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Review by Bob61571 
member for 4.7 years, 1477 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 279 days ago
 Washington,Tazewell,IL
 $90 per month Verizon (ex GTE) "No Contract , No Extra Added Services" "Slow Speed, Bad Online Support and Website, Lack of Communication" "Shopping around"
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August 17, 2012
Just received bill for 4 months of 3Mb DSL and Telephone service in the mail, for $360+.
No penalty added(that was so nice of them).
Frontier allowing for partial payment plan, if you call them.
Sounds like the customer billing/payment software system failed, big time!
++++++++++++++++++
As of July 1, 2010, Frontier is now my provider, after the Verizon acquisition.
$30 is for 3Mbps/768 speed, transferred from previous Verizon deal from late 2009/early 2010. Also, pay $54 for telephone, plus taxes/fees. Router/gateway is Verizon's Actiontec GT704-WG. More reliable than previous Verizon issued hardware(Westell 327W and 7500). Usual speedtest in range from 2.8 to 2.4 down. Have recorded 1.8 in late 2010/early 2011.
My alternatives are Comcast, MTCO(reselling DSL), HiBeam wireless, and the cellphone providers(Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular). Some new Fiber providers are providing service nearby: ITV-3 in Pekin, and MTCO in Metamora). I don't think that Comcast has upgraded the Peoria area to DOCSIS 3 yet. AT&T has no interest in adding U-Verse in the Peoria area, since they still offer slow DSL. Local area has patchwork of telcos(Frontier, MTCO, FairPoint, CenturyLink, AT&T). Aggravating for Peoria area, as we are World Headquarters for a Fortune 50 multinational. Many of its employees provide support from home.
Good: Few connection problems for months(until lately). Recorded 14.55Mbps speedtest in October 2010(only lasted for a few days).
Bad experiences: Had 36 hour DSL/Phone outage(connected to rain/local construction) in mid June 2011. In last month(per speedtest.net), Frontier has been moving my initial connection from Carbondale, IL to DeKalb, IL to current Wichita, Kansas(where IP is now identified as Frontier, not Verizon). This required router power cycling. Verizon had previously used a small town near Dayton, Ohio.
Netflix is unwatchable on TV. Even YouTube on the PC has stutter.
Lack of communication from Frontier on outages(until after service restored), and future area plans. Website still has many Verizon references, 1 year after acquisition. Website support/documentation is definitely worse than Verizon
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Review by big_e
member for 2.2 years, 210 visits, last login: 9 days ago
updated 285 days ago
- undisclosed location
- $72 per month
- "Connection was reliable, few outages."
- "Slow, Company is very consumer unfriendly and seeks to price gouge."
- "Only use if its the only game in town"
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I established service before verizon sold it off. 1.5 meg was all that was available in the market at the time. Frontier then took over and for a month DL speeds dropped down to 500 kbps due to congestion at the CO. I had to complain to the local manager and I got compensated for that months worth of service. Since then I had no more speed issues.
Frontier is a very consumer unfriendly company. Their provisioning policy sucks. Even though they say on the bill you are paying for 3 mbps they will refuse to reprovision your modem for that speed without resigning a 2 year contract, then they will claim your line won't support any kind of speed increase when it actually can.
Frontier has many bogus fees. I never got suckered into the $7/mo modem rental fee, but if I were to establish new service I would be forced to accept it even if I provided my own modem. Their modem cost them at most 50 bucks and over a 2 yr contract the modem would have paid for itself twice over. Then there is the $1.50/mo "because we can" HSI surcharge. Frontier does not offer DSL without phone service, so you will be stuck with a landline you may or may not want. Overall for sub 3 mbps the monthly cost after the promo pricing is in the $70-80 dollar per month range. This is a very poor bargain.
But wait it gets worse, if you signed a 2 year contract with them you it automatically renews for another 2 years. The early termination fee is $200 and not prorated. If you signed up for Unlimited "Digital" phone, you would face yet another $200 ETF for their already incredibly overpriced voip service. If you bundled dish add an additional 17.50/mo for each remaining month in the contract. Overall if you sign up for their ultimate dish/digital phone/DSL bundle are dissatisfied and cancel after 1 month you will pay $800 dollars in termination fees.
A frontier radio ad has a frontier subscriber saying "I've got freedom up the wazoo". A frontier subscriber is held at ransom and cannot leave frontier without paying at least $200 dollars.
If frontier continued to followed Verizons pricing policies, like no automatically renewing contracts, no mandatory modem rentals and bogus surcharges and focused on increasing the speed and reliability of their network there will me many far happier customers. Instead Frontier has opted to lock them down in a contract, gouge them as much as possible, give them the slowest internet they can stand, then charge as many ETFs they can when the customer finally leaves for any reason.
I was so glad to move to a property where I will never have to deal with Frontier again. Comcast is a saint compared to this company. The only reason anyone should subscribe to frontier is if it is the only source of internet available.
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 Review by Chameleon
member for 8.5 years, 1510 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 285 days ago
- Virden,Macoupin,IL
- $38 per month
 about 7 days- "Up time has been good."
- "Sometimes customer service."
- "I have had very few issue with my service."
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Being that I was an ATT customer for 11 years on a Remote Terminal for more than half of that, I come to Frontier spoiled.
Getting used to Customer Service was a treat. Their system showed I was "routed bridge" but it is PPPoE. Once they changed that in their system things have been good. There isn't much down time. The price isn't too bad. Anything else you would like to know about my experience with Frontier contact me.
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Review by deejay2000
member for 287 days, 0 visits, last login: 287 days ago
lodged 287 days ago
- West Concord,Dodge,MN
- Contract price not specified.
- "It works."
- "Slow, it is down from 8:54pm to around 10-12pm everyday."
- "Really don't like it, but it works."
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My speedtest is »speedtest.net/result/2086974712.png but when I actually do download something, I get 0.03 - 0.06 MB/S which, obviously, isn't very good. This speedtest was to a server around 50 miles away. I do use it, and it works ok. I don't care for how long it takes to load web pages, I don't however, like waiting for a 5 minute video to load for 20 minutes+. It also stops working randomly during the day sometimes. I wish it was better, but it's the best I get around here.
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Review by patrickp
member for 11 years, 3575 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 288 days ago
- Bloomington,Mclean,IL
- $29 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 3 days
- "good speed because I'm only 610 line feet from main office or less than 1 block away"
- "thay are expensive without long term contract"
- "OK but they are all I have other than Comcast that I don't need the speed and higher price of"
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I have the 7.1/768 maximum offered for DSL package, its never been down that I know of.
but the back haul lines to Chicago got clogged and slowed way down shortly after Frontier took over from Verizon and switched to their own main back haul lines. it took about 6 months but they did add capacity and so for kept up with demand.
But being I;m only 610 line feet from main telco office downtown Bloomington, IL. or less than a block away my speed stays same at around real speed testing average of 6.2/710 24hrs a day 7 days a week.
I'm satisfied but if I were out farther away from main office I probably would not be getting the good speed and reliability I have now from what I hear from others in this area of central IL. say.
I never had trouble with Verizon either before they sold their copper to Frontier.
Frontier does add extra fee's on top of their bill's that don't make any since, and asking them you get different answers from different people calling billing support as to what the fee's are for!
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Review by nl37tgt
member for 4.2 years, 161 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 315 days ago
- Bangor,Northampton,PA
- $95 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 2 days
- "reliable connection, tech support speaks english"
- "unreliable speed/latency, uneven levels of knowledge from the tech support"
- "avoid if possible"
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I had 1.5MB downstream DSL from my local telephone company for years, very stable, very few problems, they warned us when it was gonna go down for maintenance and all at a good price. Then Frontier walked in and bought them up a few years back. Been a battle ever since then. The downstream speeds and latency started bouncing around and it hasn't been fixed in over a year. After countless calls to tech support and a good number of visits from their road techs, still the same problem. They talked me into a package deal in which we received local, long distance, an upgrade to 3MB downstream 384KB upstream and a Dell mini laptop with a 2 year agreement since it was "a good deal and it'll probably help with the problem you have." Big mistake, the problem still exists and in some cases worse.
A connection that should go no lower than 2100Kb/s downstream commonly is around 1400, with the lowest recorded speed of 92Kb/s. So now I'm on a first name basis with the two road techs, and I have their numbers on speed dial. Poor Terry and Rob (the road techs) have been going nuts trying to find the issue, they've gone over the house wiring, changed filters, swapped out modems and gone over the external lines. They even bumped up my upload speed from 384 to 512 free of charge.
Now the phone tech support folks at least aren't outsourced to India, but most of them just go through the motions of speedtests, ping tests, and the signal to noise and attenuation checks. Other than that, they don't know much. One tech pointed me to this site, which I'm grateful, but others have proclaimed it must be spyware or viruses on my computer. I shoot that down pretty quick when I tell them this computer is up to date and scanned regularly with McAfee with a Spybot and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner chaser AND I've gotten the same speed result while in safe mode. Another guy thought my network card was the problem, till I disconnected the main computer and transfered the line to that Dell mini that sits here collecting dust and got a very similar speed result.
Thanks to this site, I've alerted Frontier to a server on their own network that always drops packets, too bad they never do anything about it, and I have a record for the past year. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with this company as far as high speed internet/phone is concerned. I've checked other providers, RCN is 3 miles out of range of me, local cable only has one way internet down here, meaning I'd have to dial up to upload and FiOS, forget about it, nowhere near here. I check with these other companies every couple months to see if they moved into the area, because I would switch in a heartbeat. The early cancellation fee would be well worth it if I would have a more reliable speed and I got what I paid for.
I'm reaching my limit with Frontier, I'll give it another month, then I'm gonna start making phone calls to the Better Business Bureau, FCC, state representatives and anyone else I can and see what happens.
My test results if you're curious:
»/testhistory/1625695/64a99
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UPDATE:
Nearly 2am on a Monday morning and my speeds dropped off the map. 700kbps download, 250kbps upload on a 3072/384 line. I'm so sick of calling these people just to have them toss another cheap modem at me. They keep saying that they're working to increase bandwidth in the area. I've only been hearing that same line for 4 years. Again/still, they're the only broadband provider around. The local cable only offers one-way, meaning I'd need to dial up to upload at snails pace.
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UPDATE 2:
new record low
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Review by frontierwtf
member for 333 days, 8 visits, last login: 297 days ago
lodged 319 days ago
- Macksburg,Washington,OH
- Contract price not specified.
- "Worst service I have ever had."
- "If you have another choice of a internet provider go for them..."
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Have had internet with this company for way to long for them to think its ok that my service sucks. Never get the speeds I pay for now the internet goes out every 10mins. This has been ongoing for about a month with this last problem. Still no answers hmmm talked to about every tech on site always get different answers. Bottom line stay away from this scammer company.
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 ·Frontier Communi..
| Over sold in Area horrid latency horrid speeds we Live in small town in Utah had frontier dsl about 5 years ago speeds and latency was horrid switch to someone else that ended up just as bad went back to Frontier DSL internet was told it would be 3mbit has had 1 day in 3 years that had speeds over 1.2 mbit upload is capt at around 23K a second so if you have more then 1 computer on at a time and 1 user uploads it will make anyone else on the connection not able to do anything. for past 3 weeks about 11 am to 11 pm we get latency from 200-2000 avg is about 300-600 which is terrible my VOIP I use a lot quality is terrible and I can't do any gaming my avg latency to my isp gateway is 500-700 I believe its do to them over selling and not upgrading anything they tried to get us all running at 3mbit but it crashed their backbone so they kept us all at about 1.2 mbit but instead of upgrading their equipment then just keep selling to more and more people with out regards for their quality of service. mean while most places in the world are getting connections over 10-20 Mbit while ours is getting worse then isdn line | |
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Review by THISISINSANE
member for 353 days, 38 visits, last login: 40 days ago
lodged 334 days ago
- Murphy,Cherokee,NC
- Contract price not specified.
- about 4 days
- "Consistent Speed, no longer dealing with congestion"
- "modem/router Westell 7500 supplied by them is horrible. tech support has limited hours."
- "a cheap, consistent DSL service with good customer support."
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I have a house in Murphy, NC and they control the internet in this area. After their initial buyout of verizon's rural lines, they oversold their bandwidth but used the proceeds to expand their capacity and now I have no issues with congestion or other common problems with DSL. Despite their limited hours, when there is an issue, a quick call to their tech support (with very little hold time) generally can get the issue resolved. Overall, a good ISP.
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 Review by Doug Huffman
member for 5.8 years, 294 visits, last login: 4 days ago
lodged 362 days ago
- Washington Island,Door,WI
- $80 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 1 days
- "Responsive, available, huge infrastructure investment locally"
- "Some unavoidable service distuptions"
- "Vast improvement over BPL and Satellite ISP"
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I live on an isolated and rural Island, "like living in the Forties or Fifties." We struggled with unreliable, slow and expensive internet connectivity until Frontier HSI arrived to fill the vacuum left by the demise of IBEC BPL and Satellite ISP's changed business plan.
One day my satellite connection worked fine and the next day it did not, with no believable explanation from the provider. I cancelled and called Frontier and one business day later I was back on line. Frontier has been keeping many trucks and crew on the Island as they reconfigure and improve the infrastructure left by IBEC.
The work entails unavoidable outages, but they have been more tolerable even than the outages suffered with the mature and stable satellite ISP.
Our package is wireline telephone and the lowest data speed for ~$50 + 30 for 12 months. When the area installation is complete then other options may become available. For now about a thousand customers are sharing a microwave link to the mainland - our bottleneck.
The provided equipment is a NETGEAR 7550 modem-router and NO - ZERO - configuration or capability documentation, a pig in a poke. It has worked fine for about a month now. The visiting technicians configure it by remote control with apparently minimal training on the particular device.
When I have complained about outages, the remote CSRs are very inexperienced (one clearly had to put down his doobie to take the call), but the local technicians are prompt, pleasant and over worked..
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 Review by icex
member for 9 years, 3105 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 363 days ago
- USA
- $20 per month
- about 8 days
- Focal
- "100x better than colane cable!"
- "Install date took awile"
- "Love it"
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*5/27/2012*
They upgraded me to 6mb. I have been getting around 5.5mbps steady. I love frontier (its alot better than colane cable!)
Ordered 3/26 and was given a install date of 4/9. Neighbor ordered 3/27 and got it 3/29. I waited paitently until the 5th and went to the Central office and asked why I hadent got mine installed yet. Next day they came and installed it.
I use to use colane cable, and had a 6mb package. I would only get 500k through the evenings with a ping of over 500. Horrible..
Anyway, Frontier was suppose to be 6mb but since they just installed the dslam it is currently 3mb and we are suppose to be updated to 6 by the end of the year
Overall im happy.
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| | :) I love hearing peoples positive reviews  I love it as well. | |
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