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Frontier CEO: Google Fiber Just 'Hype,' Confuses Customers

With Google Fiber slated to potentially make its way into the Portland market, Frontier is trying to shift attention away from the fact that Frontier has historically offered very sluggish speeds at relatively high prices, courtesy of limited competition. The company tells the Oregonian that they may offer 1 Gbps speeds someday too (maybe), though Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter believes that Google Fiber is "hype" and that Google Fiber is "confusing" customers by offering symmetrical 1 Gbps for $70:

quote:
"Today it's about the hype, because Google has hyped the gig," said Wilderotter, in Portland this week for a meeting of her company's board. She said Google is pitching something that's beyond the capacity of many devices, with very few services that could take advantage of such speeds, and confusing customers in the process.

"We have to take the mystery and the technology out of the experience for the user because it's a bit disrespectful to speak a language our customers don't understand," said Wilderotter, in Portland this week for a meeting of her company's board.
That's right kids -- we need to offer slower speed at higher prices because anything else is simply too confusing for the market. Wilderotter suggests that Frontier will combat Google Fiber via lower prices -- though Portland is only one of 34 potential new Google Fiber markets, only a few of which will actually see service. The chance that Wilderotter and Frontier will have to do anything other than continue to bask in the status quo of an uncompetitive US broadband market remains relatively low.

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mr_slick
join:2003-05-22
Lynnwood, WA

4 recommendations

mr_slick

Member

hmmmm

Frontier: we offer three speed tiers sir... fast, faster, and fastest.
customer: how fast are they?
Frontier: fast!
customer: how many Mb/s is fast?
Frontier: we don't want to confuse you sir.
customer: I'm going to comcast...
/
.
Frontier management talking to a new manager/director: we changed our packages and now offer three price ranges.... but they are all the same speed HA HA HA stupid customers....