An endangered species?

[Update: 7pm ET — Shortly after we went to press with this story, The Oregonian published its version confirming our story — the install fee is up from $79 to $500.]

A Frontier customer service representative e-mailed Stop the Cap! yesterday informing us Frontier has plans to boost the installation fee for Frontier FiOS TV service to a whopping $500 per household.

“If that’s not a big enough shock, they were originally not even going to tell customers about it,” the source tell us. “They were trying to get this started on March 1st but the legal department has put a kibosh on the whole ‘not notifying the customer thing’.”

Now, the installation fee has been pushed back pending appropriate customer notification.

Stop the Cap! contacted Frontier yesterday and today looking for a statement regarding this, but we’ve received no response from representatives in the midwest and western regions despite multiple requests.

A Google search for Frontier FiOS instead turns up Frontier's paid advertising for free satellite TV.

Frontier’s FiOS service, adopted from the sale of Verizon landlines last year, has certainly seen a dramatic decline in visibility over the past several weeks.  Google users searching for “Frontier FIOS” will find paid advertising from Frontier directing them instead to a free satellite dish offer.

Frontier’s website buries all mentions of FiOS in fine print at the bottom of web pages promoting DirecTV instead.  In fact, we cannot find any Frontier FiOS website or an invitation to order the service directly from Frontier.

Slapping an enormous installation fee on customers would be one way to discourage customers from signing up for the service, which was rocked by a $30 monthly rate increase announcement earlier this year.  Frontier officials claim to remain undecided about how they intend to handle the fiber-to-the-home service as late as last week’s 4th quarter earnings conference call.

But should a $500 installation fee become reality, it’s clear the company doesn’t want customers beating down their doors to sign up.

Frontier officials have noted the number of customers served is too small for the company to earn volume discount pricing.