SubscribeSome Frontier Communications customers in western New York have been receiving notification that effective October 15th, the rental price of the ADSL modem Frontier provides customers increased $3.00 per month, from $3.99 to $6.99 per month.
Customers on a “price protection agreement” should not have seen this rental fee increase. If you have, please let us know in the comments.
Frontier’s modem rental fee can often be avoided if you purchase your own DSL modem, assuming its compatible with Frontier’s system, and have them provision it for service. Several of these modems appear regularly on eBay, sold by customers who ended up owning them after their term contracts ended with other providers.
One of the problems with Frontier’s DSL service is that the “out the door” price is significantly higher after taxes, fees, surcharges, and modem rental costs are factored.
Always insist on obtaining a total price, including all taxes and fees, before committing yourself to any ISP, particularly if a long term contract is involved.
$168 dollars over a two year contract…. you can purchase a modem for a quarter to half that price! I’m surprised that Phil didn’t bash Frontier more on this fact!
I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.
As Wednesday Addams said, “wait.”
🙂
Im not sure what STC could do given that Phil dumped them because of speed issues I do not doubt any ones numbers on what the providers are making but the economy it still in the tank and OB just said from the great wall of china that we spend to much money and could be looking at another double digit recession. SO just like bank rates they are raising everything knowing regulation might be around the corner. Look for more of this soon. Cell phones are killing them but I remain a hard core copper phone nut because it… Read more »
When I signed up for Frontier DSL when TWC was going to implement caps, I was told there was no way to avoid renting a modem(and was promised a $50 credit that never materialized b/c I complained about this). If I could return the POS modem they give out and replace it with a cheap DSL bridge & my own router I’d do it in a heartbeat.
My Frontier bill was a real mess for two months thanks to my DSL experience, so I’m not surprised your credit didn’t materialize. If you are still using Frontier, I’d call the Executive Office customer service (number in the front of the White Pages) and ask for that $50. Bringing your own modem to the service is one of those “your results may vary” things, although some people have managed to do so and get the fee dropped. A lot of former Telus (in western Canada) DSL customers sell the same modems Frontier uses on eBay so keep an eye… Read more »
These Frontier modem rental fees are bogus. When I had DSL years ago, there were no fees for the modem. They have had them for a litttle while now and I feel it is very misleading and wrong to have them. They always disclose the fee, but they make it look like they are lower in price.
Raising the fee is worse to me than increasing the cost of service. They can still advertise those $24.99 prices, but now they really are over $30.
It’s clearly an attempt to raise the price on customers with backdoor nickle and diming, especially if they don’t offer an easy way to purchase and bring your own modem to the service without a lot of Scooby Doo-like mystery. When consumers get inconsistent answers, many will be afraid of buying a modem outright they aren’t absolutely positive Frontier will accept and provision for service, ending that modem rental fee for good.
My SpeedStream 6520 doesn’t have any rental fee on it as no such fee appears on my bill. It seems that they’ve been tacking that on ever since the SE567s started being used. But more of a reason to use your own modem. Just for the notice, make sure you have a DSL modem which can support the VPI/VCI Encapsulation settings of 0/35 which Frontier typically uses, and possibly 8/35 as well should you oddly enough be on that. Also, the modem can be a “dumb” or a bridged modem, or it can be a modem that supports PPPoE or… Read more »
Hi, I am a Frontier DSL subscriber in a small town in Minnesota where Frontier has the sole market for this service. I rent the Speedstream 6520 modem. The price started out at $3.99 in 2007 and is now $6.99. This infuriates me since I have no choice of ISP’s. I have my own Speedstream 6520 modem which I used in Canada successfully with another provider. When I try to use it in Mn on my laptop, I am not able to access the internet. What am I missing? Does Frontier do something special to interface their modem to my… Read more »
Were you a Telus DSL customer per chance? Used Telus Speedstream modems turn up on eBay all the time and should be able to be re-purposed with Frontier. You have to contact Frontier technical support and get them to “provision” your new modem to be recognized by their service. I would think giving them the device’s MAC address, which is probably somewhere on the modem or the box (or available from the status screen) would be generally enough for them to access it and configure it to work on Frontier. You should be able to bring your own device to… Read more »
Frontier pulled this stunt in WV in early 2009. I bought my own Speedstream and mailed theirs back to them. All with their knowledge and permission. Now, here we are in Feb. of 2010, guess what? My SpeedStream rental fee has suddenly reapeared on my bill! After a conversation with their billing folks they now, suddenly claim they have no record of ever having had a conversation with me regarding owning my own modem, nor did they ever recieve their modem back in March of 09… Funny how this just “suddenly” happened! They also claim that “I’ve been using their… Read more »