When One Giant ISP Goes Down, An Entire Country Will Notice

Millions of Australians were completely cut off from the global Internet Thursday when Telstra, Australia’s primary Internet Service Provider, lost connectivity to all websites hosted outside of the country.

The outage – which occurred between 7:43am and 8:50am – affected all Telstra home and business ADSL broadband, cable and mobile internet customers nationwide, the company said.

A Telstra spokesman said a planned change in the hardware that controls the ebb and flow of its international internet traffic was the cause of yesterday’s nationwide outage.  Telstra’s network service was restored by rolling back the change to its original settings and restarting the equipment.

“We’re continuing to work to understand what happened and why. What we understand from preliminary inquiries is that from 7.43am customers attempting to access websites hosted overseas, or Australian sites with content hosted overseas, received a network error,” the spokesman said.

The result was a torrent of phone calls from upset customers waiting on hold with Telstra customer service, assuming they got their call through, while sipping their morning coffee.

“We have commenced a detailed and thorough technical investigation into the incident. This may take some time to conduct to ensure we fully understand the issue and can put appropriate measures in place to maintain the integrity and operation of our network,” the spokesman said.

An investigation?  Matt in Sydney was bemused with the entire experience:  “I can’t believe the reported resolution was a restart. ‘Have you tried turning it off and on again? Is it plugged in?'”

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 their actual broadband speeds, and questioned them about their overall satisfaction with their online access.

The findings indicate consumers live with what provider they can get.  Even lower rated providers scored “satisfactory,” in part because consumers don’t have many choices with which to compare.

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In the war between coaxial cable modem vs. copper wire DSL technology-of-the-1990s battle, PC Magazine declared the cable industry the winner, consistently delivering faster speeds more reliably than possible with telephone company DSL.  Overall, the average cable speed was “688 Kbps, while the average DSL lets you surf at just 469 Kbps—cable connections, on average, are 47 percent faster.”  Those speed measurements are based on actual web page and content delivery, not on marketed available speed.

In fact, users rated DSL an unsatisfying service, with only 20% of rural and suburban customers very impressed with DSL.  But for many who have no other choice, 50% think it’s good enough.

Or better than nothing.

One DSL provider did extremely well speed-wise in PC Magazine‘s survey, however.  Frontier Communications was rated as the fastest DSL provider in the nation, averaging “real-world” speeds of 724 Kbps, according to the survey.  But even they could only score a 20% customer satisfaction rating, with 30% dissatisfied.

There was one technology that did much, much worse.  Satellite broadband, the last possible choice for many Americans between dial-up and going without, is provided by companies like HughesNet and WildBlue, and they are unmitigated disasters in consumers’ eyes.

Just 6% of Hughes customers were satisfied, with a whopping 74% dissatisfied.  That’s because satellite broadband is extremely slow, averaging just 145 Kbps, heavily capped, and very expensive.  But for some rural Americans who live too far away from their local phone company central office, and will never see cable television, it’s likely their only choice.  Even mobile broadband signals won’t reach many of these consumers.

So what is the good news from all of this?  There is one technology that, hands-down, beats all of the rest — fiber optics to the home.  The nation’s top-rated ISP in PC Magazine’s survey is Verizon FiOS, with 71% satisfied, and just 6% dissatisfied.  Other fiber optic providers, mostly smaller local, regional, or municipal systems, scored 61% satisfaction.  Just one cable company matched that rating – Cablevision’s Optimum Online.

AT&T, with a combination of DSL and their newer U-verse platform, did considerably worse, with 38% satisfied and 24% dissatisfied.

Clearly, subscriber satisfaction comes highest from fiber optic broadband.

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In statewide rankings, it all boils down to where you live.  The more populated states and those with large cities often scored higher than those with lots of wide open rural areas.  The larger the community you live in, the better the chance for fast, quality service.  In states like Wyoming or South Dakota, where more than 57% of customers reported dissatisfaction, it’s more about living with what you’re stuck with.

Frontier’s webmasters have been working overtime today apparently doing some damage control, as well as issuing some clarifications about their new usage caps.   But like much of the mixed and muddied message customer service representatives are sending customers, the website now contains several inconsistencies and contradictions between the product description page and the Acceptable Use Policy.

Because of the changing story, we’ve decided to begin capturing and saving select pages from Frontier’s website and will be adding them to a new Reference Library under construction.   From there, you can download and save Adobe PDF versions of captured web pages, dated for your convenience.   Unfortunately, with the shifting positions of Frontier, what may be on the website today may be gone tomorrow.   If engaged in an effort to cancel service, it may be useful to have some of these pages available to reference, because customer service representatives may not be able to locate them.

Let’s breakdown what has changed in the last 24 hours.

First, it’s obvious readers are making a difference.   Frontier realizes they have a public relations problem on their hands of their own making.   The complaint calls and cancellation requests have clearly made an appropriate impact on the company, although not to the point of shelving the idea of a usage cap.   The company has instead decided to try and manage the story more carefully in hopes of controlling the message.   Unfortunately for them, as long as they want to impose caps on customers, we will be here to debunk the fictional excuses, expose the inconsistencies, and educate consumers about why they should not be convinced that less equals more.

Second, the original Acceptable Use Policy dated July 23, 2008 for residential customers remains in place:

Customers must comply with all Frontier network, bandwidth, data storage and usage limitations. Frontier may suspend, terminate or apply additional charges to the Service if such usage exceeds a reasonable amount of usage. A reasonable amount of usage is defined as 5GB combined upload and download consumption during the course of a 30-day billing period.

This is now in direct contradiction with a new section attached to the product information page for the residential DSL product, which includes this new language:

If I hit 5GB will my service be interrupted?
No. Your service will not be interrupted at 5Gb. You will continue to use our High Speed Internet service without disruption.

Does Frontier plan to limit my use of the Internet?
No, there are no plans to limit customer usage. On average a Frontier High-Speed Internet customer uses less than 1.5GB per month. Frontier residential High-Speed Internet service comes with 5G per month (about 5,000 Megabytes), which is more than double the monthly consumption of most of our subscribers.

We appreciate the company’s apparent new policy not to suspend or terminate accounts for exceeding their 5GB usage cap, but their Acceptable Use Policy requires immediate revision to ensure consistency.

Third, the newest promotional page includes this laugh-out-loud passage.   If you are seriously considering imposing a draconian usage cap of 5GB, which is obviously so unacceptable to a significant number of your customers that are calling to complain and cancel service, maybe this passage  is just pushing things a little too far:

We all love the Internet, and Frontier is committed to offering you all the bandwidth you need and want to take full advantage of the Web! Our basic residential Internet packages offers 5GB usage — that’s the equivalent of 500,000 basic text e-mails, 2,500 Photos, 40,000 Web Pages, over 300 Hours of Online Game Time, 1,250 downloaded songs, or a mixture of the above!

This kind of writing convinces me the folks in Frontier’s Marketing Department have finally joined the party.   Welcome aboard, but remember, if customers were upset enough to protest a 5GB usage cap, rubbing it in their face by telling them you love the Internet and are committed to offering all the bandwidth “you need” (if the year is 1988 and you have a 1200bps dial-up modem) will be seen as fighting words.   Telling customers 5GB a month lets you take full advantage of the Web is fine, if you never do anything except browse low density web pages.   Maybe we can Gopher and Telnet some things as well.   Somehow I doubt the marketing people will understand the irony of either.

The rest doesn’t get much better.   If Frontier wants to learn more about The Internets, they can use The Google to read about average customer reactions to broadband user caps and exactly what defines a “power user.”   Someone who exceeds 5GB a month hardly qualifies.   Also, another inconsistency:  If Frontier has not implemented a usage cap plan, then why does the language implementing it remain in the Residential Acceptable Use Policy?

What are “bandwidth caps” and what does it mean for Internet users?
“Caps” are thresholds where Internet Service Providers could deem usage in excess of “normal” usage. For the majority of our users, bandwidth caps will not be reached. However, some users have multiple servers or computers or download huge files that demand large amounts of available bandwidth. In response to these “power users,” the industry is moving toward “tiered usage” plans that would be applicable when consumption reaches certain bandwidth levels. This type of plan would result in heavy users paying for their fair share of usage and will make sure that average users do not subsidize high-usage consumers. Other Internet Service Providers like Comcast and Time Warner are testing these tiered usage plans. Frontier has not implemented tiered usage plans and will continue to evaluate if and when they would be necessary. If and when Frontier implements a tiered usage plan pricing and usage information will be communicated to all High-Speed customers.

Before we go, let me add there is a bit of good news from Frontier today, which is to their credit, assuming they publish this policy in the form of a written guarantee to customers, which amend their term contracts to assure them this language will remain in place regardless of if it appears on the website or not.   Until a written assurance is in hand, a promotional  blurb on a product description page is  insufficient to make me withdraw my recommendation to cancel service within the 30 day opt-out window:

If Frontier rolls out tiered usage plans, will my Pricing / Plan change if I am on a Frontier Price Protection Plan?
Pricing for customers on Frontier’s Price Protection Plan will not change during your initial term commitment if we roll out tiered usage plans.

This language should be slightly modified to state that any overage fees for bandwidth in excess of 5GB do not apply to Frontier Price Protection Plan customers, and that no penalty or disruption in service will occur if a customer exceeds the 5GB usage cap planned for more  formal implementation in the near future.   Assuming that language is in place, it means that customers on a 12-36 term commitment will not have to worry about any usage caps and they will not apply to them for the remainder of their contract. But, again, an inconsistency remains here as well.   The Acceptable Use Policy clearly states the 5GB limit is in place right now.   Further reference to this should also be included on the Terms & Conditions page, which also contains the opt-out clause, to clarify that usage caps do not apply to customers with a contract that does not specifically include them.

Stop the Cap! continues to call on Frontier to discard the usage cap limitation altogether.   Next week, we’ll have some better ideas for Frontier to consider that will not alienate their customer base and positions them to begin competing more effectively in their service areas.

This article was updated at 11:58pm, August 6, 2008 and replaces language from an article entitled “Breaking News” posted earlier this evening.

Citizens Communications is no more.

Citizens Communications is no more.   The parent company of Frontier Communications is dropping their old name and will just call themselves Frontier Communications going forward.

“By aligning our corporate name with the brand name used throughout our markets, we will increase the visibility of our company with shareholders, leverage the strength of the Frontier brand, and make the financial community more aware of our accomplishments in the communities we share,” said Maggie Wilderotter, chairwoman and CEO.

“Using the name Frontier Communications is appropriate for our company since 100 percent of our customer interactions involve that name,” she said.

The new identity of Frontier Communications, already familiar in areas like Rochester, N.Y., will now also appear in former Citizens territory.

Frontier Communications began when Rochester Telephone Corporation of Rochester, N.Y.  sought to disassociate itself with the identity of just being a telephone company, and rebranded itself as “Frontier Communications” to help market its data and experimental video products, as well as dropping the localism implied by Rochester – the company owned small independent telephone companies in several states around the country.

Frontier’s name  was  kept when the company  was acquired by Global Crossing, Ltd., Hamilton,  Bermuda. Global Crossing, Ltd., now a shadow of its former self after declaring bankruptcy in 2002, sold Frontier to Citizens Communications, which has run the company since.

Frontier’s identify online has been around since the earliest days the company got into the Internet Service Provider business, as Frontiernet.net.   Dial-up service continues under that name, but the company’s high speed DSL business operates  as Frontier High Speed Internet.

Dave Burstein, reporting for GigaOM, said that two FCC Commissioners were overheard discussing Frontier’s decision to cap its customers at 5GB of usage per month at an FCC hearing in Washington.

The Federal Communications Commission has taken an interest in the broadband industry and reviewing its competitiveness and service, particularly to underserved rural areas. They are also concerned about net neutrality – where large Internet Service Providers can offer preferential treatment to their partners with faster backbone speeds, exemptions from usage caps, and more prominent placement of their content.

Burstein reports, “Frontier in 2007 had capital spending of $315,793 which seems like a lot until you note their Depreciation expense was $374,435. [A] five gigabyte [cap] is so low even a 2002 style network can handle it, but not maintaining the network is going to hurt them and their customers.”