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 […]
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We have to stop these stealing as Frontier will continue to do so in the future!!!
And even if you have what you think is a price protection plan, they can add this surcharge to your bill. Two and half years ago I signed up for an internet package with a price guaranteed for life, but because of the fine print that says the guaranteed price doesn’t include taxes or surcharges, Frontier effectively raised the cost of my service. I know Frontier/Verizon was losing money on FIOS — is this their way of recouping some of that?
Thanks for this article, STC. I’ve been in an exchange of views with Frontier’s office at 41st St. in Everett, WA. Here’s the fifth excuse for the HSI surcharge: “The official reason is this: This pass thru surcharge on High Speed Internet service is due to increased costs brought on by the rapid volume growth of services like internet video.” That’s an exact quote from someone in the Customer Relations/GM Partnership Team, who also offered up a ‘but we’re not as bad as Comcast’ argument. Great way to make the sale, eh? $1.50 times unknown tens of thousands of customers… Read more »
The class-action lawsuit is in Minnesota. Here’s the link.
http://enterpriseitexperts.com/customers-sue-frontier-over-broadband-surcharge/
We have to stop this junk fee. If we don’t, frontier will continue to charge more under the name “state taxes and other charges”!!
I know its an all post but it is the current top list for “hsi surcharge” searches.
Just talked to a frontier rep “it is a federal fee mandatory for all internet subscribers”
The modem rental fee is mandatory from Frontier regardless if you have your own modem or use theirs.
They are wrong. There is no federally mandated HSI surcharge. In fact, the only federally mandated fee is the one that funds the Universal Service Fund, which is now being reformed to help divert money to rural broadband.
Frontier is charging just another bill-padding junk fee on their customers, just like the always-increasing “modem rental fee.”
It is why I don’t recommend Frontier products to my friends and family. They deliver lower speeds and charge higher out the door prices than the local cable company. It just makes so sense to do business with them.