Lawsuit Claims Frontier Misused Millions In Federal Broadband Stimulus Funds
4 replies, posted
[quote]If you want to see what the U.S. broadband market really looks like, you should take a close look at West Virginia. Historically ranked close to dead last for broadband access and quality, the state has been a perfect example of what happens when you let the incumbent telecom monopoly incestuously fuse with state regulators and politicians. For years now the state has been plagued by news reports of unaccountable broadband subsidies, money repeatedly wasted on unnecessary hardware, duplicate consultants overpaid to do nothing, and state leaders focused exclusively on ensuring nobody is held accountable.[/quote]
[quote]Roughly $40 million of that money was supposed to be used to build an "open-access middle-mile network" intended to help multiple, competing West Virginia ISPs improve last-mile connectivity to roughly 700,000 homes and 110,000 businesses. But it didn't take long for allegations to surface that Frontier had used that money solely to shore up its broadband monopoly in the state, building fiber connections that only benefited itself. Allegations also surfaced that Frontier had manipulated just how much fiber was actually laid, with state investigations and audits, as they're wont to do, going nowhere fast.[/quote]
source: [url]https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160721/10333935032/lawsuit-claims-frontier-misused-millions-federal-broadband-stimulus-funds.shtml[/url]
These fuckers are the reason why I can't get decent internet. Throw them in jail and give us a company that actually maintains it's lines.
i'm pretty sure similar charges could be leveled at all the big ISPs in this country. Verizon being an obvious offender, would not repair their network after huricane sandy even after accepting multiple state and federal grants to do so
"free" market
Frontier is absolute dog shit where I live in Connecticut. AT&T jumped ship and sold their infrastructure to Frontier, and they dropped the ball [I]hard.[/I] The transfer of existing AT&T customers to Frontier was hell, tons of people had no internet for weeks, and there are still connection issues. We only have access to Frontier or the superior (ugh) Comcast where I live, so Comcast is the only choice if you frequently use the internet or plan to stream stuff. Frontier's highest speed is 24Mbps for nearly the same price as Comcast's 105Mbps, but their "Broadband Max" tier of [I]6Mbps[/I] is cheaper than any of Comcast's plans at $35 a month. It's gotten to the point that whenever somebody asks me at my job why their internet is acting funky, my first question is "do you pay for Frontier or Comcast."
I support employees for my work that have company provided business lines. Whenever I have to call frontier I'm stuck with the worst idiots in the industry for two hours trying to get a connection issue resolved. That's only the first call, usually it takes two or three on-site services in order to get the line working properly. It was utter chaos when verizon sold its FIOS branch to frontier. God awful customer service and even worse technical experience. Service providers in the US really need a good kick in the ass.
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