Now selling for the "go away" price of $500 for installation.

Frontier Communications has proven it can successfully herd customers off the award-winning advanced fiber network it inherited from Verizon Communications just by increasingly gouging customers until they call and cancel.

The phone company reports success in ridding itself of 9,900 FiOS TV customers in the third quarter alone, and 3,100 FiOS Internet customers left with them in Indiana and Oregon.

Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter and other company executives made it known last spring that FiOS fiber optics was the unwanted stepchild best left forgotten when telling investors the company considered the fiber network unprofitable.  The company has since taken to hike rates and raised the price for service installation to as much as $500.  The combined increases have made the cable competition — Comcast — blush and look downright cheap by comparison.

Where did Frontier’s customers go?  Several left for Comcast, but others were persuaded to switch to an aggressively-priced satellite TV promotion, at least until it expires.  Frontier added 12,200 satellite subscriptions nationwide last quarter and 16,200 new DSL customers, many in ex-Verizon service areas that currently have no other choice for broadband.