Stop the Cap! would like to welcome Gertraude Hofstätter-Weiß  as our latest contributing editor. 

Born near Cologne, Germany — she came to the United States when she was 20 years old back in 1974 with her parents and extended family and now lives in West Virginia.

Gertraude found us because Frontier Communications found her.

“I found Stop the Cap! while I was trying to understand what was going on with our phone company, Verizon.  We were notified the telephone company that had served us for many years was leaving, to be replaced by this other company called Frontier Communications,” Gertraude says.  “I was at first confused just by the name — West Virginia isn’t an urban state by any means, but I thought we were getting a phone company operating for pioneers.”

Gertraude followed our coverage of the Frontier broadband usage limits and the subsequent takeover of her landline.

“Verizon was bad, but Frontier is worse.  Their DSL is bad enough, but now they want to ration it?”

Gertraude believes that the best way to honor a fight is to join it and give something back.

“I have learned so much about the telecommunications industry and how it relates to American politics in ways I could have never envisioned before reading your articles,” she says.  “I was relieved to read nobody here is paid to express a particular point of view, and there is open disclosure about where the money comes from — consumers like you and I.”

Gertraude believes expanding coverage to include consumer-friendly advice about telecom matters can bring a larger audience to other issues, like Internet Overcharging and Net Neutrality.  Showing consumers the big picture about today’s Big Telecom companies can bring more allies in the fights to come.

Her only request in return — spell her name correctly, which in this case meant finding the “ä” and “ß.”  Otherwise, she would be “Gertraude Hofstatter-Weiss.”

“I didn’t even ask Frontier to put my name in the phone book — how could you trust them to get it right when they get so much wrong?”