I don’t write a lot about broadband caps and metered service because it’s more of a national issue and so much has been happening locally – but as Keith Thelen wrote to me, Minnesota now has a front row seat.
According to Ars Technica, Frontier Communications is piloting metered services in Mound, Minnesota. It seems as if most of the details are coming from StoptheGap, a site that works at “promoting better broadband, fighting usage caps, usage-based billing and other Internet overcharging schemes.”
According to StoptheGap…
Stop the Cap! has learned Frontier has begun measuring customers’ broadband usage, and for those in Minnesota who exceed 100GB of usage during a month, Frontier is dispatching e-mail messages telling them they’ll have to agree to pay more — much more — or their service will be cut off in 15 days.
It sounds as if about 50 people received such email messages. The most egregious bump up will be for those achieving 250GB of usage; their new monthly rate is an incredible $249.99 per month.
Again it sounds as if this is a pilot charging program and it sounds as if it’s for DSL customers at this point although representatives have alluded to potentially metered charges for FiOS service as well. (Or at least they haven’t said no to metered service for FiOS.) Unfortunately for Frontier it looks as if their letters to DSL customers preceded policy changes on their web site, that may be added to the confusion and frustration.
