Frontier Communications → Disappointing Frontier DSL service - speed questions

I'm hoping to switch off of my Dish satellite internet to DSL. I was getting killed by data overage charges, so I was happy to hear that with Frontier DSL there were no data caps. However, I'm disappointed with the speed I'm getting. I was hoping to get close to the advertised 6mbps, but right now I'm averaging roughly 1mbps for download speed and .05 for upload!

Any suggestions on how I can improve this? I called Frontier and the tech person walked me through some tests, but she thought that 1 mbps is what I should expect. Is that right??

I knew I shouldn't expect their advertised speeds, but this is really disappointing. Any suggestions or help to move forward is appreciated!!

Post your modem stats and how far out are you from the DSLAM?

Hi Hank, thanks for your fast reply! I'm attaching my modem stats. How do I determine how far I am from the DSLAM? Thanks!

badger, I deleted your attachment and redid it taking all your personal/private information out for your privacy. Not a good idea to post that info on a public board.

If you don't know don't worry about the distance. Post the transceiver stats, they should look similar to this.

Thank you!!

Spoke to a Frontier rep today and was told I'm 9000 ft from the nearest station.

Here are the stats... I just did a new Speedtest and I'm getting .18 mbps download!?? Spoke with Frontier again today and they were no help.

I saved your .tiff file as a jpeg so that others who don't use macs or iphones can view the file.

I suspect they have accidentally limited your speed.

I would put in a call to have a tech come out and do a "line check" when he actually shows up tell him you are not getting the right speed and he can manually set it to your fastest stable speed.

Your stats and distance should be able to give you 6Mbps but don't be surprised if hit a wall at about 4 to 5Mbps.

So I called tech support and actually got someone who sounded like they knew what they were doing. Supposedly I am paying for 1.3 mbps, and that is the fastest they can provide in my location. But she did say that they "are working" on improving the speeds they can offer.

Is this B.S. or legit? I just double-checked and the ad says "speeds up to 6.0 mbps" for $29.9. I can understand not getting the full 6 mbps, but 1/6 of what was advertised??? How can they do that?

this is bull some times unless the box is fed by t1's. they will try to get by with slow speeds but if you know anything about dsl you can fight back and make the tech up it. I also started out at 1.3mbps 4 months later I got them to up it to 3.7mbps then 1 year after that which is this year I got my full 6mbps you just half to let the tech know that you know ur line is good then they will stop messing around and if your line/equipment and main lines can hold it they will try to get you close to 6mbps or atleast 3mbps.

Line Mode ADSL_G.dmt
Data Path FAST

Transceiver Information Down Stream Path Up Stream Path
DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) 6944 768
Margin (dB) 25.3 24.0
Line Attenuation (dB) 24.0 12.5
Transmit Power (dBm) 18.2 10.0
FEC Errors 0 0
HEC Errors 0 0
CRC Errors 0 0

The key is it says "up to" so that does not mean they have to supply you with 6 megs. They will supply you with what ever the system will support up to that speed. Yes, I know it is a play on words. It could be that the system is over-subscribed and that is why you are only receiving 1344. Talk with the Engineering Manager or the General Manager for your area to see if they can do anything for you. The link is listed several times in this forum so just do a search for it. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice! I understood "up to" gives them some flexibility, but I never thought I'd get 1/6 of what they advertise. I thought there was some rule or law that they can't over promise by that much? I'll make some more calls and see what they do. But thanks everyone for the great advice! I miss having Verizon FIOS when I lived in the city!

Yup anything above 1Mbps is part of the "upto" quote.

If you are getting 1Mbps or less then you pay the next speed rating down which is $19.95/mo.

In my latest phone call, I was told I was "provisioned" at 1.3 mbps, and that I couldn't get faster than that without them making improvements in my area. Today I'm not hitting 1, it's been around .8 mbps. A rep from frontier promised to call the local technician to see if they could improve the speed for me, and would get back to me today or tomorrow. I'm still not happy if I'm provisioned for 1.3 and not even getting 1 now. Jeez.

More than likely a CSR is not going to help you with your speed problem. Have you talked with your GM or area Engineer Manager.

OK, first, neither your local Frontier Tech, nor the CSR can impact the speed you're getting. Call the Internet Help Desk (IHD) at 800-239-4430. Ask the tech there to check your line and give you the numbers for Maximum Attainable speed and your line configuration. Frontier is constantly updating their capabilities for more speed. However, if you are provisioned for 1.3MB/s; and they increase the maximum attainable speed on your line to ... say... 4.43MB/s; they still must reprovision your line to a new speed. This can be done at the NOC... not at the local office, and not with a Customer Service rep. Your IHD Tech can put in a trouble ticket to reprovision the line. If the MaxAttainable speed has not increased, you can, many times, increase your throughput by power cycling your modem. Keep checking! They are getting better and better!

Thanks Ron001. I'm waiting for the IHD to get back to me and hopefully they can increase the max speed on my line... thank you for the details. How do I power cycle my modem?

Turn it off, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on. If there's now power switch on the modem, then just unplug the power from the outlet, wait a few seconds and then plug the power back in.

Your local line stats look great, so yes they are artificially limiting your speed due to the upstream congestion. The slow downloads is evidence that your area is oversubscribed.

Internet Help Desk can't fix the line being provisioned at a slow speed. They'll tell you that customer service needs to put in the ticket to engineering to reprovision, but the CSR will tell you that you can only get 1-meg service in your area (btdt). You can however complain and get a $5 or $10 monthly discount if you're lucky.

It seems like it's actually an issue on there end for once.

However, I still almost recommend everyone on DSL install a POTS splitter

Just to eek that little bit more out of it.

My advice as I was getting stats very close to your own, I called and had them install a midline repeater/loop extender now I have 3mb plus somewhat better stats.

This is Frontier,,the same company that runs 3-4 T1s to a DSLAM and sells 24 ports of 6Mbit DSL off it. I'm surprised he can sustain 1 mbit

I followed up again this week after the tech support person said they'd call the local office and get back to me... he never did and they had no record of my call.

The latest tech support person said my location is provisioned for 1.3 mbps, but that they are making upgrades in my area (no idea when they'd be done). So she said I'm getting the max speed I can right now.

Is under 1 mbps acceptable if I'm provisioned for 1.3? Not to mention I was sold the service as "up to 5 mbps" clearly the marketing of this service is deceptive at best. I need to decide soon if I'm going to cancel my DISH satellite internet... while it's faster running my home business, it gets very expensive with my 15gb/month cap. I do love that DSL has no data caps to worry about... but it's soooo sloooow.

Start letter bombing. You like can handle more speed frontier is artificially limiting your speed while charging full speed prices. I would start contacting your local government bodies and put some pressure on Frontier. Apparently this is the only way to get any love from these people.

At one point these people had actually called my (now ex)wife and said hey we can save you money since you are out of contract, well when she agree'ed to a new contract they dropped out line speed from 1.5mb@ 34.99/mo to 768@ 29.99/mo AND added the modem rental fee in which in itself is nutty because we didn't even have a modem we rented from them! I used a netgear DSL Modem/router and had an ebay westell 7500 for when I called support. Anyway when we realized we were on the wrong plan we called them and their response: "We are sorry 1.5 is not available in your area" it had been for years. The reps had pretty much accused us of lying or just being flat out crazy. When I asked them to review the account from before the contract was signed... "ohh we cannot see that info, that account it closed"

Again only fix was letter bombing.

Thanks for your advice... although I guess I'm cynical, I'm not expecting my local govt.'s to do anything for me vs. a big corporation. Frontier shouldn't be allowed to market services they'll only deliver less than 1/5th of. If I did that to MY customers, I'd be out of business in no time.

badger46 which service area do you live in?