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Frontier: 75% of Our Customers Hate Their Cable Company, 50% Would Switch With the Right Offer

Phillip Dampier September 30, 2013 Broadband Speed, Competition, Consumer News, Frontier, Rural Broadband 8 Comments

frontierFrontier Communications believes it can win back disconnected customers, many taking their business to competing cable companies, with marketing offers that avoid tricks, traps, and hidden fees.

Frontier executives told investors on a recent quarterly results conference call that the phone company was adding new broadband customers poached from local cable operators, unusual as DSL market share has eroded in favor of cable broadband.

“A lot of folks in [the markets we inherited from Verizon] took cable because that was the only game in town, and it didn’t mean that they liked their cable operator,” said CEO Maggie Wilderotter. “We did surveys in these markets, 75% of their customers don’t like them and 50% of them said they’d be willing to switch for the right offer.”

Wilderotter said a significant part of the phone network it acquired from Verizon was initially not compatible with broadband service. Frontier’s market share in broadband was predictably low until it expanded broadband service in those areas.

Wilderotter: Most of our customers are satisfied with 6Mbps broadband.

Wilderotter: Most of our customers are satisfied with 6Mbps broadband.

As the invests in its broadband facilities, market share has improved, as have speeds in some areas.

“Forty percent of our footprint has 20Mbps today, so we’ve continued to invest even though 80% of what we sell is 6Mbps and if we look at the usage patterns of our customers, it’s under 6Mbps on a monthly basis,” said Wilderotter. “Somewhere between 12 and 40Mbps is probably going to be the sweet spot of what we’re going to have to build to but we put in the right backbone in order to make that happen.”

Frontier claims its entire middle mile network between central office facilities and individual neighborhoods has been upgraded with fiber, giving Frontier added capacity.

Wilderotter told attendees at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference that Frontier will continue the practice of selling simplified pricing packages that de-emphasize temporary discounts and high value awards like Apple gift cards or television sets. The company renewed its current commitment not to leverage modem fees, impose lengthy contracts, or offer temporary discounts that expire midway through a term commitment.

“Our current bundles really resonate well,” said Frontier chief operating officer Dan McCarthy. “It gives people predictability, it doesn’t really require commitment from a price protection plan, and there are no hidden fees.”

Price seems to matter a lot to Frontier customers.

“It isn’t always about speed for customers — 80% of the customers’ sales that we have today are for more the basic speed level of 6Mbps,” said McCarthy. “They have the ability to take 12 or 20Mbps max in many cases but they still choose 6Mbps. It’s really more about service, it’s about the price value equation, it’s about simplicity and really not having surprises.”

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Bill Jelavich
Bill Jelavich
10 years ago

I would not be happy with the 6Mb/s DSL, but I have Frontier’s 20/2 VDSL offering and I am happy with it. Could it be faster? yes, but the local cable monopoly (Suddenlink) has similar top speeds, but they can’t consistently push the upload window like I can with DSL. Makes all the difference for push work around.

Bob in Illinois
Bob in Illinois
10 years ago

Maggie: “80% of what we sell is 6 Mbps.” And, we are one of those former Verizon/GTE areas that Frontier bought a few years ago. Interesting, since the local Frontier lead tech manager here told me in March 2013 that only 3Mbps is possible at my home. This in a town where Comcast now competes with up to 105 Mbps. While Frontier refuses to upgrade here, we have a CLEC expanding fiber FTTH now in our town of 15K people. Speeds of 20Mbps – 200Mbps will be offered. A nearby town of 16K also has the same Comcast speeds, and… Read more »

BobInPeoria
BobInPeoria
10 years ago

When we moved in about 9 years ago, my wife moved her Insight cable contract over. Then, Insight sold out our area to Comcast. Meanwhile we first had dial up, then switched over to Verizon DSL, when it became available. Back then, Insight’s internet speeds were very slow.

When I switched from Comcast to DirecTV a few years back(because Comcast gave our area bad service/hardware/HD choices), I went directly to a local DirecTV contractor. I did not want to involve Verizon in the billing, since I figures that it would be a big billing mess.

Lee Cook
Lee Cook
10 years ago

I would be happy with 6 Mbps. I only get 1.5 Mbps on my Frontier 3.0 Mbps. Distance to the dslam is not the limiting factor. Line noise is. Another person who lives in town close to the central office should be able to get 10 Mbps. A frontier tech hooked a laptop up that his house and showed him that line noise capped his speed at 1.7 Mbps. He is now on Comcast at 30 Mbps. I am at the end of the electric line and the phone line or a rural road. Comcast comes down the road 3… Read more »

Paul Houle
Paul Houle
10 years ago
Reply to  Lee Cook

@Lee, same here. I get 1.5 Mbps. I signed up on their bizzaro offer to have two DSL connections because that’s all I could get. When one of them stops working I can switch the other, also I can do big downloads on one and still be able to use the web (maybe even ssh) on the other. Whenever they have a public meeting about the state of broadband in my community, they pack the house at the town hall. Nobody is happy with Frontier. I think the only customer who gets 6MBps here is the gas station that’s across… Read more »

Bill Jelavich
Bill Jelavich
10 years ago

Lee,

That is when I would just move. My work needs are too great of a trade off of 1.5. But I understand the impossibility of it.

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