Frontier Raises Sneaky 'Internet Infrastructure Surcharge' From $4 To $7 (arstechnica.com) 70
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Frontier Communications is raising its sneaky "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" from $4 to $7 later this month, widening the gap between its advertised broadband prices and the actual prices customers pay. Telecom providers love to advertise low rates and then sock customers with bigger bills by charging separate fees for things that are part of the core service. In cable TV, that means customers see one advertised rate for a bundle of channels and then pay way more after the addition of "Broadcast TV" and "Regional Sports Network" fees that supposedly cover the costs of certain channels that are part of the bundle. With Frontier Internet service, customers pay the advertised rate for Internet service and then get hit with fees including the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge. While some fees cover costs that providers must pay to the government, the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge is decidedly not one of them.
The Internet Infrastructure Surcharge began at $1.99 in 2017 and rose to $3.99 the next year. It's going up again this month, Frontier told customers in a message on their billing statements, the company confirmed in a new FAQ on its website. "Effective February 21, 2021, the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge will increase to $6.99," Frontier's message on customer billing statements said. (Thanks to Stop the Cap for pointing out the change.) Frontier's advertised first-year prices range from $50 to $80 a month for its fiber service, while the regular rates are $10 higher once promotions expire. Slower DSL plans start at $35 a month during the first year. "We have worked hard to keep our rates for broadband services unchanged. However, Internet use has grown significantly and so have our related costs," the company said in its new FAQ.
The Internet Infrastructure Surcharge began at $1.99 in 2017 and rose to $3.99 the next year. It's going up again this month, Frontier told customers in a message on their billing statements, the company confirmed in a new FAQ on its website. "Effective February 21, 2021, the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge will increase to $6.99," Frontier's message on customer billing statements said. (Thanks to Stop the Cap for pointing out the change.) Frontier's advertised first-year prices range from $50 to $80 a month for its fiber service, while the regular rates are $10 higher once promotions expire. Slower DSL plans start at $35 a month during the first year. "We have worked hard to keep our rates for broadband services unchanged. However, Internet use has grown significantly and so have our related costs," the company said in its new FAQ.
Legal? (Score:5, Insightful)
How and why is this legal? It's the very definition of false advertising if you can't actually buy the stuff they're advertising at the price they're advertising it for without buying a bunch of other stuff as well for a higher price.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably because any ad showing the price will say 'plus added fees and taxes'.
Re: (Score:1)
There's probably a price in a giant font with a tiny asterisk next to it. You find the matching footnote hidden among other "grand deals", and it's like a 5pt font and uses legal-speak that makes Swahili sound familiar in comparison.
Re: (Score:2)
The asterisk isn't required anymore. Take a look at all those free tax e-filing options the USA has. All the commercial web sites endorsed by the IRS advertise FREE filing with no asterisk and no fine print, and then wallop you with fees after they have all your data and you're ready to file. Only then do you realize there's a special set of procedures you have to follow to actually get the free filing, because "qualifying" isn't enough, and you only get free filing if you visit the right section of the
Re: (Score:1)
It might depend on State laws. In CA a footnote seems to be required, but co's use tiny fonts, goofy layouts, and incoherent wording as a work-around.
Re: Legal? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Legal? (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, that the price tag in the supermarket is not *precisely* what you pay at the checkout, is already crazy to us Europeans.
WTF do you even do if you only got a fixed amount of money and want the maximum you can get for that price? Break out Excel?? :-/
Oh wait, you all pay with debt, err, I mean credit cards, so it systematically becomes a "Whoopsie, guess I'm in debt some more." later.
I truly don't even know Americans bear all that bullshit without going full Falling Down each day... It's like a huge
Re: Legal? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Unless those entities are the majority of customers it makes more sense to aim the price tag at the customers who have to pay tax.
Re: Legal? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention that it's not exactly that hard to print the pre-tax price and the price with tax on the price tag. It's not like the price labels have to be written out by hand. Also, entities that are tax exempt may also get other special discounts as well, so it might be the case that neither the base price nor the price with tax are the right price for them.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh wait, you all pay with debt, err, I mean credit cards
Using a credit card to purchases something does not mean you are using 'debt' to buy something. Not paying it off at the end of the month IS debt.
Re: (Score:2)
It's still debt, just debt that gets paid off before interest kicks in.
You can be flat broke, waiting for your paycheck and buy something with a credit card, on credit. You now owe money to the credit card company. Pay it off by the end of the month and no more debt and according to the terms of the loan, no extra payment required. A free loan.
Re: (Score:1)
Using a credit card to purchases something does not mean you are using 'debt' to buy something.
Nonsense.
An amount to be paid later, is debt. It is owed.
A credit card does not deduct the amount from a backing account of the card holder at the time of purchase. The amount is to be paid later.
Ergo, anything bought using a credit card (as opposed to a debit ditto) does incur a debt, immediately.
Not paying it off at the end of the month IS debt.
It doesn't become debt. It remains debt, but now unpaid, henceforth incurring interest.
Re: (Score:1)
You know, that the price tag in the supermarket is not *precisely* what you pay at the checkout, is already crazy to us Europeans.
You are not wrong. Here in Canada, taxes aren't included in prices either and it's always been kind of mind-blowing.
WTF do you even do if you only got a fixed amount of money and want the maximum you can get for that price? Break out Excel??
Well, um, no. But rudimentary math skills are a thing. Where I live, sales taxes are 13%. That's pretty easy to approximate. 10% is trivial, and 3% is... well, a little less than half that. So if I'm buying something that's labelled say $6.50, I can pretty easily figure $0.65 and $0.32 is $0.97 so it's going to be less than $7.50. Yes, absolutely it's dumb to have to do this, but it's f
Re: (Score:2)
> You are not wrong. Here in Canada, taxes aren't included in prices either and it's always been kind of mind-blowing.
And not all items are taxed the same. Some are exempt from one level of taxation, others are completely exempt from taxation. It's confusing and arbitrary.
Re: (Score:2)
OTOH, when the tax is included, it allows hiding stuff. Pretend that the stuff that is only covered by GST (5%) is also covered by PST(7%) so everything has 12% added.
See it with gas locally. Greater Vancouver has a 19.5 cent per litre Transit tax. I live just outside that district, gas is often only a couple of cents cheaper much of the time. Delivering it a couple of extra miles does not cost 15 cents+ a litre. If the tax was added after, people would see we're getting gouged.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
We have the best judges that money can buy.
Re: Legal? (Score:1)
In Germany, they just go
Only 9.99/mo!!*
* for the first 6 months. Then 59.99. Contract goes over 24 months, and is prolonged by 24 months if you do not send us a complicated physical paper letter that states you want to end the contract at least some completely confusing amount of days before the end of the 24 months. No, we will refuse to accept your letter if you send it too early. Really you got no chance to do this right. Oh and we all do it. It's totally not an oligopoly. It's "industry standard"! *laug
Re: (Score:2)
You mean change how they do it. Example, when I signed up for internet with Telus mobility, 2 year term, had to buy their hub thingy for 24 payments of $12.50 instead of the outright $60 they sold it for other types of customers (wireless land line or internet in town with a way lower cap). At the end of the 24 months, they raised my rate by $10 as I was no longer on a contract. The other day I get an email, they overcharged me $5, the new fee starts next month. If I sign up again for a contract, I'll get l
Re: (Score:1)
It isn't legal, but if your crime is complicated enough in the US, you generally get away with it because our law makers are senile and our law enforcers are corrupt.
Re: Legal? (Score:2)
It would be illegal in Europe. Well at least a couple of countries I lived in, but I think it is an EU rule not country specific. But there is not as much consumer protection in the US and having an asterisk with "fees may apply" is apparently legal (and common). Also, $50-$80 before fees for fiber and $35 for DSL is way too expensive, which again is due to the lack of consumer protection via granting telecom monopolies.
Re: Legal? (Score:1)
You must be 12. Hidden taxes, fees and well anything else has been free reign for about forty years.
Iâ(TM)m shocked I say! Shocked!
Re: (Score:2)
No, I'm European.
They should call it what it is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead of 'Internet Infrastructure Surcharge' they should call it what it really is:
"Arbitrary bullshit line our pockets with money and fuck you that's why" charge.
Re: (Score:2)
Instead of 'Internet Infrastructure Surcharge' they should call it what it really is:
"Arbitrary bullshit line our pockets with money and fuck you that's why" charge.
You misspelled "executive bonus".
AT&T pulled this a few years back with a 61-cent "Mobility Administrative Fee". Peanuts when looked at individually, but when you add it up...
"The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news of the new fee, estimates that AT&T could generate $350 million in extra revenue this year and $518 million next year."
"Extra" revenue, means bonuses.
"The company went on to justify the new fee by stating that everyone else is doing it."
Translation: Fuck You. Sincerely, The Collusion Collective.
Surcharge (Score:2)
Why is internet infrastructure a surcharge? Isn't that supposed to be the bulk of the bill?
Could the implication be that your internet actually costs $7, and the other $50-80 is just for Frontier's great customer service, plugging in your router, and getting treated to their masterful art-house advertisements?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Surcharge (Score:2)
The problem is that it's not included in the advertised cost.
B.t.w. for $80/month I'd expect unlimited data 1G/1G speed.
Re: (Score:2)
If I hadn't commented, I'd mod you funny. I pay almost a hundred CDN for a 250 GB cap and at the best 20Mb down and 3Mb up (Government subsidized rural internet over LTE so they didn't have to run the promised fibre). The fees are all straight up though, including when they jacked my rate by $10 a month because my contract ran out and the other day an email about mistakenly jacking it up another $5, that's next month, here you can sign a contract to avoid it.
Re: (Score:2)
This is why I'd expect the $80/month for unlimited 1G:
https://www.telenor.se/handla/... [telenor.se]
It's where I live.
Re: Surcharge (Score:1)
Please do not find their arguments for them.
That is a typical fallacy of smart people when dealing with evil morons.
Re: (Score:2)
They've already found and deployed these arguments. My goal is to distill them down to their most base level of retardation, cutting to the meat of their argument. I think I've done that here, but If I didn't go far enough, please school me. I like the beatings, that's how I grow the callouses.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Resort Fee (Score:1)
Sure thing.
Of course I also will charge $999.999 customer fee and ${pi} fee collection fee for each fee that I collect, including this one. *evilgrin*
Yes, I expect those 0.9 cents and (pi-314) cents to be paid out precisely too. Every slip-up results in what is described in my customer terms and conditions, section 73, page 497, book 8, 2021 edition (subject to change without notice). No, (royal)we cannot change our T&C for just one business.
Re: (Score:2)
Frontier is just behind the times, they should be charging $19.99/month* with $45 wire straightening fees and $12 bit changing surcharge. Changing a 0 to 1 is not cheap.
You forgot the $9.95 monthly cord stretching fee and the $17.51 monthly cord management fees.
That being said, in all seriousness, my FiOS through Frontier has been solid the entire time I've lived at my house (some 8 years).
Re: (Score:2)
...That being said, in all seriousness, my FiOS through Frontier has been solid the entire time I've lived at my house (some 8 years).
Oh boy. Now you've done it, Rocky RockSolidhaus.
I'll be patient and wait a couple of days for a response, since this in the geek world is akin to the announcer saying "and this kicker, going for the all-time record and win, hasn't missed a field goal in 742 games..."
Re: (Score:2)
...That being said, in all seriousness, my FiOS through Frontier has been solid the entire time I've lived at my house (some 8 years).
Oh boy. Now you've done it, Rocky RockSolidhaus.
I'll be patient and wait a couple of days for a response, since this in the geek world is akin to the announcer saying "and this kicker, going for the all-time record and win, hasn't missed a field goal in 742 games..."
Haha. Yup. The only 2 times I had issues were once when there was a proper outage in the area (about a 12 block radius with no one having internet from Frontier's FiOS) and when they had buried the cable too short and it started popping out of the yard. Went to mow during a quarantine (housemate had the flu, but this was right after covid concerns came up) and accidentally cut the cable. They took 3 days to get it replaced, but did it all on their dime and I made do with my smartphone's hotspot for thos
Re: (Score:2)
That $7 is just to pay for removal of human feces from their corn flakes every morning.
Removal of other types of feces is extra.
Goodbye Telcos (Score:2)
The freight train of LEO satellite broadband is going to plow through that market and it's going to be super messy. In just a few years we're going to be talking about taxpayer bailouts of terrestrial-based providers to prevent job losses and lack of competition, etc.
Over-the-top subscriptions are already trampling over "cable" television programming and packages -- the blow to telcos will be two-fold. The only survivors will be 4G/5G providers.
Looks good on the whole industry. Any industry that stops be
Re: (Score:2)
Starlink doesn't have anywhere close the capacity to handle the suburbs, let alone a city. It's a stopgap for rapidly emptying rural areas where it's cost ineffective to string fiber.
Re: (Score:2)
Starlink doesn't have anywhere close the capacity to handle the suburbs, let alone a city. It's a stopgap for rapidly emptying rural areas where it's cost ineffective to string fiber.
Those "rapidly emptying" rural areas could be filling up again in the era of get-the-hell-away-from-me-you-infectious-meatsack and remote work finally being recognized as viable, after a year of the world still turning.
Re: (Score:2)
Rural areas aren't being emptied because of a lack of jobs, it's a lack of things to do. Who wants to live in an area where the big weekly event is going an hour into town to visit both the Dollar Store and the Walmart? Or where the total friends you can be around are 10 (hope they're good people) and your children can choose one of three people to date growing up.
Beyond that, if a significant percentage of people were to return to the rural areas we would have to start running fiber out there - Starlink c
Re: (Score:2)
Rural areas aren't being emptied because of a lack of jobs, it's a lack of things to do. Who wants to live in an area where the big weekly event is going an hour into town to visit both the Dollar Store and the Walmart?
People aren't moving into the mountains because of the Dollar Stores and Walmarts. Give me a break. I can find that crap anywhere.
Or where the total friends you can be around are 10 (hope they're good people) and your children can choose one of three people to date growing up.
We've interacted with likely far less over the last year. And everyone doesn't have the same dating/children/social interaction needs. Overpopulation in metro areas tends to drive people away too. Even a global pandemic doesn't stop humans from fucking. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the human population took on a considerable increase even in the face of a pandemic.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course not. They're leaving rural areas because that's all they have. And they want a variety of good restaurants, live shows, a bunch of distinct types of bars they can go to,specialty shops that include what they need for their hobbies, interesting people form all walks of life, museums, etc.
Probably most importantly, they want to live in cities for the same reason that the internet has rule 34. In a larger populatio
Re: (Score:2)
There just isn't enough capacity to offer service to all of these customers. It's going to be like the Titanic with people trying to flee the sinking ship of shitty cable... but it'll also be like The Titanic where there aren't enough life rafts.
Re: (Score:2)
The freight train of LEO satellite broadband is going to plow through that market
And? The problem of baiting and switching via hidden fees is endemic to America, a land where it's somehow impossible to simply advertise the correct price of something including taxes. People are used to not paying the advertised price, and your freight train saviour will be the new boss, same as the old boss.
America needs consumer protection laws and an ombudsman to uphold them without relying on individuals taking megacorps to court. You know, like the way a 1st world country protects its citizens from a
There are places where there are no other options (Score:2)
A de facto monopoly acts as one.
Re: (Score:1)
Oligopolies & monopolies almost always suck in the longer term. Google grows more evil every year.
"Tube maintenance fees are extra" (Score:2)
Frontier is garbage (Score:2)
Frontier is the most garbage company I have ever had to deal with, and that is saying a lot.
We really need to get past near monopoly access in telecom. Its not 1960 anymore.
An early clue (Score:2)
Yeah, it's almost like the wild west with no regulation or oversight. You know, a frontier.
Butt and switch (Score:2)
I don't understand why they are allowed to advertise a fake rate. If the fees are required for anything practical, they should be included in the advertised price.
Reminds me of the joke where Bob spots a sign at the used car lot in the desert that says, "2018 Cadillac, 20k miles, $4k!". Skeptical but curious, Bob stops in and takes a test drive. Everything seems sound, and Bob plops down $4k.
Bob hands over the check, is given the keys, and walks out to his shiny Cadillac. He opens the door, sits down, but t
Lets hope (Score:2)
Hypocritical (Score:2)
Because their current big ad push refers to how other providers have lots of fees, but Frontier has none!
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/tzlM/f [ispot.tv]... [ispot.tv]
Technological regression (Score:2)
There's your problem! Tech usually gets cheaper over time.
Cut the cable (Score:2)
I cut the cable about six years ago and never missed it. A digital antenna and a roku is all you need.
Sounds redundant (Score:1)