In our area—Mound, MN—Frontier has not provided quality internet service at the speed and price they advertise and enroll their customers into.

Quality: Internet connections drop out regularly, requiring cycling power on the modem to re-establish connection. Frontier technical support tells us this is an "area problem." Frontier technical support and customer service stated to me on at least five occasions that this is a known issue; their equipment cannot handle the volume of network traffic in this area.

Price: Frontier's solution to this problem, offered by their technical & customer service agents on March 19, was to switch us to fiber for faster speed but at an increased cost of $15/month (60% increase from our current monthly charge). I told Frontier technical support this is a bait-and-switch; we are not asking for a service upgrade. We simply want reliable service at the speed and price we enrolled in. Frontier customer service then offered to issue us a credit against the extra $15/month for one year. Beyond that, no promises.

Frontier's "area problem" should not be fixed by reaching into the wallets of its customers. We hold up our end of the bargain by paying our bill in full and on time. Frontier has an obligation to provide reliable service at the speed & price paid for. If it needs to switch some customers to fiber to fix this until the area equipment is improved, that should not be a burden on those switched customers.

In our area, Frontier advertises that their service is MB DSL service. I have had their DSL since it came into this area and have never received over 2MB (their own speed tests) yet they continue to charge for 6 MB service. Their own technical staff have finally admitted their equipment is only capable of 2 MB service yet they continue to advertise and charge for 6 MB. Since they have no competition they are not held accountable by market (IE: customers leaving for better service/product). This needs to change open the market for all providers, PLEASE !!

We encounter inbound calls on a regular basis where we cannot hear anyone on the other end. We tell the person to call back or we call the number displayed as the caller ID. During a really bad stretch of there calls we complained heavily to Frontier for days. After several days of stating they find no issues, they finally admitted to some sort of programming issue in some relay point/station and that it was being fixed. It is a more infrequent occurrence now, but we still get these calls where we can't hear the person on the other end and can only hope they hear us and try to call us back.

I learned today that the my internet service with Frontier is so terrible is that we are set up for 6MB though we can only handle 1 which is incredibly slow. My rates just went up from the intro rate of 19.99 to the rate of 34.99. I was lucky to have service half the time, so the thought of paying double isn't something I am interested in. I tried to cancel and was told that because I used my Amazon gift card they gave new subscribers I had unwittingly signed myself into a 2 year contract. I had asked if there was a contract commitment when I signed up and was told "No." I had a tech scheduled to come and reconfigure my speeds to match my capabilities, but I ended up cancelling the work order because they couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't get charged for the tech visit even though it was to fix something they'd done wrong to begin with. In the past 2 days alone I have spent more than 2 hours on the phone with people at Frontier. I feel that they offer a substandard service using deceptive business practice to get and keep customers.

I subscribe to Frontier DSL and pay that premium. I do not receive the advertised speed, yet I pay for it. Also, I reported my telephone service was dead on June 30, 2018. They informed me that a technician would get the repair ticket on July 19, 2018. The technician showed up on July 19 and repaired the problem within an hour from the exterior. Three weeks is dangerously long for a senior citizen to be without 911 capability. The only good thing that I in previous years had difficulty with is that they immediately credited my account for the non-service. comment...

Frontier has not provided the internet service they stated I would received when I signed my 2 year contract. Our internet speeds are about half of what they advertise and completely cuts out multiple times throughout the day. There have been instances when the internet has gone out for hours. I have called Frontier technical support and customer service more times than any customer should ever have to call a company and I have only had service for about a year and a half. I would estimate that I call this company for problems roughly 4 times a month (over 20 times total). Every time I speak with someone they provide me different answers or solutions, and never an apology or refund (I had to request a refund when my internet was not working for multiple days). I should have known it would be a bad experience when the complete set-up took almost a month because the first time around they mailed the modem to an address that does not exist (again, I had to request a refund for the first 2-3 weeks I could not access the internet at all, they did not automatically reimburse me). Their service, customer experience and quality is the worst of any company I have ever had to deal with and they should be held accountable for the time and money wasted by their customers.

Frontier underperformed consistently with Internet service despite several calls to customer service. They sold me a higher speed service that made absolutely no difference, but at increased monthly cost. After more calls to attempt a fix and receiving conflicting information, we cancelled the service plus the landline we had for 36 years. After cancelling they charged an early cancel fee of $100 for their "premium" service. I filed an earlier comment with the state and the BBB with no satisfaction.

comment...Hello, we have Frontier in Two Harbors MN. We continually encounter times when there is virtually no service speed. Even emails won't load. Other times it is just extremely slow, but it kind of works. It makes no sense to me that I pay the same amount for modem speed as I do for 50mb speed in Minneapolis. If they can only provide terrible internet, they should only be able to charge for terrible internet. Right now they have a virtual monopoly and seem to be abusing it by charging regular prices for irregular internet service.

I have Frontier internet and phone at 2 locations and I can't get anything more than .24 MBPS at either location. Dial up would be faster although the Frontier phone lines aren't any better. I constantly told that its due to congestion and being at the end of the line and that their equipment is just not up to par. The reliability of the service is weak at best with very frequent outages. To pay $34.99 per month for service that is substandard is outrageous. They need to upgrade their equipment if they are going to charge prices that should be getting me significantly faster and more reliable service. If you want to call Frontier customer service, you'd better be prepared to wait on hold for 45 minutes to an hour every time guaranteed. When you are remote and depend on internet and phone for Freeze alarms. thermostat control and security camera coverage you need a fast, reliable internet and phone service If they cant deliver on that, then either get new equipment that can or cut your pricing so you don't gouge customers for $34.99/month for a substandard product.

I have Frontier "DSL" (I put that in quotes because of the laughable speeds) in Holyoke MN. I have called support a couple dozen times for everything from a complete disconnection of service to incredibly slow service. I also recently discovered that they were raising the price of my internet without notifying me. It appears that despite denials from their techs they throttle streaming services (see attached speedtest.com vs fast.com test). I pay DSL prices for dialup speeds and the only thing they will ever tell me is that I live in a "High Demand Area" but all that really means is they're too cheap to add lines and give better service. They even have the unmitigated gall to charge a "line upgrade fee" now even though they are obviously NOT upgrading my service. I also can't get the "Broadband Lite" service at my house that is the less expensive 1mbps service they ONLY sell the 6mbps "Broadband Max"... and they say they're required to provide 75% of the speed they claim to offer, which is completely idiotic. Sadly, I have literally no other option at my house.

We have had Frontier for land line (previously) and internet for more than 25 years. They have never provided the advertised speeds and, like other commenters above, we have always been given the run around from the company. They have admitted on numerous occasions that their lines cannot provide the speed they advertise (and that we are paying for all these years), yet they refuse to upgrade their lines so they can provide us the service we need.

To make matters worse, they are the only provider--besides satellite--that we have access to. This is a monopoly without regulation. Please make them provide the service they have charged us for and get us a refund for all those years of being robbed!

When we first moved to our area, we only had DSL available. We were charged a standard rate that should have allowed us 2MB of service, however, the service on its best day was 128K. Could not have more than 1 computer going at any given time. After speaking to them, they gave me a reduced rate for 3 months, then back to the standard charge. When calling again a year later to discuss that I would be switching to a satellite service, they informed me that they could get us cable service to our area. I suggested that was impossible knowing the technology was not available. They then suggested their satellite partner who would guarantee us 20MB of service, no cap. I said I would be interested in this service. The service technician came out and told me that there was an order to cancel my service that day however, the service technician did not do the disconnect knowing something was not correct. He also told me that there is no such thing as a service with no cap. AND, that their service could not point to a satellite faster than 5MB and that I would have to put in a large dish to support even the 5MB and a cost that would be have affordable. Fortunately, and the fact that I work from home, the service tech did not disconnect me. He even noticed that my bandwidth was set very low. He increased it to support my service needs and to get closer to what I was paying for. This helped until I finally switch to another satellite provider. Frontier customer service has always been problematic and inconsistent hence why I will leave Frontier the moment another provider becomes available in our rural area.

Quality of the internet is poor at best. Slow speed and unreliable connection is the norm. The response is typically that it is your equipment not theirs that is the problem. The customer service line typically goes to a call center outside of the US and 99% of the time there is lack of response. The best experience I have had with resolving a problem was to pretend that I wanted to add services and then was connected to a US agent. Who by the way laughed at me when I expressed my unhappiness with the service I was receiving. Once I requested her Manager things got serious and the apologies began. It did get my service fixed which had been non functioning for over a week and was told I would receive a refund that never took place. This same course of action has took place several times. If they did not have a monopoly in my area for service I am sure they would be out of business.

We live in the Chisago Lakes area and are bound to Frontier. The service is sub-par, we also have to reset the router all the time. The service is so slow during the school year during the evening hours I cannot work from home until after 10:00 pm. At one time you could go to the Frontier web site and under support test your speed, after this lawsuit started they removed that. if there was anyway to get another provider we would try it over the service currently provided.

We have a small business in Ely, MN. Our first real frustrating time with Frontier was Sept. 1st, 2017. Our internet was down, it was the Friday of Labor Day Weekend, I was told there were no techs available and it would be Tuesday before a tech could look at it. Our reservation system is web based, and our customers expect to have internet. Well Tuesday morning about 7 a.m. our internet started working. Well a tech didn't have to come out and look at it, someone in the central office had changed the port our dsl was plugged into. They plugged it into a correct port and now we had internet! Next major time was June 22, 2018, we were down and I was told it would be June 30th before someone could look at it. I was dumbfounded, we're a business that depends on the internet and they're telling me it would be eight days before someone could look at it. I couldn't believe the response so I called back a couple hours later, same answer so I went to the library to print out our registration forms. I got back and thought this can't be right so I called again, and again was given the same answer. Reason I was told was "you're in a non escalation area". I couldn't believe this so I called the attorney generals office who referred me to the MN Dept. of Commerce. I left a message and received a call back after about 15 minutes, I spoke with Diane and she offered to make a call on our behalf. Well, someone showed up that afternoon. The resolution? Someone in the central office moved our connection to a port that didn't support bonded dsl. Now we're at Sunday Sept. 9th, 2018, the internet goes down. We used our phone as a hotspot to see reservations and used some old forms we had then programmed our cc machine to grab a phone line to dial out instead of the internet. Monday morning after being on the phone for an hour with Frontier, I was told our account was suspended. We were all paid up to date, no reason given in the notes and no explanation as to why. I don't know....retaliation???? We're still getting billed for bonded dsl and have had regular dsl for well over a month.

Over the past 2 years we have experienced many of the same issues mentioned already with frequent outages and extremely slow speeds. The slow speeds are extremely problematic after 4pm when speeds slow to a crawl because of the extra usage in the area as people come home from work. After calling their Customer Service multiple times, I receive the same response that the don't have adequate equipment in our area and that upgrades are not a priority for their company due to our population not being high enough. This is extremely frustrating since they have a monopoly as being the only internet provider in the area.

Service is good where I live, although when there was an outage earlier this year, Frontier told me it would be over a week before a tech could come to check it out. Guess it was assumed that it was on my end when it turned out the entire town was out of service. Shouldn't they have known that? Service was restored later that same day but for them to blow me off that was is saying something about their "customer service." Service is terrible northwest of here outside of Moose Lake/Sturgeon Lake near the Aitkin county line. I have elderly friends who live there & they have frequent outages. They've repeatedly called Frontier, as have I & their daughter who lives in Florida. There's no cell service there & they depend on the landline. When I called Frontier to report that I hadn't been able to reach my friends for several days (phone just rang & voice mail didn't kick in), I asked if the line could be checked to make sure it was working. I was told that the customer service rep was only able to verify if my friends had an active account. I wanted to report that the line may be out of order. The rep finally said she'd make a note of it & pass it along to whichever department handles outages. (I don't remember what that department was called.) My friends have told me that when they complain, they're told that Frontier is aware of the problem but equipment in the area is old & needs to be replaced. There are several of my friends' neighbors who also experience these frequent outages. When I try to reach my friends by phone to check on them & there's no answer for days at a time, it's frustrating to wonder if there's a phone issue again or if something has happened to them & they weren't able to call for help. This is inexcusable!

Frontier is real slow and connectivity is often broken

We have Frontier in the Chisago Lakes area. We have 2 phone lines (1 personal land line and 1 for a business fax line). We were given a phone number that was recently another person living in the same area and have received around 20 phone calls a day on any given day for the previous person who had our phone number. Also, when we call outbound from our land line phone, it shows up on other people's caller ID some random company name that is nothing that is associated with our business. When contacting customer service regarding this, they have no IDEA what I am talking about or how to change it. Our speed of internet is terrible to the point of almost unusable half of the month, as well as having to continually restart our router. There is usually a few times a day that our internet is just not working. For our business, we send faxes regularly between our company locations and we get billed for every single fax that we send which adds about $100 to each month bill. These are all US based faxes and should not be billed individually. Every month we have to call to try to get this straightened out and 4 years later they continue to do the same thing. This company is so hard to deal with.

When I first signed up (the only service available) they made me pay for a phone which i did not want or need. It 6 years for them to finally drop my phone service. Up until then i was getting a consistent 5 mb of speed through phone line and once I dropped the phone I'm consistently getting 1.75 on average. I called and talked to a support problem and after 45 minutes his conclusion was i was set to recieve 6 mb of service but that is not guaranteed, and then he said is there anything else i can help you with? for 5 mb I was paying 62.00 wich included the phone. For 1.75 mb i'm paying 51.00. i was better off keeping the phone. These guys are thieves and we need competition in my area so we have a choice 55012

We live in Castle Rock Township just east of Farmington. Frontier has been our only choice for phone and DSL. My son once described Frontier as the worst telecommunications company in the country. I would find it hard to disagree with that. Over the last 19 years, we have fought with Frontier about a dozen times. Our long distance has been slammed at least twice to where we have gotten a $500 bill for long distance that should have been less than $20. My wife has tried to deal with their "customer service" more than a dozen times, including going in person to try to reach a human being. The DSL we pay for mostly kind of works -- badly. There is almost no time when we actually achieve the download speed we are supposed to, not to mention the putrid upload speed. I regularly have to reset my network because their service goes down. This is a company that has shown disdain for its customers on a regular basis. Sure would be nice if the PUC put us out of our misery by giving them the death penalty.

MPUC Docket No. P407, 405/CI-18-122

OAH Docket No. 19-2500-35222

Frontier Communications Customer

Bryce Beckstrom

Alborn, MN

I and many others living in Alborn, MN are sick of the poor service from Frontier Communications. The internet speeds are slow, the reliability is spotty, and customer service is a far cry from helpful. We consistently deal with line speed issues or the internet going down all together. When you call for support they try to blame it on customer equipment verses doing any real work. After a couple calls they finally will come out to look into the issue and possible fix it as well.

They overcharge for the speed they advertise, which is not even what we get anyways. I once had Frontier customer support tell me they are surprised I even get internet from them because I am just out of there service distance. So what they did (according to them) is put boosters in so they could bring me slow internet but charge me the same rate as everyone else. They also are the only game in the area for broadband; which explains a lot about how they treat us. Their billing department once told me not to use auto pay because if they mess up you may as well just get it as a credit to your account because you will not see that money again.

Another thing to make note of is their practice of rented equipment. I used to buy and maintain my own equipment in the house (router/modem). Every time I would call support for connection or speed issues, and once they found out it was my equipment, they would say it is my problem due to faulty equipment. After having this occur too many times I broke down and rented their equipment. Well time went by and when I would call in they would say it has to be the equipment and I need to purchase a new one. I would point out I rent the equipment so they should replace their faulty hardware, their excuse would be that the equipment was over a year old or make something else up. In one case they refused to troubleshoot the issue due to their equipment.

I will be happy to provide speed tests so you can visually see how slow it is. Also I would like to add the techs that are on site are great. This is not their fault and blame should not be placed upon their shoulders. They share some of what Frontier does wrong. Like in the case of when they pulled pairs of copper down past my place and the techs explained it is not enough for the current customers let alone growth and Frontier did not care. Frontier premeditates having poor service at high prices.

Below are notes I took, when experiencing major issues and remember too, of communications with Frontier support. The last major issue was in the beginning of 2017, you will notice how it took almost 3 months to sort of resolve.

08/03/2015:

Called at 4:15PM on until 5PM

They are sending a tech. I have received a one month refund. I was informed by Tech Support and billing that I was supposed to be receiving 6mb.

08/04/2015:

Internet was slow and I noticed the advertisied speed in the web admin went from 1.8mb to 1.3mb.

08/05/2015:

Internet speed was horrible. Could not watch netflix as it buffered about every 1-3 minutes regardless of device used.

08/06/2015:

Called at 9:00AM I was told I should be receiving 2.6mb.Then after discussion I am told I should receive at least 1.3mb.I was also told that you need a 3mb connection to stream video, this is not correct.Tech will be coming out today between 8AM-5Pm.Call was with a Bryan.

11/23/2015:

Called 4:45PM no internet ticket# 1117140 Tech coming Tuesday between 8AM-5PM to check line.

02/13/2016:

Called lost internet again. Blinking DSL not internet light. Call a couple weeks ago and I was supposed to recieve a replacement router which I never did. This is the third or forth time this happened this year. Tech support claims to be sending me a replacement router. I have not heard back from them however as they said after they run tests and attempt repair they will call me back.

02/14/2017:

Called back, never heard from tech support again from the following night. The network speed according to the web admin has gotten slower and slower as the night passed (over a two and half hour period). I restarted the router and waited about 10 minutes but the speed did not approve. I than called support and the speed went back up to 5464 Kbps down and 767 Kbps up. I have inquired about the router that is supposed to be sent. Tech support put me on hold for somewhere around 15 minutes with no update. They refused to send a replacment without troubleshooting. I will call again another time.

04/14/2017:

Called somewhere around 8:30AM; speaking with Lucy; Billing me $60 for the upgrade to 12mb in which I am only getting 10mb. She transfered me out to an unkown extension in which I waited 5 minutes hung up and called back. Time 8:47AM. Got back on with Jennifer; she is claiming to be able to help. Jennifer corrected the current bill back to $34.99. Time 9:11AM. Trying to tell me the 12mb plan costs $59.99; originally the discussion was $45.99. Jennifer is transfering me to a Escalation manager; Laura.They are pulling the call history and will get back to me. They will email me the mail address to the president to file a complaint.

04/24/2017:

Called in the AM but was too busy to complete the call.

04/25/2017:

Agent transfered me to a escalation manager, Fernado. Repeating everything with Fernado to get him up to speed. They are going to pull the recording from April 14th and the recording from early March. Fernado said it will take 48-72 hours to complete this request. Call 1-203-614-5600 to file a complaint; this is a number to corporate.

04/28/2017:

8:10AM

Frontier charged me the full $92.68. Now I have to wait until the billing shows up on their end so I can get it refunded. Escalation Manager Dorrian is pulling the recordings from March and April 14th. He will contact me once completed; approximate time an hour. Current time 8:33AM.

I called again later that afternoon after work. End of call she said she was giving me a credit of $15 to bring the following month bill down to $44.99 until they can get everything sorted out.

04/29/2017:

12:45AMish

The escalation manager called me back to tell me they fixed the billing issue. My bank account still said otherwise but I will check sometime the following week.

05/08/2017:

Called corporate offices (office of the president) @8:20AM. Checked bill this morning and it is supposed to be at $44.99 but it is at $59.99. Brenda EMAIL: brenda.johnson@ftr.com; Reference my name and account number in the subject line. Brenda's office number 1-844-320-4445 Ext. 1124207. Brenda is crediting $16.11 to my account to correct the current billing from $59.99 to $44.99 for the month of May. Brenda is attempting to fix the promo credit for the 12mb connection. Brenda added the $15 promo credit to correct the billing; Order Confirmation: 57083506.

I have talked to many customer service centers over the years and Frontier has the "WORST" customer service representatives. I was told by one customer service representative that they have multiple service centers and some of them know nothing about Frontier and how it works, they are more like a call center versus an employee of Frontier who actually works with the products and knows how everything works. It was almost like talking to tree to get some of them to understand what your issue was and how they could resolve it. About 95% of them are TERRIBLE customer service representatives. I guess you get what you pay for!

We are out of service way to many times. I have kept track just since July it was out July 25, August 4, August 15, and August 22. It was a lot before that but did not keep track. Also about 2 months ago I had to have someone come inside to repair a wire from an electrical storm. It took them 11 days to get here to fix the problem and charged an arm and a leg. It is very disgusting to go without phone service as I live out in the country and depend on phone service for 911 in case of emergencies. It is not a good thing for us elderly people. We do not get cell phone service out here either so we HAVE to rely on our phone service. Also the internet is not what it says it should be. It is very slow most of the time and we pay good money for it. All in all it is the worst service I have ever gotten from a phone company!

Like the others above, I rarely get the speed I pay for and it goes out every afternoon for about an hour. I've had the tech out to the house several times and get modem upgrades. However, the speed isn't what I've been paying for and where I live (Garrison) there is no other choice.

International Falls, MN—Prior to mid-March, Frontier was not providing quality internet service at the speed and price they advertised and enrolled their customers into.

Internet connections dropped out constantly, requiring cycling power on the modem to try to re-establish connection. It got so bad that most of the time, cycling power on the modem didn’t even help. We contacted Frontier technical support numerous times and even contacted the Better Business Bureau. Frontier technical support told us that it was an "area problem." At the time, they said they were aware of the problem but until equipment was updated, there wasn’t much they could do for us. Frontier had more paying customers than their equipment could handle, but yet they continued to advertise and collect money for a service they weren’t capable of supplying.

Frontier's solution to this problem, offered by their technical & customer service agents on March 19, was for us to upgrade our service to a faster speed but at a $25/month increase. We weren’t looking for upgraded service, we just wanted the internet service we were paying for to work consistently and at the speed we were paying for. If we didn’t upgrade our service, they couldn’t guarantee that the internet would work. We were forced to pay a higher price if we wanted internet service that worked 24/7.

We shouldn’t have had to upgrade and pay a higher fee to receive a service we have paid for all along. We paid our bill each month in good faith that we’d receive a quality service for that money. Frontier has an obligation to provide reliable service at the speed & price advertised and paid for. Frontier's "area problem" fix should not have been at our expense.

I'm not sure what the commissions quality rules are, but I believe the Frontier service quality for the cost may not align and what they are offering. Often the Frontier modem cannot connect to the service providers servers. That shouldn't have anything to do with a "package". The connection requires constant monitoring and resetting. I have much better service on our 3/4g telephones than what is provided by a land line direct connection (DSL). I also do not believe we are paying for the speed they claim as the service is intermittent during perceived peak periods of the day. The people that I have worked with on the phone are always professional and courteous. However, I don't believe their customer service personnel are informed to the limitations that management may be imposing and representing in the products offered.

We have experienced many of the same issues mentioned already with frequent outages and extremely slow speeds. The slow speeds are extremely problematic after 4pm when speeds slow to a crawl . Streaming becomes impossible, and computer internet use becomes very problematic, and only one devise can be using the internet, if any at all.

have had repeated problems with phone service. phone goes out on regular basis ,for example it was out july 25,aug4,aug. 22 sept. 4, internet speed is less than what we pay for some times less than 1 mb routers need to be reset constantly , internet seems to just drop for no reason.pay over 90 dollars a month for very unreliable service when i called on september 4 th the tech did not contact me until september 14 ten days later same story as every one else old equipment . some thing needs to be fixed .

We continually experience the same issues as noted before. Very intermittent service, when it does work it is very, very slow. Unfortunately Frontier is our only option, we would be willing to pay more for better internet service.

All that I've read in the previous complaints with regards to the Internet provided holds true with me in Lakeville, Mn. Contract for 70% min of 10 MBPS = 7 MBPS and rarely see over 4 MBPS. Upload rarely reached 1 MBPS and the contract states 4 MBPS... Very slow! Frequently no service, to the point that I typically need to use Cell phone data via tether if I join a webcast for work ( additional data cost to me on going for years ) I too had been offered faster speed for an upcharge but had been instructed by the tech adviser, that I probably will not see a noticeable increase in speed due to the antiquated equipment in my location. No offer for a reduced rate, Frontier is the ONLY provider for my location so I'm forced to live with this! I had 3 service calls where I had been instructed to be home during a 4 hour period, thus miss work. All three were no shows at the house and one said they missed me and had left a note. Since I stayed home all day and my office faces the parking area, I can safely state that there had been no attempt to service. Many hours wasted in attempt to resolve slow and no service with Frontier net in Lakeville Mn.

I operate a small health care business in Cannon Falls and have been stuck with Frontier until 2015. Over a period of 15 years, we have had the same issues as mentioned by the above customers, but I want to highlight two very serious problems that I believe may violate PUC policies. - prior to September 2014, we had a bundled 2 phone line/ 10MB internet service with Frontier. WE could never get a better download speed than 5.5 mb. We started using a new electronic health records cloud based software that could only work with a consistent speed of 10MB. We called Frontier to fix our current speed to the contracted 10 MB. We were informed that in order to do that we needed to upgrade to a 15 MB plan, so in essence they refused to uphold our current service agreement and forced us to buy a more expensive plan in order to get the speed they were supposed to deliver. We had not other option so we signed up for the " Broadband Ultimate" 15MB plan and were forced to renew a 3 year contract on our phone line at the time. We continued to experience crashes on our software and when we had our download speed measured independently, we never reached above 6.5MB. The tech came several times and finally fessed up that the local infrastructure could not deliver more than 6.5 and we should never have had the plan sold to us. We complained enough to Frontier that they "allowed" us to drop the internet plan but forced us to remain in the phone line service that was bundled with the internet. We switched to Northfield wifi in November of 2014. - we had phone book advertising with Frontier for the business for many years, eventually added online advertising through Frontier. We decided not to renew since our marketing tracking showed both avenues to have little to no return for our business. We continued to receive bills and when we called to ask for discontinuation of the advertising service were informed that their ad subcontractor had sent us a notice of auto-renew and that we had failed to respond to decline. We have no record of receiving such notice. I asked to see the letter and was not provided with it, just with the date that their internal system showed it mailed. We have argued back and forth for months. Because of Frontier's long standing track record of losing our mail, voicemails, billing error, failing to follow up on service calls etc. I do not trust that the renewal notice was actually sent out. I told them that I would honor the bills if they could show me a signed postal receipt or post office tracking number confirming delivery, but they have refused to do so, thus failing to prove to me that they actually sent me anything. Our bill was sent to collection and we have continued to contest it.

McGregor, MN -

Quality - Our internet is supposed to be high speed and we have never had high speed internet service. We had continually complained to customer service that we were experiencing really slow speeds and often our internet would go out altogether so then we would have to restart the modem. Customer service would look at our speeds and then put a ticket in that was never answered. When we finally was able to get a technician out to actually look at the line and test the speed coming into the house he confirmed that our speeds were slow and the network was unstable. The only solution that he recommended was to slow our speed down to 2 as that would stabilize the line which would help in internet outages. When challenged as to why that was the only thing they could do as the equipment was old and needed to be updated which was not cost effective for Frontier for our area. None of that was explained or even told to me when I set up service. Then I get a price hike of $20/month for something I can't get. This is the only service that is available in our area and so we are stuck.

My wife and I live in rural Askov-Bruno, Mn. Around The first week of August we lost our land phone service in our home . After contacting Frontier we were told they didn't have any repair people available for 3-4 weeks? After that long wait of 3 weeks a man arrived from northern mn. to repair the electrically fried system from the storm we had in August. Why does Frontier have the monopoly on the land service in our area? Can you please do something about the poor, inferior service that Frontier is giving us?

In 2016 and 2017 we had frequent internet and telephone outages. When I called customer service I was consistency quoted that it would take at least a week before a technician would be out to repair. I keep our landline phone for emergencies as cellphone service in our area is spotty, and I am always worried if something horrible were to happen while we are waiting for our phone service to be repaired. We also subscribe to a few online services (streaming, video games, etc) that we are unable to use during the extended outage, essentially paying for services we cannot use at home.

I have been logging outages, responses, and service tickets since the spring of 2016. I have attached a scanned copy of my logs for reference. We reside in the Franconia Township area near Shafer, MN.

The Internet service in my area Windom, MN is very unreliable. I never know when I will be able to access the internet or not. For a long time the Internet would go down every Sunday night at 9:30pm, you could set your clock when it would go down. Then you never knew when it would be back up again. Last year, I called repair and talked to an IT Tech for over 2 hours, and his conclusion was Frontier doesn't have enough Band Width in the area to support all the users. However they were suppose to be doing an upgrade soon. At that time, he said I was able to get access 43% of the time!! Really and I pay for a 100%. I just called 9/6/18, because I hadn't any service for 4 days that I knew of (we were gone over Labor Day). The IT Tech I talked to that day said, She couldn't see anything wrong and as far as she was concerned I have service whether it was 24/7 didn't matter I had service. When she transferred me to Customer Service, he of course said he couldn't do anything but give me credit. That's fine but that doesn't solve my service problem. I asked several times to talk to a Supervisor but neither of them would transfer me. This is just Unacceptable in every way, you pay for service and you expect it work 24/7. I understand storms and such, but for days on end without Internet service and at 43% is not Acceptable Service at all.

Phone service has a bug. If I start to dial a number, but I hang up before I finished dialing, I can't get a dial tone back. I have found that the only way to get the dial tone back is to have someone call my number. I reported the issue, but I was told it must be my personal equipment, such as an answering machine. However, if I disconnect the phone line at the outside terminal and connect a handset, I still don't have a dial tone. I'm afraid if I miss-dial 911, I may not be able to re-dial it.

MPUC Docket No. P407, 405/CI-18-122 Frontier Communications Comments Ann Buboltz (name on account) Roger & Pat Buboltz (owners of home) Atwater MN We chose internet service from Frontier because the house used to have a land line phone service through them so the line was already there. We joined in April 2015 and paid for a plan at 6 mbps speed at about $35/mo. The bills have been accurate. After several months of slow or intermittent service, we called Frontier on 5/26/18 to report it. Customer representive (rep) had us connect a laptop with the Ethernet cable to the modem. Internet worked. Rep did other troubleshooting tasks. Rep asked for date on sticker on modem—it showed 8/2013. He said the system looked okay from his end but he would mail out a new router in case it was the issue. He asked us to do a speed test-it showed 1.3 mbps download. Called in on 6/16/18 to ask about our contract & was told it was month to month and the best speed they have available in the area was 6MB. Changed from WPA to WPANA for better security. Called again on 6/17/18 because new modem never came and was told that someone overseeing the reps has to approve sending out a new router so it must’ve gotten denied. Rep said wifi was on Channel 1 but would put it on the highest Channel with hopes that would improve service. Asked when Frontier would be expanding HSI in Kandiyohi County but rep didn’t know. Told him we had a couple of other options for internet but would rather stay with Frontier if they could improve their service. Asked for a local office and was given phone number for Worthington office and Minneapolis retail.
Called 7/2/18—looked okay at their end. Later, we did 2 speed tests in afternoon and got 2.3 & 2.2 download & .31 & .37 upload. At 9:30 p.m., we got .72 download & .27 upload. Tested speed on 7/4/18 at 6:45 a.m. & got 1.0 download & .28 upload; no connection at 7:06, 9:13, off & on all morning. Called in to report poor service and got engineering ticket # 1502872 but when I referred to that number during our next phone call on 7/25/18, no one recognized it. I called the numbers to the Worthington & Minneapolis offices this day but neither one got me to anyone who knew about local expansion for HSI in Kandiyohi County. Rep did tests again and didn’t see any problems with our wiring or hardware. He explained that the major issue was that we were in a high demand area. I explained that it was a rural area around a small lake but he explained that the infrastructure in that area was barely able to handle the existing traffic. There would be times when all ports would be taken by neighbors. Our house was only 3700 feet from the junction box. When we asked how much it would cost to buy faster service, he explained that paying for faster service would not help, nor would moving the modem to a better location in the house or replacing the cables. When I stated that we’d need to find a different internet provider unless Frontier would be running HSI cable during the current road project next to our property, he asked if I wanted to speak with someone in the Sales & Retention Department because they would know about expansions. He transferred me & I got someone in Connecticut.
This man had no information about Frontier expanding HSI in Kandiyohi County or anywhere in Minnesota. He explained that the infrastructure we have in this area is copper based and has issues. It is old technology much like using a pay phone instead of a cell phone. Almost all of rural Kandiyohi County was able to sign up for a new HSI plan recently but it didn’t cover our area. I was told that current providers in our section of the county had promised to improve service within two years but there weren’t any fines if they didn’t keep their promise.
On 7/30/18, we called in again to say that we decided to cancel our subscription with Frontier immediately. Rep stated that we had paid through 8/24/18, that they don’t prorate and that there would be a $9.99 closing fee.
At this point, we don’t have an internet provider. We upgraded to unlimited data on our phones, although the strength in this area is weak. A couple satellite providers have said that they would need to see if they would be able to provide signal to our house.

We ask you to order Frontier to fix existing issues & invest in necessary infrastructure upgrades, credit customers for Frontier’s years of past poor service and reduce current pricing until they upgrade infrastructure.

Our internet is slow and does not give consistent service. We pay a price for a service that does not seem to be worth the cost.

Some things that happen are the following: -My kids wind up using their hotspot from their cell phones because they can’t get their homework done using the home wifi. This causes them to max-out their hotspot usage and can slow down the speed on their phones. -While trying to watch Netflix or something that requires internet on my tv, it might connect for a few minutes, if I am lucky. Most often, I can get a few minutes into a show and it will “buffer” again. This happens all too often so is not worth the time wasted in trying to watch anything this way. -I definitely can’t use the wifi to watch a DirecTV movie because my internet speed is so slow that it takes quite a while to download. -It can take a few days for my kids to be able to download a movie or game on their Xbox. -I bought an extender (not through Frontier) to try to get our wifi to actually work throughout the house. It still doesn’t help. I can be in the room above the router and still not have service. -I am supposed to be connected to wifi at home to backup my phone to the “cloud” and it takes WAY too long. I drove to work and it was done in a matter of minutes.

I have called Frontier a few times to fix this. They take me through a test to check my speeds. I think we are on the highest speed available in my area, which is still slow. Frontier is the only company, to my knowledge, in my area. I unplug and replug the modem and it might work until a week later, or even ah hour later, and it needs it again. I have also had a technician out to my house. I was told my modem was old and needed to be replaced. That didn’t even do the trick.

Our whole neighborhood has a Facebook “group” just about neighborhood issues and internet is a HOT TOPIC. This past summer, we lost internet for almost a whole week and I am not sure anyone at Frontier even knew what was going on. Many of our neighbors called and we all got different answers.

My bill is close to $100 every month for a very poor service. I do not believe Frontier is making advances in their technology to support their customers. Frontier needs to give better service or another company needs to come in and offer service. I would switch if I could. I have called to cancel my landline and only have internet but it seems even more expensive to just have internet.

I also don’t like that a new customer can get a deeper discount for service while I still pay quite a bit and have been a customer for MANY years.

We live outside of North Branch, and the service Frontier provides has never been fast or reliable. Before we purchased our property, we called Frontier, in an attempt to confirm that we would have access to high speed internet. Their response was "absolutely" We provide high speed in that area. I should have gotten it in writing. Their internet speeds are slow to non-existent, and the internet goes down when it rains. We have put in service requests, and then had automated calls informing us that they cannot make the schedule, and will be out next week. We had a line strung above the ground for almost a year before they finally buried it, after the county mower took it out. When we moved from our old house, they failed to stop billing us, even though we called and had them turn off the service. That mess took over a year to clear up. There is no other service available in our area, so we feel we are being held hostage by a very uncooperative organization.

We are former military, so we have lived in seven U.S. cities. Frontier Communications is the worst utility company we have ever dealt with. In the thirteen years we've had Frontier service we have had numerous problems. We have had repeated loss of land lines and internet due to exterior line/component failure (usually associated with rain/snow). These failures cost us significant inconvenience and service time loss. Some Customer Service and Repair Technicians were professional, competent and courteous, others were just the opposite. We've had Frontier tell us a problem was inside our home, which then cost us hundreds of dollars to determine they were incorrect. The problem was an exterior issue which Frontier eventually repaired. We've had problems with calls to rural North Dakota not connecting. Frontier repeatedly blamed it on the North Dakota carrier, which denied it and provided us with documentation showing it was a Frontier issue. We finally had to contact the FCC to get any action from Frontier. We still are not sure the issue was completely resolved because we were calling my mother-in-law, and she has subsequently passed away. We've had problems with online billing. Frontier repeatedly denied it was their problem and blamed our bank, which denied it. We finally insisted we be allowed to talk to a Frontier IT representative who indeed found it to be a Frontier problem. This process took months. In January of 2013 we received a "Notice Of Proposed Class-Action Settlement". It stated we "were charged Minnesota state and/or local taxes on amounts paid for internet services.''..."alleges that Frontier collected these taxes in violation of the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act and Minnesota Law". A USA Today article "...worst companies to work for..." dated 6/15/2018 ranked Frontier Communications #2 worst. It stated Frontier "Employees who would recommend working at company: 28%" and "Frontier is the only cable and internet service provider to rank among the worst companies to work for". It's my opinion that it's easy to see a connection between poor employee satisfaction and providing a poor product/poor customer service. PUC do something about Frontier, for the people!

After reading all of the above comments I'm astonished. We all share very similar experiences with Frontier Communications, whether it's for internet or phone service. I've been a customer for 21 years, only because there are no other options in our area. It is a rural community, and we residents dread attempting to contact Frontier for any service/billing related issues because you can count on spending copious amounts of time on hold, being disconnected and not called back when you're actually speaking with a CSR, and being given the run around. It is the norm to have to call several times in attempt to get an issue resolved. To say their customer service is beyond frustrating is an understatement. We have long dealt with slow internet speeds, daily loss of connectivity or extreme slowdown at midnight, countless times having to turn the modem off/on in attempt to regain connection. Each spring, as well as when it's very humid out, we deal with increased trouble in both phone and internet connection, which over time I've come to conclude must be related to moisture affecting outside lines, because our neighbors all deal with these things as well. Last winter a PED in our neighborhood was damaged. Frontier came out, did some work, and left it only wrapped with a tarp. In June, during a thunderstorm I was sitting at my desk, suddenly there was a loud pop that I knew instantly was a lightning strike, followed by the smell of electrical fire. It had come through the phone line into our house, blew out our line conditioner, and several things attached to our computer system. When I realized it had blown out all ten of the lights in our lamp posts, and neighbors' phone/internet service/equipment. At that point I suspected the lightning strike was at the PED. Though Frontier never admitted liability, I'm convinced that it was related to the condition that PED was left covered. If anyone had happened to have been outside walking that night, I wonder if they'd have been hurt or killed due to that incident. I was not 2 feet from that line conditioner that blew, and it was charred. I don't want to repeat what so many others have already shared, only to add that we've experienced the same trouble and frustrations. If we had other options, we would choose them. This company shows no regard for quality of service, nor for customer satisfaction. Because they have no real competition, they have no reason to improve or change their business practices. I've waited years for the opportunity to express our extreme frustration with Frontier.

My hope is that the PUC Commission would implement real change/improvement in the communities across our state that are forced (because of no alternatives) to either go without these important services, or put up with being essentially held hostage to doing business with Frontier Communications. Getting what we pay for isn't wrong to expect. For many, a dependable landline is crucial, and for many high speed, dependable internet is also crucial and expected (again, as advertised). We live in a time and place where it is not unreasonable to expect these things, especially when these services are advertised by the company. It seems to me that there is a willful intent by Frontier to provide substandard, lazy service because they have been able to get away with it for so many years. By the admission of many of their employees, the company is aware of this. Frontier Communications (at the top) needs to be held accountable, and either forced to improve or be put out of business.

I tried to comment earlier today, but our internet was down as it was raining, not an uncommon experience. We have used Frontier for two decades now and have consistently been unhappy with our "service" in Franconia Township near Lindstrom. We have half the internet speed we pay for and our service is interrupted constantly. All members of the family complete work from home or submit college course material online and the issue with access to reliable service is almost a daily occurrence. If someone needs internet connection for an important online task, the rest of us sign out of what we're doing, turn off wi-fi on our phones, and wait. Even then, there's no guarantee the connection will be successful. The cost of our bundled services keeps going up but the quality or type of service does not improve. When there's an outage that necessitates a call to customer service, I put the phone on speaker and complete other tasks, because it's invariably a half hour wait just to speak with a representative. In the past year, there was an telephone junction box broken and open to the elements in a high foot-traffic area near a school. Anyone could have easily put their hands inside the box. We have no other comparable options for service. This is not 21st century technology.

I currently live in southern Lakeville, MN and we are limited in internet providers out here. We signed up for Frontier service in April 2018 and have had constant issues with our service. Since day 1 the speed tests have shown that the bandwidth is only about half of the package we signed up for and are being charged. I made sure to ask the sales rep if we would be able to stream services like Netflix on our tv and were assured that it would be more than enough. We cannot stream anything and are barely able to connect to the internet on a good day. Back in June our internet went out unexpectedly for a week and it took hours on the phone with customer service to finally get a tech to come out. Several of the techs that were scheduled didn't even call or show up. Once a tech finally arrived he could not figure out what the problem was, and suggested maybe we just didn't know how to connect to the internet, despite us having been using it just fine up until the outage. A few days later they sent another tech who told us it was a problem at "the box down the road". I called customer service to ask them not to charge us for the periods when the internet was down, since that's only fair that we not be billed for a service we can't use by no fault of our own. Customer service was argumentative and claimed they could not remove charges from the bill, nor could they put a credit on the account. It was only after I asked to speak to a manager and suggested writing to the BBB that they agreed to credit the account. I waited for 2 billing cycles to see the credit show up and it never did, so I had to call back and haggle with their customer service again to have it fixed. They are not helpful and do not live up to their end of the deal in providing the bare minimum of services that they say they will.

I live in the Lindstrom/Chisago City area and I hate having to have Frontier. I hate that we have no choice!! "You are in Frontier territory." I am being billed for 12MB but am getting 2-4 MB, at best. No complaining does anything to Frontier, because they know in this area, you have no one else to go to. I often work from home, but my internet is iffy at best. They need to provide the service they promise when you sign up with them. When we originally signed up in April 2016, the tech came out, but did not even come into the house to set up the modem. When calling to complain about this, they said they would put one in the mail, but it never came. I called daily until they finally had someone come out, and would have charged me but I pitched a fit, until they agreed to send him out at no charge. Every time I have called customer service about anything, I tell them I hate their company, and if given a choice I would not use them. Open rural areas to someone else!

MPUC Docket Number P407,405/CI-18-122 Michael Sly, Jordan,MN (Spring Lake Township We too have experienced the same extremely slow speeds and inconsistent connection issues with the Frontier DSL internet service that everyone else has mentioned. DSL is the only option where we live, and Frontier is the only provider available. We have been internet customers since we moved here in 2006, so over 12 years. Never once have we seen the 6Mb speeds we have been paying for. I cannot count how many times I have attempted to get them to fix the issues, but I would guess it's well over 40 times over the past 12 years, and it has never been resolved, even for a short time. Right now we're getting about 200K, which is basically unusable, with an occasional burst up to 1Mb . I have given up. I continue to overpay, because there is simply no other alternative. I would like to see a huge refund, and a requirement that Frontier is only able to bill for the service level provided. I know they know what speed I'm getting - they should only charge me the applicable rate. Beyond that, I would like to see the state focus on providing people in rural areas access to internet service at speeds we can actually use. The world has changed, and internet connectivity is no longer a "nice to have" luxury. My family is being held back because we don't get the service that other families do get, and it isn't fair.

We've been Frontier customers for phone and Internet in Randolph, MN because Frontier is the only service available to us. I've never believed we have received high speed internet and feel like we have always been taken advantage of because we don't have choices. We are charged for Broadband Ultra but constantly have connectivity issues and slow internet. We are resetting the router on a regular basis and I am on the phone with Frontier several times a year asking them if we are getting this Broadband Ultra because I struggle for webpages to open on my computer. I've explained every time that I work from home and need reliable internet. I have had to have service representatives come out on multiple occasions, it takes 5-8 days to get someone out to restore Internet and like I said, I work from home! I explain that I cannot wait that long, and that is of no concern to Frontier. I am shocked to find this is not just an issue in my area that that MANY people have had to struggle with Frontier.

By the far the worst thing about living in the Chisago Lakes Area is Frontier. It has been a headache and disappointment for over a decade. I would pay double or triple just to have a decent ongoing internet connection that was reliable and constant; even at the same disappointing download speed of 6-9mbps (though I'm paying for 12 mbps) and upload of 1 mbps (which hardly ever comes close to that).

Here are examples of the typical headaches that we as a community are stuck with:

• internet cuts out no less than 20-30 times a day. It loses its connection and the modem continually restarts... over and over until it finally connects again. Going days without a connection is a monthly event. Thank goodness we have a weak phone signal hotspot that gets us through those times.

• We've called in so many times that I knew their script and what details they needed from us. As always, they send a tech in 5-8 days, they test the speed, drop off a new modem, and the problem continues. Nothing fixes the problem, ever. I stopped calling over the years because nothing works and I don't want to invest more hours explaining the same problem, running through their same tech step by steps testing on my end, to ultimately repeating the tech person coming out again with no resolve.

• I had 2-4 mbps (supposed to be 6 mbps) for years and it wasn't until I called in completely frustrated, that the local frontier staff worker, told me in an almost under-the-table whisper that I could get up to 12 mps if I wanted to pay more. I jump at the offer and 5-8 days later a tech person came out and dropped off ANOTHER new modem and it didn't work. Called in again, tech guy made another trip back out a few days later and told me the speed ad to be throttled back to 10 Mbps, 12mbps wasn't going to work.

Here is the kicker, I found out within a month or so that my nearest neighbor was offered and was getting 24 Mbps on her frontier line! The local hush-hush tip is to call the local frontier office, be super upset, press hard and they eventually give in and will offer a 24 Mbps option. facepalm (even though the neighbors get that speed, they still have all the constant disconnection and outage issues I do).

If this all sounds ridiculous, it is. The Chisago Lakes Community has their hands tied with little to no other internet options to join the rest of the country in 2018 technology expectations.

WE NEED COMPETITION! Or, if Frontier is the ONLY option, we need all lines updated to a constantly connected and working internet with speed options in the 100+ mbps within 12-18 months. This company has to be held responsible for their poor service and equipment. The run-around must end.

Been a Frontier customer for a while. Only because it was the only option I had available. I recently cancelled due to all of the issues I had.

Common issues being: Speeds nowhere near as advertised. Unwillingness to upgrade their equipment. Latency / Ping issues due to "congestion". Service outages for weeks at times. No technicians out to repair on weekends / customer support. Price per Mb ratio is too high. Paying up to $43 (after taxes, etc.) for a 6Mb line. Normally getting around 3Mbps.

To clear things up for some people expecting to download at 6 MB (versus 6Mbps) - there is a difference. Advertised speeds of 6Mb does not mean "MB". Roughly translated... 6Mb is about 750 KBps. It may be confusing but it is what it is. It's all in relation to "Bytes versus bits". Look it up if you ever do get curious, BUT that has nothing to do with the issues that are being had by this internet provider.

I've had to resort to talking to management in order to get issues fixed a couple years ago. Luckily, the guy in operation for my area was super nice and was understanding. He would work with me on all sorts of issues. Now, he has left and a new guy is in operation. Needless to say, he wouldn't respond period. Frustrating. Not a practice that a company should have.

What really killed it for me in the end was an issue I had. A storm came through, killed my internet connection. I called and got a ticket submitted. Earliest they could get out to fix my issue was a WEEK AND A HALF. Absurd.

I cancelled. Resorted to using cellular towers/hotspot. Couldn't be happier in comparison to Frontier and their crumby service.

We have lived north of Watertown (108th St Junction box) for over 20 years and I have a very, very long history with Frontier. I experienced the same situation as the commenter above in regard to working directly with management. Whoever took over after Ron is completely deaf to complaints, nor has he ever responded to my letters. I know several of the service people by their first names. I have never had good phone service: buzzing, clicking, humming and frequent outages -- all of which are more common with rain & humidity -- which point to aging lines and equipment. The crazy-making experience of speaking to repair people in southern states, followed by different service people showing up with no knowledge of ongoing problems and the time it takes to try to explain, and educate in order to get to a point where I am understood has resulted in me giving up. I would love to have the hours I have spent on the phone with frontier back. I no longer report outages, I no longer use our landline - which i have to have in order to get "high speed" internet (don't even get me started on that...). The company and it's practices are what I consider to be dishonest. And if you'll allow me one rant, let it be this: If I get ONE MORE FLYER advertising FASTER INTERNET SPEEDS by adding a SECOND DSL LINE, I'm going to lose my mind. First, it's simply not true. Second, all that does is add congestion to the already overcrowded DSL pipe and sell their service to more people so the experience just gets worse and worse. And what makes me even more mad is that they know it, because I've talked to enough service people and management who have honestly admitted it.

We have had Frontier Internet services for over 7 years and have NOT had good service or help from that company. We need a provider that will upgrade the system. Frontier is a joke! Any help in getting a good internet provider would be greatly appreciated.

For the last three years I have been struggling with speed of internet connection. Last year, a technician came out and told me when it shuts down I need to unplug, wait, and restart. That occurs every day and sometimes several times per day. He said it would be a year and the lines would come closer to our house. We were just too far away. After a few weeks of doing the unplug thing, I called again and was told to upgrade to a faster speed so I did that. No change. When I called again, the technician said that others have it worse than me...ugh. Then I tried to go back to a lower cost and was told that my package would actually be more expensive if I changed. So last month...one year later...I called again because my daughter needed faster connection for her work so her upload would not time out, and a wireless connection for her printer. A very nice technician came out and after an hour he was able to connect her printer but said our speed was only 1.38 gb even though we were paying for the 6gb. It will be 2-3 years before it will get better. The only thing we could do is turn off all other devices when she needs to access her files. I feel we are paying $110 for 2018 speed but only getting a 1990 product. My daughter now drives down to the coffee shop to connect.... How can a big company not be able to complete their promises as advertised. We are not able to connect to a dish or other wireless products because our house is in the middle of a wooded area. We are stuck with poor access and unplugging modems and devices...not to mention what happens if it is cloudy, rainy, windy, or any other disturbance occurs. Seriously, what are they doing with all the $$ we are spending. To top it off, when I called the last time, I was offered a "great deal" if I sign up for tv access and faster speed....? I am sure that would not get me anywhere except losing more money. Frustrated!!

We have had Frontier for land line and internet for more than 20 years. They have never provided the advertised speeds and, like other commenters above, we have always been given the run around from the company. They have admitted on numerous occasions that their lines cannot provide the speed they advertise (and that we are paying for all these years), yet they refuse to upgrade their lines so they can provide us the service we need.

They are the only provider--besides satellite--that we have access to in our rural area.

Our land line service is out frequently. Also when we call in, it takes weeks sometimes before a technician is able to come out. The problem is always out at the junction box - in our neighborhood there are several that have covers off the box/wires exposed to the elements, garbage bags wrapped around them with duct tape, and they haven't been fixed even though they've been told many times. In our neighborhood there is an exposed phone line that has been laying on top of the ground between the field and the ditch for the past two years. This wire has been broke a few times due to farmer equipment catching it. They've come out to repair the broken phone line a few times, but they refuse to bury the wire properly until they have a contracted crew - this has been over two years.

I have had nothing but problems with frontier. The internet is very slow, if it connects at all, I keep losing the connection, takes forever to re boot. I have called CS so many times and of course on hold till my phone goes dead, if I do get through, all I get is the same run around as to how to "fix" my problem--their advice never works. I ask to speak to a manager and EVERYTIME I get disconnected. They also have told me if I choose to get a different provider, I will lose my land line because they don't do land lines in our area anymore. I need my land line because cell phone service also is poor here. I have scheduled for a repair tech to come out 3 times in the last month--2 times they never showed up--took work off to be here because they told me someone NEEDS to be here. The 3rd time a tech showed up on a Sunday unannounced. Told me my internet is slow--nothing he could do and left. I hope something changes soon!

Frontier has not provided adequate internet service since we have been receiving their services in our town, Cannon Falls. On a daily basis, the wifi service stops and we have to disconnect from wifi and reconnect. This happens even when there is only one device using wifi service. Although Frontier employees have come to our house to "fix" our service, the problem persists to this day.

We have been stuck with the sub-standard internet of frontier for 13 years now in linwood township and it is just disgusting to me that they can charge $65.00 a month for horrible service, we have called over and over to try to get better service and they say they will be out to hook us up to a new hub and then just before they come they call and say sorry there isn't one available and they have told us that I think 3 times so I don't even bother calling anymore because nothing ever gets done and we have no other choice for providers so we are screwed. please get mid co. out here and at least 90% of our neighbors would agree frontier s--ks, the rest have satellite which isn't any better because of cost.

The internet is so slow that its hard to stream anything like Netflix, sometimes it takes close to a minute just to open a page on the internet. we have never had such poor service, I don't think they should even be allowed to be in business unless they improve their service at least 5 times better than it is.

Someone needs to start a class action suit against frontier in this area, if I new how to start one I would in a heartbeat.Thanks for the great service frontier, it would be awesome if you went out of business and we wouldn't be much worse off

I want my money back for the last 13 years

having frontier is pretty close to having aol dial up like back in the 1990's

From Denham, MN.

I don't even know where to start with this company.

I first dealt with them while living in town, a rural town of 300, but still "in town." I was quoted $19.99 per month and was sent a router to plug into a phone line that I originally told them I did not have (no phone jacks inside the house due to recent remodel). I called tech support and was told to plug it into the box mounted on the outside of my house and string the line though my kitchen window. While this was laughable, I did so and happily paid the $19.99 as they refused to come install an indoor jack without a fee like they previously said they would for no charge. When my bill rose to $35.99 a few months later I ended up having to call every month to get a $15.00 credit and every month they said they were unsure why it was happening but neglected to ever fix it.

I eventually moved out of town to live with my boyfriend who has been with Frontier since building his home in 2008 and was appalled at the price he was paying for such shoddy internet service. The trouble I had with them previously was nothing compared to what we were about to encounter.

Firstly, I must mention that the initial nightmare of trying to get his ex's name off the bill was beyond ridiculous. It took around two months of phone calls and emails to get it sorted out, along with them eventually demanding that she be present to remove her name. We ended up having to bother her multiple times while she was at work with 3-way calls (between her, Frontier and ourselves) as distance and work schedules made it hard for her to just pop over here to talk on the phone.

In an effort to shorten up what is becoming a rather long story, the situation in this very rural area (poor to no cell service and reliant on landline for emergencies) is identical to what so many commentators here are dealing with: slow speeds, call drops when communicating with customer service, a lack in communication between reps and repair men (I was once given the personal cell phone number of a repair man, oddly the rep told me to just call him myself, only to call and find out that it was a man I knew personally who retired from working with Frontier months ago!), constant need to reset routers, and, my biggest concern, the unwillingness of Frontier to charge everyone in the area the same amount for their slower than slow internet speeds (ours being touted as "High Speed Internet Max" yet only receiving .73 Mbps upload speed and .43 Mbps download speed). The last time I called about poor speeds with a high price tag I was politely told that I should keep in mind that we are basically grandfathered in out here and that they no longer service this area for new customers ... I was offered an insulting one-time $5 credit which I've yet to see.

Prior to learning about this investigation, I'd personally been doing speed tests and collecting price information from the neighbors in an effort to have something to fight with when I call back and try AGAIN to get our monthly rate lowered due to the incredibly slow speed. One neighbor, about a mile away, pays the same as we do, $50.99, with an even slower speed test than us, and another neighbor, also a mile away, pays $24.99 with slightly faster download speeds (1.75 Mbps). I understand that we are "in the middle of nowhere" and should almost expect to have poor-quality internet, but scaring customers to continue paying an arm and a leg for it is just awful. Basically they can charge what they want as they know we have no other option. Frontier has been nothing but a hassle with no positive outcome to date. I, as well as many others, would love to see something done about this horribly unethical scam they have going on.

Just name it. It would be redundant to write exactly what many other customers have stated: speed, un-stability, the need to reset the modem constantly, price vs internet service provided, rotten customer service and billing issues.

Unfortunately, we live in a rural area and this Mickey Mouse provider is our only choice. If we had another choice we would drop Frontier in a heart beat.

Very simple, provide us with the quality service we are paying for. That would resolve your conflict and we would be happy.

Thanks

I live in Hoyt Lakes, MN and have been a customer since 2014/5. I am writing in response to the MPUC Docket Number P407, 405/CI-18-122. Early on as a customer Internet speed was as suspected and paid for. I was able to take online courses and stream on multiple devices without any troubles. However, I have noticed now in the past couple years speed slowing down to the point that I get interruptions by only streaming on 1 device. Slow speed and degraded screen images. I alerted them to this and was once told that I had been paying for high speed however, I was plugged into a slower speed. This year alone internet has gone down several times often lasting almost a day. I also alerted them that I am having problems using Apple products (iPhone and iPad) where I need to turn off internet on Apple products and turn back on to use apps or even do internet searches. I use my iPad for school and makes it frustrating to read course material or reply to discussions. I hope MPUC can get some action done to rectify this situation with Frontier. If my service would run properly it is a value for service. Only one other option for internet in my area and they limit downloads and if you exceed you are charged more whereas Frontier does not charge me extra. I just want what I paid for in speed and ability to utilize Apple products for school and streaming. TJ

On the outskirts of Delano (Franklin Township, Wright County) we moved in about a year ago and subscribed to Frontier's 6M DSL service. It was apparent immediately that we were not getting that speed. When I called to have the lines checked, the service man who visits the box at the end of the road called up and told me that there would be no way we would get 6M service - something about the equipment needing to be updated. I immediately made a call to have our service downgraded to the lowest speed. I was greeted with rude customer service and a true lack of desire to meet any kind of customer expectation of quality and service for the package being sold. It took three calls and me convincing the nicer fella at the other end of the line that he might need to think outside the box just to retain me as a customer, but I did finally manage to change our account to the lowest level of service. And still I find that the service lacks any kind of quality on a consistent basis. Several months ago I made a call for service since it didn't seem like we were connected at all. The man who came to service the box said it was probably just that all the other folks on the block were using their service at the same time and the box at the end of the street was incapable of handling the volume. When asked when he thought Frontier might upgrade that box, he said he had no idea and that it might only happen if Frontier received funding from the state or the federal gov.

Perhaps Frontier should throttle back their profits instead of my DSL service speeds. Some re-investment in the company's own infrastructure that we pay them to use would be in order here. I truly hope that MPUC can help some competitors expand into the area. There are other competitors less than 3 miles away! Please help them compete against this self-serving, unethical company. I feel that Frontier's deceptive pricing (in known areas of congestion) and poor customer service when attempting to get a fair price on their poor quality service make it imperative that the MPUC hold Frontier accountable.

I live in Independence Minnesota, 55359. I am writing in response to the MPUC Docket Number P407, 405/CI-18-122. I have numerous interruptions and slow downs in DSL service weekly and speeds that are consistently slower than what I pay for. It is so bad, the few neighbors on my road call each other to confirm everyone's service is down before we call to report the problem. Frontier now insists that callers go through the trouble shooting process for installed routers BEFORE a service order is generated. This process typically requires 15-30 minutes and does not include the hold time waiting to speak with a customer service agent. When service technicians do respond to repair their hardware at the service pedestals located on Pioneer Creek Road, they inform me that equipment is very old and requires upgrading. I have asked them when it will be upgraded and have never received a response. This has been going on ever since they offered DSL service in my area, or approximately 10 years. Frontier will not adjust my invoice balance for these interruptions in service, even after recording and logging the complete internet service interruptions and slow speeds.

I forgot to mention, there is no competition in my service area. Frontier is the only option. I feel their monopoly on service has something to do with the poor service quality and Frontiers inaction regarding equipment and infrastructure upgrades.

We have had frontier since building our home in 1994. We have not received the services promised or advertised and are not happy with customer service. Frontier can get away with providing poor service and poor product because we have zero other choices in our area. There is no other phone, no other internet and no cable provider.

We paid for up to 6MB speed internet for years and years. The internet connection was slow and unreliable and I called Frontier numerous times. Their own speed tests showed less than 1MB speed consistently, yet we continued to pay for 6MB speeds. They infrastructure in our area has never been updated and is simply not capable of speeds even more than 1 MB. After years of phone calls and complaints, Frontier promised an upgrade to our area within 18 months. They gave us the contact number of the technician/engineer in charge etc. We continued to wait and call, all while paying for services we were not receiving. Finally, after almost two years and multiple unreturned phone calls, we were able to get in touch with the project engineer and were told that the upgrade to our area would not be happening and there was absolutely no timeline for when any upgrade might take place. We were told that there were simply not enough subscribers in our rural area to justify the needed upgrades to the infrastructure - basically it would never happen. In every call, rather than offer a solution, Frontier would try to sell an upgraded, very expensive, service. They tried to sell satellite internet, dish etc. They could not guarantee that the connection or speed would be any better, but the price would be a lot more. FINALLY, there was a company offer radio signal internet in our area and a local farmer put up a transmitter on his property. We cancelled internet with frontier and switched. The cost is more than quadruple what we were paying and what others pay for service int he town 7 miles away, but we needed reliable and fast internet for our businesses and our childrens school work. Even when cancelling, Frontier continued to try to sell us more service and justify the lack of speed and reliability. Although we would like to cancel ANY service with Frontier at all, we are forced to continue phone service with them as we need a landline. We continued our phone service. About 6 months after cancelling internet, Frontier raised our phone bill over $20.00 per month, citing a mistaken continuation of "promotional pricing" - apparently for over 20 years. They are charging us almost $80 per month for a basic one phone line to our home. A new customer can get much broader services for about $30.00 per month. I called twice and was basically told "too bad". There is no other phone provider, so we can cancel and have no phone or pay what they say. Finally, a customer service representative gave us a $20.00 credit for on year, after which the price will go back up unless we can call and convince someone else to lower the bill. Frontiers practices are underhanded and take advantage of the fact that they have absolutely NO competition on their market. Their customers are a captive audience with only two choices - pay what Frontier wants for lousy services or go without. They do not use any of the income or money to upgrade or provide better service for subscribers. It is a total scam and completely unfair to the customers.

We have had residential service since 2008 in May Township, north of Stillwater. It is by far the most unreliable internet service we have ever encountered. Our DSL disconnects at least 10 times daily for 5 minutes or so each time and then reconnects. So if you are in the middle of banking, trying to watch a video, listening to music, whatever, you have to stop and mess with your wifi on your device to reconnect. Very annoying and unacceptable. We have had numerous complete service interruptions lasting days and when you call in to customer service and spend an hour "troubleshooting" they repeatedly tell you that it will be a week! before they can get a service tech to check it out. Also unacceptable. I feel they don't really care about their customer base because they know they are the only option and until they have some competition from another internet provider, nothing will change.

We have been a customer of frontier for many years. It the only option we have in our area for an internet provider. Connection speeds have always been extremly slow and we never received the speeds adverised that we have paid for. Many outages ect. Half the time we have to revert to the hotspot on out verizon phones to stream netflix. The service is so slow that I have to drive 8 miles to the library to upload photo files.

We have been customers of Frontier for over 20 years because they are the only option in our area (Henderson MN). The internet speeds I have been paying a premium for have never materialized. Most of the time the speed is below 1 (on their speed test) . The service tech has been to our house so many times we know him by name (and he knows us). The infrastructure is below par and won't get fixed because they know they are the only show in town. Their service is horrible and the product I am paying for has NEVER been delivered. I would say they fail in all areas.

I live in Scandia with the zip code 55073. Frontier is my only option for Dsl internet service. The service is horrible, speed is very slow and it will randomly just cut out. Says I have full signal but I get the message can't connect to internet. It's very frustrating! Sometimes I can restart my computer after a few minutes it's ok but sometimes it lasts for hours that I can't connect. I very seldom bother watching netflix because most of the time it just takes too long to load. Even trying to watch short videos on facebook takes too long. I've called Frontier many times over the years trying to get better service but alI I get is promises that they're working on it. I quit calling probably a year ago because nothing ever changes. I just keep hoping some other option for internet comes to my area.

When I signed up for internet and streaming service I was contracted at $38.00 per month. The service for internet was fast enough to meet my needs for the first few years. Then, i installed a smart TV so I could stream movies, etc. At first, the service was fairly good with tolerable buffering. Six months ago, or so, I called Frontier and complained of the annoying buffering issue. The customer representative advised that they had been having problems and were upgrading those customers with greater bandwidth for no additional cost. Since then, my bill is now $48.00 per month and my streaming service has gotten much worse. With the intermittent buffering, a normal 1-1/2 hour movie now takes about two hours plus to watch, depending on the time of day.

Frontier claims to provide 6mb of service but most of the time we range from 0 to 1.5mb. I have had a service tech out several times as my kids need internet for school and we have other services we pay for that require broad band.The service tech would usually come out in off peak hours and be able to read around 1 to 1.5mb. when I would tell him I'm paying for 6mb they would just say thats as good as it gets until they upgrade there system. At times we've gone for as long as 10 days with no internet service.

We have only had service with Frontier since May 2016. However the phone quality has been poor. When on the phone we struggle to hear the person on the other end and they have a hard time hearing us. We have purchased new phones hoping that would help however it did not. We don't have this problem when using a cell phone or a phone with non-Frontier service. We have notice on one occasion where we didn't even have any phone service. Luckily I had a cell phone at the time so was able to call Frontier to inquire about the phone service not working. I was informed the issue was outside the home and that they would have someone work on it at the end of the week. That evening the phone was once again working yet they had not looked into the issue yet. We received notice at the end of the week that no issue was found. Still a mystery why we didn't not have service for the three days. The internet service is also poor. I work from home occasionally so can not use a satellite or hot spot internet service. In order to work at home I need reliable internet and phone service. I have had to go into the office several times due to unreliable service. The internet speed fluctuates and loses connections. When another provider is able to provide service in this area we will switch in order to have reliable phone and internet service.

We live near Burr, MN. Our only choice for a phone/internet provider is Frontier. ITC and Farmers Telephone have facilities within 1 mile of our home, but have not been able to extend service to us because of existing boundary coverages. Since we are the only home in the section, Frontier has repeatedly told me they will not be upgrading. Our home internet is serviced by DSL. I've contacted customer service numerous times for assistance as our speeds typically average about 0.48/Mbps download with 0.13/Mbps upload. Customer service tells me "something is wrong, we will send a technician". When the local technician arrives, they tell me that we are "at the end of the line, and that is all their equipment is capable of providing". The reference that it is an "old Conklin unit that feeds our area". They wish they could fix it, but haven't been provided the technology to be able to. Our cellular service is also limited at our home, as we are very near the border in a very rural area. We've had to drive our children 12 miles (each way) to take them to town to access wi-fi to complete their homework. It takes nearly 15 minutes to download a song from iTunes. If more than one person tries to use the internet at our house, it essentially quits working. I have contacted local Managers at Frontier as well as local and state government agencies. No one has been able to assist us. Occasionally, someone at Frontier Customer Service feels bad enough to reduce my bill for a couple of months, but nothing is ever done to rectify the service. As I said, we simply have no other choice for phone or internet service but paying $100/month for services that don't deliver what they are advertised to be is unacceptable.

Our residence has had Frontier phone and "broadband" internet service since 2010. We have had repeated service calls for many different issues. We have had no phone service for a week, scratching/static on line for months, inability to dial out even with dial tone. As we don't use the phone that often it hasn't been an inconvenience for us, BUT it is a service we are paying for monthly as part of their cheaper "package" in order to receive their supposed broadband internet service. The phone issues were eventually repaired/addressed but it took multiple calls/visits only to find out that the equipment at fault is at a switching station and nothing to do with our wiring. We have NEVER had advertised broadband speeds or even close. We average 2-3 Mb/sec download and never have reached even 1Mb/sec upload. The FCC has defined broadband as at least 25Mb/sec download. After multiple calls/service inquiries and multiple visits by technicians, I was finally able to speak with a district supervisor who told me that the connection box approximately 1/2 mile from our house was outdated and needed to be replaced. He admitted that as there are only approximately 30-40 customers being served by that box that this wouldn't be replaced anytime soon as it wasn't cost effective. He told me all of this during a phone conversation and would not put any of this in writing. Our internet service continues to degrade as more individuals are added to this service point/box and calling for technical support/repair does not good. I just had another technician out a couple of weeks back who gave me his supervisor's name and phone number and asked for me to call and complain as the speed we are getting is all we are ever going to receive until the equipment is replaced and/or upgraded. We are not receiving (and never have) the service level we pay for (even with the disclaimer that speeds advertised may not be available in all areas). I have contacted many other providers near us, but no other broadband internet service provider has service to our residence. Our only other option is satellite broadband internet, which is not an option due to data caps and poor latency inherent with this technology. Frontier also continually renews our 2 year contract upon our expiration date. I have asked about not renewing this contract, but then am told that I would have to pay more for our service if it wasn't "locked" into a 2 year pricing guarantee. Very, very unhappy with the service we are paying for, but there are no other good options available to us.

I receive electronic billing and just received the notice on this pending investigation in the mail on November 10th. I have the record from USPS Informed Delivery showing the envelope in our mail for that day.

Ive been a Frontier DSL customer since I got my first computer, probably 20 years ago. I live in Castle Rock Township, near Farmington. In all those years, we have never had the internet access or speed that we paid for. The excuse has always been that their transmission equipment out here is not up to the requirements. We have had service people here on many occasions, but they’ve never been able to improve it.

Lincoln Co MN. We have had Frontier internet since it became available years ago. I agree with all the above comments regarding slow speed. Just two weeks ago called to question my bill and was told I could go to 6 mb from my 1. with a package deal and save money on the bill. So tonight have a message that there is a problem with this service order and I should call back to discuss it. I'm guessing they can't get me 6mb like all the above people have said. We are billed a premium amount for the very poor, spotty service we receive. We don't even try the internet on Sunday's, never has a strong enough signal. I get my bill electronically or rather a notice in my email that my bill is ready. I only ever look at the amount I don't read the bill unless I need to find something specific. I would not have know about this investigation if you would not have made them send out written letters. If I want a paper bill it will cost me $3 per month. Most companies give you the option of paperless but do not charge you if you decline. Frontier needs to upgrade their equipment too. Any summer storm knocks out the internet and sometimes the phone.The only reason we still have a landline is because our cell service in this area is even worse than the landlines. Maybe we can talk about that too??!

Our experiences have been the same as stated above. We seldom have continuous service from 4:00-10:00PM. It is very typical to be in the middle of a project, email, etc. and have it stop without being able to restart where we left off or even start over. The speed is intermittent and slower at night when there seems to be heavy usage in the neighborhood. We do not stream movies, games or any other huge data uploads/downloads so it is very frustrating when we have to wait for a peak at Facebook or or email.

My experience with Frontier has been the worst service I have ever experienced from any utility. The phone service is often out. The worst I recall was a stretch of six days with no incoming calls. Of course we did not know calls were not coming to us as the phone did not ring. I called my elderly parents and they commented they had been trying to call me for a week. It is common for to make or receive a call only to either not hear what the other person is saying, or to have them hang up because they cannot her us.

The internet is worse. The speeds are nowhere near the advertised speed, and the service goes out with almost every rain or snow storm. Just damp weather means I will have to repeatedly unplug reboot my router. Sometimes that works, but often it does not.

We have had problems with internet speed for years. I have submitted concerns to the PCU by mail. The speed is far below what is advertised. We have been told, by technicians that have come to our home, that Frontier is not capable of anything better in our rural area. Then we should not be charged. Phone service is also less than desirable with lengthy repair wait time. We have waited up to 3 weeks for a repair to our line. The last technician showed up unannounced, was in and out of here for 2 days, in the end we had service but were told that a ground rod needs to be installed, by the company. That has yet to happen. Frontier has a monopoly in this area and something needs to be done. Until there is competition for this company, I feel nothing will change. We are the third generation on our farm and this company has never been anything more than substandard. Customer service is a joke. I dread calling in.

I'm getting into this discussion a bit late as we just received the notice of this complaint this week. Reading through the comments a very common thread is the poor DSL service, often times well below the "advertised speed", with no recourse technically or from the standpoint of competition.

Over the past few years contractors have been burying miles, and miles of fiber optic cable all around us. About two miles, as the crow flies, is an established town with a population of 500 people. A few years back a new service provider came to town, giving the consumers an option other than Frontier. When I called to inquire as to the availability of that service at our location I was told that there was some obscure policy that prevents "competition" in cases where the existing provider would be unfairly disadvantaged by a new service provider. (I'm not sure if it was exactly stated that way, nor did I pursue the issue further to see if indeed such a policy exists, and whose policy it was, but that was the gist of the new provider's comments).

I am not an economy or business expert but I get a sense that, should such a policy exist, it would be inappropriate for a service provider like Frontier to take advantage of the opportunity by taking a "what are you going to do about" stance when it comes to service quality and technical/customer support simply because what are we going to do about it???

DSL? Not so. Service is erratic at best, Tiring waits from customer service to get thigs corrected. It almost seems like they pay attention only on an as needed basis and only if we call about our problem. It definitely is addressed after an hour or two of waiting on the phone. Should this be necessary? Isn't this a "communications" company? Should the company know what is happening in their service areas?
Frontier has had consistent growth throughout the US. Maybe too much because service has been compromised. The word here is competition - they have none.
I had to wait a week and a half for a service person to show up at my doorstep, and it was his first day on the job. He had the tools needed to do a cursory test but in the outlying areas it is not a quick trip to pick up a new modem or other equipment that is needed.
The technician's instructions were to mail the modem to our city (also our billing) address because this service address doesn't have a mailbox. It arrived almost two weeks later at the service address rather than where requested. Same thing happened last winter when the box was hung on a fencepost in a plastic bag for a month in subzero temperatures. Where are their workers who don't check instructions? 2-3 people can use the connection at one time - how does this keep up with today's technology demands? Our invoices are always correct. For that I am thankful. But too many questions and not enough answers.

I put this in the customer service forum as well, but it's just as relevant here:

I've had Frontier for going on 4 years now. The first year or two everything went pretty well, no real issues aside from the occasional need to restart my router (maybe once or twice a year). The last 2 years though have been an absolute nightmare. More often than not we have to reset the router 5+ times a day, and even then it only helps the issue 50% of the time. I've spent hours on the phone with tech support(whom I have no issue with), they always tried to at least come and take a look at it. The problem was that they could never seem to fix the issue. They basically rewired the phone line in my house and gave me 4 new routers and best case scenario it would be fairly stable for a week or so and go back to normal horrible quality. Even when it does work, it is usually FAR slower than what I pay for. I pay for 25mb/s internet and on good days it would run at 10-15mb/s, bad days it was in the 100's kb/s range. I've tried getting my own router and hooking that in with theirs and it sped things up a little but I'm still not getting my money's worth. More often than not lately I've just been using my mobile hotspot and cell phone data to power our internet. I have an appointment this week to change providers because of how bad the service has been.

We have DSL and phone service in Independence MN since 2000. We no longer have a need for the phone service but are required to purchase it in order to receive DSL service. We have purchased the "high" or max speed internet service and are lucky to get more than 2 MB download and 0.5 MB upload speeds. As many of the other individuals have indicated, the service is sporadic particularly in the evening when everyone is at home using their internet access. The technicians who have come to my home to investigate the slow speed admit that the equipment needs to be upgraded in our area to handle the demand. They offered to reduce my service to the 1 MB service to reduce my cost. However, the problem is that we need more than 1 MB service for our internet usage which includes video streaming and video conferencing. We use video conferencing to communicate with partners and clients in my business as well as to communicate with our family and friends who do not live locally. The slow upload speeds are particularly problematic for video conferencing. There is a significant need to open our area up to alternative means of accessing the internet. The lack of competition in our area seems to contribute to the problem - Frontier has little apparent motivation to upgrade their system.

Frontier overcharged me for the first 4 months of my contract by $25. I was told one price and charged $25 more for the first 4 months. I had to call them every month to get them to reimburse me. I was also charged for a premium house phone package that I never requested. This was after they finally stopped overcharging me for the service and also went on for at least 2 months. Customer service did not believe me so they launched a "investigation" in which they went thru the recorded phone messages between us and finally reimbursed me a month later. Also, for the last 3 month, like clockwork on Friday my internet would go out for the entire weekend and come back on Monday. This was a HUGE inconvenience since a have to have internet for my job (not to mention my kids use it quite a bit for entertainment). It was almost not worth calling customer service as they were never able to fix the problem and the wait for the chat would be almost an hour as it was probably affecting a lot more people. When they go through resetting the modem and figure out they cannot fix the problem they would have to make an appointment with a technician which I was told I would be charged for. I literally only have 1 other option for internet in my area (Direct TV) so I'm feeling very taken advantage of. There is also a mew charge on my bill for $6.99 that raised my bill up again. This has yet to be explained.

Frontier in Chisago, just like everywhere else, advertised about a 6MB Download and 1MB Upload Package. I was told this is the Max on a DSL, but it should be fine. Well, it is horrible. After calling repeatedly, they sent out a technician and he basically told me that no matter what they sell you, everyone is limited to 2MB down and .3 Upload. He said the equipment was old and there were absolutely no plans at this time to upgrade. I called today to see about the speed because it was even slower than normal. I am running speed tests and not getting anything close to the .3. They do not offer a plan with lower speeds. They have one DSL plan. Love it or leave it. Both my neighbors have left. I have no choice because that is how my fire and alarm is monitored.

We have had frontier dsl since we moved to the Milaca area 15 yrs ago. We have never had good quality. The poor quality modems go out constantly-3-4 times a yr. is not unusual. The download speed has always been lousy ie; 0.2 mbps is an average. It takes forever to open a page and many times can't even download things. I have called frontier too many times to count and am always told we are at the end of the line and won't get anything better. I have even had tech supervisors tell me I shouldn't even be offered internet service! After filling out one of there surveys and giving all the answers the lowest of ratings, I received a call from someone in charge of surveys( I think he was a VP) and explained the problems. He also told me there was nothing that could be done. He had no reply though when I said I should not be charged for dsl when I was only getting dial-up speeds. In the last week or 2 the download speed has increased very slightly, up to about 2.0 mbps, still not very good. We would like to install a ring security camera but on checking upload speeds we only got 0.2-0.5 speed. Not enough to work, it takes at least 2.0 upload to work. Frontier should not be allowed to do business in Mn if they are going to give us this quality and should be required to give us a refund for all the years they charged us for high speed dsl but only gave us dial up speed.

We had Frontier for years for telephone and internet, we have now discontinued their internet service because of the slow service but mostly because of the TERRIBLE customer service and repair services. We had several issues with our internet being VERY slow or not connecting at all, when calling with these concerns they would either tell us that service was down temporarily in our area which often lasted days. When following up they had no concern for customer needs or the fact that we were paying for a service that rarely worked. Our most recent concern was with billing and they had charged us incorrectly on a bill after we had repair needs. I had called and called with no answer or call back when I finally got to someone they where VERY RUDE and basically told me there was nothing they could do and they, stating "frontiers repair and customer service is very understaffed and we were lucky we got a service call, and/or a customer service response. Our phone service was marginal at best and we had service calls for that which took up to two weeks to get an appointment scheduled. We had a lightning strike back in July of 2017 which hit our camper taking out our phone and an outlet in our home, frontier took almost a month to respond to our request for an appointment for phone line repair, when they did arrive they only checked the outside line not the one going into the house which we told them was the issue, so then we had to wait another two weeks for them to come back and repair the inside lines. The second appointment went smooth and the TECH WAS AMAZING, I wish I could remember his name very helpful. All in all Frontier has no business being a provider of internet, phone and customer service as their company practices are below poor and have forced many in rural areas to search for other options without luck or with increasingly high prices for the poor service they proved.

The internet service is very poor drops all the time. The service techs are great but they can only do so much.

comment...

the internet has never been good, but we have no options, if we did we would change. I even increased my internet package to a higher speed, but this did not help. we have had techs out to the house and spent a lot of time on the phone with techs, who are always trying to help and are polite, and have had two new modems. a tech went through our house to redo everything, and left shaking his head, and said sometimes it just has to get really bad before the problem can be detected. last time they changed the setting from automatic to lower numbers. I asked if this did not work what was next, he said nothing he knows of. again the tech was polite and helpful, I think they are as frustrated as we are. I think frontier needs to be held accountable and provide the service they say they will. we have a smart tv and it is always stopping when we try to stream or it gets blurry. I should have enough speed now, but the service does not seem to be consistent or reliable.

I have called Frontier many times over the last few years to report issues with our internet. The most recent was in November 2018. Each time you call, you are required to troubleshoot with a technician over the phone before they will consider sending a technician out. This process is agonizing and can take up to 45 minutes. During one call I was disconnected and the technician did not even bother to call me back. I had to start over with another technician. They always have many excuses as to why we have slow speed and dropped service. I think I am on my fourth modem as we received a new one in November during our last service call. It seemed to work initially, but once again we are experiencing slowness and the inability to stream television shows. It looks like I will have to open yet another trouble ticket. And during these many calls to Frontier, they never offered anything for my many hours of time and poor service.

I am laughing a bit as I write. Frontier’s technician was supposed to be here between 8 am and 12pm today. It is now after noon and we haven’t heard a word. Another half-day of work taken off for Frontier’s LOUSY service. Same story, different day. This will be visit number six or so. Each time they come out they “fix” our intermittent internet service. Next day? The internet signal stops working . My wife and I have spent countless hours online with Frontier’s support folks trying to get our service to work and also trying to get our money back. We pay $107 a month for service that drops daily. We have documented our conversations with the support folk who freely admit they can see our service drop multiple times a day. That said, we don’t always meet their “required” numbers of drops to send techs. The support folks always tell us we live in a “high use” area. We live in the City of Independence’s low development area. This company is taking our money and falsely advertising quality and service. We feel completely helpless as we sit on hold and receive the same excuses each time we try and look for solutions to our nonstop problems with Frontier. PLEASE HELP US!

A follow-up to our earlier issue. I spent my afternoon on the phone (and on hold) with a Frontier support representative who would not pass me onto his manager (said it would be more than 30 minute wait as he was helping other customers). He also would not refund any money. I asked several time for credit do to lack of internet service. His only, repeated comment was, "I am trying to find a solution and how much money we might refund". The line would go silent and when I would ask for help representative would only repeat the comment without offering any solution. Call eventually ended after round-and-round, dead end discussion. Attached is my wife's online effort (during same time period) to try and get technician to show. Frontier has now offered to re-schedule service visit. This is a spinning carousel we cannot seem to jump off.

In rural Chisago County, we have had the same telephone line for 30 years. When Frontier offered the "high speed" DSL service, we opted in. I do believe at first it may have delivered some of the speed it was advertised for. However, as more people move into the area, the service has gone down at a steady pace.

The quality of the Internet connection for the past few years has degraded drastically. Connections can be slow to none depending on time of day or day of the week. If you wish to balance your checkbook at 2 A.M. during the week, you stand a good chance of getting a speedy connection and no drop at all. But if you were to try on a Friday evening or Saturday morning, you will be disappointed.

I have measured the speed and kept track of latency times over the years. The calls to Frontier technical support are usually of no help. They mostly wish to sell you a faster service. If you keep pushing it, you may get to the person who will finally confess that they do not have the infrastructure to support a faster speed or even support the current customers connected to them in my area. To get to this point and this answer, much time and frustration must occur.

I see from most of the posts in this discussion, I am not the only one with this experience.

The sad part is that every month Frontier takes my money but does not truly deliver on the service they are selling. When pushed on this detail, the answer usually is that they are selling a service that is "UP TO" a certain speed and that the speed for which you signed up for is not a guarantee.

With the cell phone signal not prime at my location either, the choice is not an easy one. So for now I keep with Frontier hoping that the equipment down at the end of the road will be bringing in a new era of real high speed connectivity. We can only hope.

In the meantime, they still take our money without delivering the service. That is the crime committed here. Very few businesses and industries can get away with what they get away with. I hope that with these stories and some insight from the PUC that Frontier will take care of their customers in the way they should be taken care of.

Thanks and good luck.

I wish everyone with an issue with Frontier would take the time to write even one sentence in condemnation. The relatively low number of comments on this page just isn’t representative of the widespread impact of their egregious business practices. They have such a terrible reputation it is actually a running joke in our community. Outages, slow speeds, unconscionable pricing, and abysmal customer service are the norm. Every person on this page is complaining of the same thing – being taken advantage of by a company that has no competition and, apparently, no moral compass. Frontier absolutely needs to be held accountable.

The latest in a very long line of questionable conduct is the letter that Frontier sent out to its customers informing them that they could enter comments on this discussion page through March 27, 2019. Interestingly, the date posted at the top of this discussion page states that comments close on 02-28-2019. This means that people waiting until the last minute to post a comment will be sorely disappointed because the discussion will have closed a FULL MONTH sooner than the date Frontier stated in its letter. Is that even legal? If it is, it certainly isn’t ethical, although clearly typical of what we’ve come to expect from them.

With our internet service it all depends on what time of the day you are on, on how reliable or how much spinning you will encounter. We have to take turns on surfing and streaming when there is only three of us in our household. When I work from home it is hit or miss on if I will stay connected. It becomes really frustrating when the network is so busy it takes forever for a page to load. I don’t think there is a day when we aren’t fighting about who gets the band width. In today world of technology I feel this is ridiculous!

We have had Frontier since Jan 2016. We have never been happy with it,but was told it was the only one we could get in this area. We never get credit when it is out. We had problems with it being out and called them and they said we were in a restricted area and it would be 2 weeks or more before they could come out. No credit. When they finally came out it was the box in the house,We had to up-grade because they no longer had that box,more money.We got a notice just last week our bill was going up. We pay over 70.00 a month for crappy service.

We have been a customer with Frontier since 2004(only provider in our area), After numerous complaints and calls to Frontier about slow service, internet not staying connected, and not being able to connect more than a device or two, I was advised to upgrade to a higher MBPS. After switching to a higher speed and PRICE, my service is no different than it was before when I run a test to see the speed I average 4-6MBPS not 24 which I continually pay for being that I have a child in school that requires internet not to mention my home office. I am unbelievably tired of paying $75/month and receiving at best $10 worth of service.

We have given up on Frontier. After countless hours on the phone and more than half a dozen visits from Frontier's technicians we have decided to take action. We can no longer pay over $100 a month for internet and phone service that does not consistently work. We can not conduct work from home as internet drops repeatedly during the day. Frontier says it tracks the drops and can see our weak connection. The techs come out and "fix" the problem, drive away, and our internet drops. We have asked for our money back for years without success. We believe the last tech was actually being honest when he told us our home sits near the end of "Frontier's line" and we will always receive a weak signal. For those who have called Frontier's support line, it is an endless maze that never seems to lead to someone who can help. We want our money back. It's that simple. We paid (for years) for a service that has never worked.