Stop the Cap! readers will recall we pulled the plug on Frontier Communications with the disconnection of our landline back in early February.  After at least 25 years doing business with Rochester Telephone Corporation, later Frontier-Global Crossing, later Frontier-Citizens Communications, we had enough.  Frontier Communications has done nothing of merit for the metropolitan Rochester, N.Y., area since the late 1990s.  Their DSL broadband service is handily beaten in quality, reliability, and price by cable competitor Time Warner Cable, and Frontier’s lack of willingness to invest in something better for their largest service area of nearly one million people in western New York has left us cold.  After a one week experiment with Frontier’s DSL service in 2009, we dropped the service like a hot potato after it achieved an underwhelming 3.1Mbps in the town of Brighton, less than one mile from the Rochester city line.

In early February, our last remaining service — the landline — was transferred to Time Warner Cable.  But even on the way out the door, Frontier continued to disappoint.  After more than two months (and two invoices later), Frontier had still not refunded our credit balance of $26.09.  We’re a long way from Rochester Telephone, a well-regarded predecessor to Frontier which traditionally enclosed a refund check with the final bill.  Frontier makes you wait, and wait, and wait some more, reminding you they owe you money with repetitious “do not pay – credit balance” invoices for long-terminated service.

More than two months after disconnecting service, our refund check finally arrives!

On Monday, the refund check finally arrived, in an obscure envelope resembling one of those PIN reminders banks send you.  After tearing away three sides of perforated strips, there it was — $26.09 from Frontier Communications.

The long wait is hardly a random glitch.  Stop the Cap! covered the story of a Frontier customer in California who waited several months for the phone company to refund her just over $15, and just this evening we heard from one of our regular readers in Rochester disappointed by Frontier’s hardly-rapid refund policy.

The only good news is that we weren’t overbilled on the way out the door, as one Elk Grove, Calif. customer was — to the tune of $680.

To Frontier we say goodbye and good luck (and we’ll be cashing that check faster than you sent it).

Time Warner Cable's office on Mt. Hope Avenue in Rochester, N.Y.

More than two years after Time Warner Cable unveiled its DOCSIS 3 cable modem upgrade for New York City customers, Time Warner Cable has begun rolling out faster speeds in the metro Rochester area.  Rochester is the last upstate city to get DOCSIS 3, and Time Warner Cable has only soft-launched the upgrade in selected parts of the area — especially on the east side extending into Wayne County.

According to a Time Warner Cable representative we spoke with this afternoon, the service can now be ordered by customers in the following towns:

• Webster
• Perinton
• Sodus
• Macedon
• Medina
• Lima
• Covington

What do these communities all have in common?  They were all suffering from some congestion problems earlier this year.  Webster, in particular, was one of the worst-impacted areas.  Our readers reported dramatic speed reductions during peak usage times, often slowing to 1Mbps during the evening hours.  The most curious town on the list is Covington — a tiny community of 1,300 in extreme northeast Wyoming County.  Time Warner solved their congestion problems, and those experienced by other towns with DOCSIS 3 upgrades.

The representative we spoke with indicated a service call is required to activate either Road Runner Extreme (30/5Mbps) or Wideband (50/5Mbps).  A modem replacement is necessary.  Rochester area customers do not pay a modem rental fee, so the replacement comes free.  Signature Home customers in these areas should soon see 50/5Mbps speeds, if they have the company’s DOCSIS 3 modem.

Time Warner Cable will slowly expand the service to their other Rochester/Finger Lakes Region customers, with an estimated completion date of early summer.  The representative warned us not every Time Warner Cable representative may have the latest information allowing customers in these areas to order the service, so if you are told it is not available yet, and you live in one of these towns, you may want to try calling again.  Most of the Rochester area operators are briefed on the expanded service, but many in Buffalo are not, we were told, and there is no way to tell where your call will be answered.

Time Warner Cable has also unveiled some new price promotions for western New York.  Time Warner Cable’s website now sells its broadband-only service for a whopping $54.95 a month for Standard 10/1Mbps service.  Turbo runs an additional $10 a month (15/1Mbps service.)  That’s $15 more per month than just a few years ago when service could be had for $39.95 a month.  Broadband-0nly customers pay the highest prices because the company wants to drive its customers into multi-service bundled offerings.  The more services you take from Time Warner, the lower the price for each of them.

But for now, Road Runner Standard can be had by new customers for $33 a month for 12 months.  Turbo costs an extra $5 per month, making the out the door price for both around $38.  After the first year is up, prices go up.  Time Warner Cable in Rochester can be reached at (585) 756-5000.

In an upstate New York match-up, the Rochester/Finger Lakes region scored dead last in broadband speed and value, according to data from Broadband.com.

Why are broadband speeds so much lower in the Flower City?  Blame Frontier Communications, which continues to pitch its decade-old DSL product, delivering an average speed of 4.45Mbps, while other upstate cities enjoy access and competition from Verizon’s fiber to the home network FiOS.  Frontier DSL actually often costs more, after taxes and fees, than Time Warner Cable’s much-faster cable broadband product, Road Runner, which rates an average download speed of 12.77Mbps in Rochester.  Frontier does manage to pull one win — higher upload speed DSL providers can often achieve in cities where cable operators keep upstream speeds as low as possible.

Time Warner Cable has dragged its feet upgrading broadband service in the area to its DOCSIS 3 platform other upstate cities have had since last year.  DOCSIS 3 should arrive within the next 4-8 weeks, which should boost broadband speeds, but may not deliver lower broadband prices because of Frontier’s uncompetitiveness in the area.

(Source: Broadband.com)

The top city in upstate New York for download speed is the state capital, Albany.  But Buffalo wins the contest for upload speed thanks to aggressive competition for Time Warner from Verizon in the Queen City.  Buffalo also pays the least for service — nearly $5 less per month than residents in Rochester pay on average.  Syracuse scores in the middle — but closer in terms of speed and value to other Verizon-served cities.

Slow and expensive broadband service can hamper economic development and costs consumers more.  Unfortunately, there are no signs Frontier Communications has plans to do anything differently in its largest service area — a classic driver of the accelerating number of customers calling to pull the plug on their landline service.

Time Warner Cable's Road Runner vs. Frontier Communications' DSL (Speeds are downstream/upstream; Source: Broadband.com)

The crowds in New York City waiting for iPad 2 to arrive. (Courtesy: Digital Trends)

You have to give Apple credit.  Nobody knows how to design a product for intuitiveness, sex appeal, and downright usability like Apple. Although I have never been devoted to the Macintosh or other Apple personal computers, nobody can deny Apple has had one success after another with their personal communications and entertainment devices:

• iPod – It changed music players the same way the Sony Walkman did a generation earlier;
• iPhone – Not since Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream have I seen people literally fight over something.
• iPad – The only tablet I have found tolerable.

Acquiring these products, particularly around launch time, is often an experience.  Apple is the ultimate control freak when it comes to managing its product releases, with pages of requirements about how, when, and where people will be able to acquire the latest Apple Anything. They also know how to stage events guaranteed to bring the media out.

And so last Friday, in the middle of a nasty wind-whipped snowy day, there I was standing outside of a Best Buy store in Victor, N.Y., with around 75 others waiting in line to acquire iPad 2 (it’s not “the iPad” I learned — it’s just “iPad” thank you very much.)

It could have been worse.  At the Apple Store inside Eastview Mall, adjacent to Best Buy, hundreds were camped out, with some arriving with the early morning mall walkers.  A much smaller group gathered at Target and Wal-Mart, two other retailers who were part of the opening day festivities.

An hour before the 5pm official start of sales, I was #15 in line — not bad, but not great either in the 5 degree wind chill.  Not since a CompUSA Thanksgiving night promotion a few years ago had I waited in a significant line for anything.  As I chatted up several new-found queue-friends, I began to notice a trend.  I was the only one there who did not already own iPad.  At one point, while checking the time on my Motorola Droid X phone, audible gasps were heard.

“You… you don’t have an iPhone?” my line neighbor asked, as I realized I was the skunk at Apple’s garden party.

“No, nothing is worth being stuck with AT&T for cell phone service,” I replied, trying to recover from my social faux pas.  Not good enough.

The whispering began — “he doesn’t have an iPhone… what is he doing here?”

Eventually, after some friendly interrogation, it was decided I was okay, because at least I owned an iPod Touch, an Apple TV, and a Mac Mini.  Besides, there was plenty of time to evangelize me with tales that AT&T wasn’t so bad in Rochester.  Hey, the iPhone is available from Verizon, I was told.

Yes, I replied.  I sort of knew that.

As members of the crowd texted their compatriots staked out at other retail locations sharing rumors and sightings, we learned the Apple Store crowd was now completely out of hand at the mall just a few hundred yards away.

“The line is down to Macy’s!” one hollered.  “I’m glad I came here, instead,” another replied.

Best Buy's store in Victor, N.Y.

Anxiety levels seemed to increase whenever someone entered or exited the store.  Were they line jumping?  If an employee emerged, what did they know?  Best Buy employees were strictly forbidden, by Apple it turned out, to reveal -anything- about the product people were waiting to buy.  How many are on hand?  Can’t say.  Why are we waiting outside?  Because Apple required it.  What models will you have?  Can’t say that either.  What happens if you run out?  We will begin taking names for the reservation list tomorrow.  Why tomorrow?  Apple rules, came the reply.

The frustration of Best Buy management was on full display, knowing full well that any unhappy or disappointed customers were likely to blame Best Buy, not Apple, for being unable to walk away with iPad 2 right then and there.

By 4:45pm, it became clear Target could care less about Apple’s rules, as the first winners in the Apple device lottery emerged from the store waving their conquest.  It turned out they had eight units to sell.  Wal-Mart had 10.  This was not going over well with the Best Buy line, who now wondered how many the Best Buy store in the most wealthy part of greater Rochester would actually have on hand.

At 4:50pm, Best Buy employees emerged with folders described as “tickets” customers could use to buy the units they had to sell.  But be careful, we were told.  Apple required ticket holders to complete their purchases at Best Buy no later than 6pm or their “ticket” would expire.

Then a fever swept the line as people tried to guess how many tickets Best Buy had to hand out.  Not since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has there been this much excitement over tickets (at least with Willy Wonka you got a chocolate bar as a consolation prize.)

I want iPad 2 NOW! I don't care how much it costs.

Within minutes it became obvious Best Buy had exactly 15 units to sell to a line of 75.  Uh oh.  Worries over making the “right choice” between the white or black, 16 or 32GB model were replaced with “you will take what we give you and like it.”

And there I was clutching the last folder for a 16GB white model, actually fearing someone might swoop in and grab it.  I shook my head — now I am caught up in this silly hysteria.

Instantly, like one of those well-choreographed flash mobs, the losers silently dissolved into the parking lot, heading for their cars, despite Best Buy employees’ best efforts to promise to “take names” tomorrow for future sales.  No deal.  But one desperate young lady who wandered up minutes later, encouraged seeing only 15 of us preparing to enter the store, flew into a panicked tantrum when she realized they were already sold out.

“I need iPad 2 today!  I don’t care what it costs or what model.  I need it now,” she wailed.

I realized I’ve just encountered the 2011 reincarnation of Veruca Salt.

“A hardcore Apple junkie,” one of the fellow 15 whispered to a friend.

“Yes, she should have got here hours ago if she was serious,” came the reply.  “Amateur.”

With that we were paraded into the store with one manager at the front and another employee at the rear to protect “line integrity.”  But it was not the beginning of a magical adventure with a golden ticket.  It was still just Best Buy.

My DOA iPad 2 serves me right. I don't own an iPhone.

Moments later, we were trapped in a “special line” facing upselling snipers trying to pick us off with extended warranty service plans, accessories, and Zagg’s invisibleSHIELD, the product that requires the patience of Job to apply.

“No problem, we can do it for you for $14.95,” an employee chimed in on queue.

Nearly an hour(!) later, I finally managed to get to the register and tell them “no” on the extras, swipe my card, and get the heck outta there.

Later that evening I unwrapped it, plugged it in, and discovered (and later confirmed), it was a dud — dead on arrival.  It went back on Saturday.

Lessons Learned:

1. It is never worth waiting in line for an hour or more for -anything- unless you enjoy the experience of waiting and chatting people up;
2. Being an early adopter means you are a beta tester, bound to end up with early manufacturing boo-boos;
3. Steve Jobs is a Bond Villain;
4. It’s my own fault.  After all, I didn’t have an iPhone.

Two years ago, when Time Warner proposed to limit consumption of consumer broadband accounts with an Internet Overcharging experiment, Stop the Cap! suggested they should instead upgrade their networks to meet the demands of their Internet-hungry customer base.

With thanks, they have taken our advice.  As DOCSIS 3 upgrades continue to roll across the cable company’s service areas, it is bringing immediate benefits to every Road Runner customer, and the company itself.

Several weeks ago, we shared the story of Time Warner customers in Webster, N.Y.  Time Warner had hopelessly oversold its broadband service in the growing town just northeast of Rochester.  Speeds plummeted to as low as 900kbps most evenings and weekends, and did not return to normal until most customers were back at their day jobs.

As a shared network, cable broadband delivers a limited amount of bandwidth into individual neighborhoods, shared by every customer.  When too many people pile on, speeds plummet.  When this happens, cable companies are supposed to either increase capacity, or more commonly divide a congested area into two or more parts, each served with their own broadband pipe.  In less densely populated towns, or where less net-savvy consumers tend to reside, capacity upgrades may come only once or twice over several years, and speeds are consistently fast day and night.  But where college students predominate, or where new housing developments deliver plenty of new upper-income homeowners more likely to leverage their broadband connections, the tell-tale evening and weekend slowdowns create problems.

A speedtest performed before the upgrade

“A good clue of overcongestion is when download speeds suffer, but upload speeds remain fairly consistent,” shares Prakash Patel, who consults with cable companies on HFC “cable” broadband deployment.  “Typically, if both speeds falter at different times of the day, that is usually a sign of a technical fault on one’s cable connection — not network congestion.”

For Stop the Cap! readers in Webster, the ongoing congestion made Road Runner virtually unusable during the evening and weekends, particularly for higher bandwidth applications like video or downloads.

Several of our readers filed complaints with the cable company and one took his case to the Better Business Bureau, who obtained a sympathetic response from Time Warner — but no immediate solution.  The Bureau accepted that explanation and “administratively closed” the complaint.

As we recommended, customers remained very vocal about the ongoing congestion problems in the town.  We’ve found the old adage, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” effective in moving upgrades higher up the list of priorities cable engineers deal with in maintaining their networks.

Original plans to deal with the problem were scheduled for late March, but Time Warner bumped the upgrade forward to this past weekend.  Instead of simply dividing up the town, Time Warner installed DOCSIS 3 technology, which greatly increases the size of the broadband pipeline available to customers.  The upgrade did the trick.

Our reader Tim shares the good news:

“I ran some speed tests Tuesday night and the improvement was very noticeable,” he writes.  “We were able to achieve speeds in the early evening that were previously only possible in the very early morning hours.”

Patel believes cable companies will continue to win a majority in the broadband marketplace using DOCSIS 3, which he considers an affordable and easy-to-deploy upgrade.

The results after the upgrade was completed.

“Not only is DOCSIS 3 relatively inexpensive, it provides plenty of new revenue opportunities for the companies that deploy it,” Patel says.  “It also fits well from an engineering standpoint, because it is an evolutionary update to a successful technology.”

Patel believes DOCSIS 3 and future versions of the cable broadband standard will allow operators to successfully compete, at least in download speeds, with virtually any provider.

“Cable companies can simply bond several channels together and accelerate download speeds,” Patel says.  “Upload speeds are proving to be a bigger issue, as most companies limit them to around 5Mbps.”

At least for now, customers in Webster are happy they are once again getting the service they paid to receive.  The upgrade solved the congestion issue for Time Warner, and the cable company plans to sell higher speed service to interested customers later this spring, earning new revenue to pay for the upgrades.

That’s a win-win everyone can appreciate — all done without an Internet Overcharging scheme.