of broadband ISP rankings “by a leading US consumer magazine”, but they are the stupidest utility that I have ever dealt with personally. It took them weeks to respond to an email question, without giving an answer to me. And now, they pull this stunt!! Have you ever heard of competition? You are headed for the scrap heap! In economic theory, it’s called “creative destruction”, if memory serves. Capitalism.. you can’t handle it.!?!. I would rather deal with Comcast, and they are one of the most hated companies in the… Read more »
NOTICE: EXISTING CUSTOMERS *ARE* AFFECTED.
They just attempted to charge this fee to me. I have been a Frontier customer since before it was Verizon here, am not under any contract, and just received a new bill that is $1 more than last month. They told me I had to pay $9.99 to end service. Obviously, I never agreed to any such terms. Eventually, after much discussion, I was able to get the fee removed, but I guarantee most will not go through the trouble. Contact your attorney general about this fraudulent action by Frontier.
That is yet more bad training for Frontier CSR’s. I am getting a sea of complaints about fraudulent “installation fees” showing up on customer bills this week for Second Connect service that was supposed to be installed free. Some customers were billed despite having the service installed months earlier.
We are investigating.
We have been with Froniter for 3-4 years and their service has gone from horrid to down right terrible holidays weekends and 4pm-11 Pm speeds drop 80% latency goes from 80 ms to 300-2000 avg about 800 not only are they nearly as bad as dial up their latency is worse. not only that is they avdvertise on their website now that they can offer you a 25Mbit connection for the price we are paying for the 1.2 mbit that they can’t even deliver on they are suckering more people in while they do nothing to upgrade their lines and… Read more »