Frontier Internet Offers Subpar Speeds at High Cost for Many

Frontier charges $36.99 per month for its "high speed" internet, plus an

additional monthly charge of $6.99 for modem rental.

For many people in Webster County, Frontier Communications has a monopoly on internet services (Shentel cable is the only other provider in the county excluding satellite internet).

Frontier customers along the main roads and cities have access to their fiber optic lines and have substantially greater speeds than a large portion of Frontier customers in the county who are still serviced by analog lines that have been around for the better part of 35 years or more.  Despite offering low connection speeds to analog customers, they pay a high price for such poor service compared to offerings of other internet companies and their own fiber optic customers.  Frontier calls this subpar service "High Speed Internet Max" and charges a total per month of $43.98 before taxes ($36.99 internet charge and $6.99 modem charge [known as "My Frontier Hot Spot"]).

Internet connection speeds for Frontier customers in Webster County still
being serviced by analog lines are capped at 1.792 mb download and
0.448 mb upload.

For customers below Diana and elsewhere, their download speeds are capped at 1792 kbps (1.792 mb) and a lethargic upload speed of 448kbps (0.448 mb).  Most customers never see anything close to those maximum speeds. In the video accompanying this article, the tested download speed was 1.49 mb and the tested upload speed was 0.37 mb (using Frontier's speed test website).

Recently, Frontier entered into a settlement with the West Virginia Attorney General's office regarding its slow internet speeds. The settlement provides that customers with download speeds "provisioned" at 1.50 mb or lower would receive a credit on their bill such that the cost of the internet would be limited to $9.99 per month until Frontier is able to upgrade their speeds.

The hoax behind this agreement is that Frontier can arbitrarily set or "provision" your speed above 1.50 mb download (to avoid reducing your fee to $9.99 per month) even though Frontier cannot offer a speed above 1.50 mb download.  In the photo showing the maximum speeds offered, the customer is "provisioned" to receive 1.792 mb download, even though the actual speed test in the video comes in at below 1.50 mb download.  Because Frontier fails to offer competitive internet speeds, many customers have opted to be part of a class action lawsuit still pending against Frontier in the West Virginia courts.

According to PC Magazine, the average download speed in the world is 5.1 mb, with the United States average at 12.6 mb.  The internet speeds offered to Frontier's analog customers capped at 1.792 mb is far behind several dozen third world countries like, for example, Chile (5.7 mb), Costa Rica (3.2), Phillipines (2.8), Vietnam (3.4), and the list goes on.  Effectively, a good share of Webster County is treated like a third world country by Frontier's subpar speeds.

The one minute video below is a 13.4 mb file size; it took just shy of six minutes to upload with Frontier's "high speed internet max."

https://youtu.be/UepcWWS76WY