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It's bad enough the cable pig (Comcast) is sticking it to us with another rate increase but beware - Frontier is positioning to hose those of us with Frontier High Speed Internet (formerly Epix) service by imposing usage caps.  

Frontier has recently updated their Residential Internet Acceptable Use Policy to state: "A reasonable amount of usage is defined as 5GB combined upload and download consumption during the course of a 30-day billing period. The Company has made no decision about potential charges for monthly usage in excess of 5GB."

Additionally, Frontier has stated:  "Frontier may suspend, terminate or apply additional charges to the Service if such usage exceeds a reasonable amount of usage."  To see their full Use Policy go here: http://www.frontieronline.com/policies/residential_aup/

What is unclear is if you have multiple computers connected to your Frontier DSL connection, is the 5 GB limit per user (email) ID or total for all machines?  

Conversely Comcast, who got caught and fined for suspending high usage internet customers without explanation, is proposing download caps at 200 GB or 40 times more than Frontier for its customers.  Regardless, Frontier thinks 5 GB is more than adequate if you upload/download photos, music, mail, surf the Internet and online gaming.  Really?

I decided to monitor my activity on my system only.  I upload occasional photos I send to family and retired friends, I never download music although I listen to Internet (streaming) radio whenever I'm logged on, I occasionally download software (plus Microsoft updates) and in the course of a week I might receive 100 to 125 Emails, some with family photos, and I send about 50 Emails a week.  I surf the Internet for research, paying bills, online shopping/purchases and reading numerous news, political and technical newsletters.  I do not play online games.  I use my computer daily.  Doesn't sound like a lot but I installed a little program that tracks/records and totals my internet usage by hours, days, weeks and month.  Since October 1st, my total upload/download usage has been 6.01 GB and there are 11 days left in October!

You can download that little and free to use program and monitor your own internet usage here: http://codebox.no-ip.net/controller?page=bitmeter2

Alternatives:
- Email the president of Frontier Mr. Ken Arndt at Ken.Arndt@frontiercorp.com and tell him this is incredibly stupid.   Also remind him the promised 3 Mb download speed for all Frontier customers has not arrived for Newton residents.

-Switch to Comcast?  It is faster, has higher usage caps but this may be going from the fire to the pan.  Terrible customer service, terrible tech support, repeated speed and reliability issues are of concern with Comcast.  Not to mention you will have to change all your Email addresses.  But if push comes to shove.........they are the only other game in town.

I had Comcast and after the good deal period they wanted to boast my price to the normal fee. (I think $42).  I called Frontier and got a 2 year deal, $19.99 1ST year, $24.99 2ND year.   They also wanted to charge me $5.00 a month for there Router.  I bargined with them and they waived the Router fee so I got a pretty good deal.  Comcast always had service issues, but no problems with Frontier so far.  Unless your downloading hugh programs, you shouldn 't notice any speed difference

Hello fishing,

That sure sounds like a good deal.  I have had service with Epix (Frontier) for at least eight years and I am paying a lot more.  The service has been good for the most part but I think the rates that I am paying are quite high and that may be the case for other people in Newton Township.

Perhaps you could provide a link for these rates or any other information.  That would be helpful.

These tidbits of information that members put on this website is important to all of us and help to save us money.  :)

I have a similar deal with Frontier - you can usually negotiate with them when you go off contract because they are slowly losing business to Comcast.  However, when my 1st year ended (of the 2 year DSL Frontier contract) they moved my monthly DSL rate to $44+.  I wrote, complaining a violation of contract.  Frontier backed off and reduced my monthly rate to the agreed $29.99 for year two.  If I wanted to cancel my contract, the termination fee would be $250.

While my DSL costs and yours are very competitive, most - if not all of Newton Township, is limited to a 1.0 to 1.2 Mb download speed.  I have been unable to get a clear answer from Frontier as to when they plan to upgrade us (and their equipment) to 3.0 as they advertise on their website.  Best response to date - it's not on the foreseeable calendar.

In my previous post, I mentioned Frontier's planned DSL caps.  While Frontier has not been definitive in what they will do when customers exceed the proposed 5 Gigabyte monthly download rate, they reserve the right to change their EULA (End User License Agreement) to a: terminate service or b: increase your monthly cost if these caps rates are exceeded.

I average 7 to 9 Gb per month and I never download music although I listen to Internet (streaming) radio whenever I'm logged on; I occasionally download software (plus Microsoft and application updates); in the course of a week I might receive 100 to 125 Emails, some with family photos, and I send about 50 Emails a week; I surf the Internet for research, paying bills, online shopping/purchases and reading numerous news, political and technical newsletters; I contribute to several technical blogs; I do not play online games or download movies; and I use my computer daily.  Clearly the 5 GB cap is ludicrous and is nowhere near reality.

I have four computers (mine, my wife's, 2 college age children) connected to Epix and the above usage only represents my system only.  If the 5 Gb cap is for your DSL line, then folks who have more than 1 computer are definitely going to exceed the cap.

Conversely, Comcast has proposed a much more realistic 250 Gb monthly cap (yes that's 250).

So when my Frontier contract ends (Nov. 09), if at that time Frontier has not increased their download speed to 3.0 Mb, and/or they are implementing ridiculously low download caps, then Comcast becomes very competitive. Comcast's monthly rate for 6.0 Mb download speed (5X faster than what I get now) is about $44 after their 3 or 6 month introductory pricing.  Include the landline phone in the deal and Frontier is history.

I'm not a Comcast fan, but they are, along with Frontier, the only 2 evils we Newton folks have available for broadband service. Also, Frontiers tech support and customer service is definitely not what it was as when it was Commonwealth.  If you have a problem with Frontier you can contact our area General Manger at the link below.  She has been fairly responsive to date.

Elena.Kilpatrick@frontiercorp.com

JoeP

Thanks for the info.  I’ll see if I can do something to save us a few pennies.

I installed the BitMeter program back when you suggested it to see what kind of bandwidth I use.  It seems like the program works fine if it is on one computer that is not connected to a network.  If you are networked with other computers, the readings can be seriously skewed.

Last week I was sitting in front of the computer while doing some paperwork.  I happened to look at the computer taskbar and the BitMeter went off the scale.  A huge amount of data left my computer and it was still transferring data.  So where was that data going?

I quickly opened the firewall, which records all traffic including IP numbers and the data was being transferred to another computer on the network.  That was a relief but the BitMeter is not reliable if you are on a network.

To confirm this I sent a 100 MB file to another computer on the network while watching the firewall and the BitMeter.  The BitMeter showed it as Internet bandwidth usage.  The firewall confirmed that no data went out on the Internet and that traffic was within the network.

The BitMeter showed that over the last few months I averaged around 6 GB of traffic on one computer.  However, our network is used extensively therefore, I would guess that the actually Internet traffic on that computer is half of that and maybe less.

Even if you have a network that is not often used, connected computers are constantly communicating with each other by way of NetBIOS, TCP, UDP and more including shared printer traffic.  Over a month that can add up to quite a bit of erroneously reported Internet bandwidth.

Anyone can verify this even if you don’t have a packed sniffer or firewall that shows the information.  Just copy a big file, send it to another computer on the network and watch the BitMeter record it.

Remember, network traffic is faster than Internet traffic.  A small file may transfer so quickly that you may not see it.  A file size of around 2 MB should do the trick.

Regardless of what the BitMeter says a 5 GB cap is not adequate.

What is the 'communication with Comcast' about on the Newton Township meeting minutes?