 Review by Boomerang86 
UPDATED: 344 days ago
member for 5.8 years, 2574 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Walden,Orange,NY
 $35 per month
 about 11 days
 "Friendly sales staff, easy install with DHCP (PPPoA)"
 "expensive for DL speeds offered, now charging modem rental fee"
 "cable is STILL a better value here; true competition would change that"
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(ratings above consensus)
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BUMMER... I'm a current Optimum Online customer, about to move out of their service area! NO other residential ISP offers their download speeds, not even close!! I had to choose between this DSL service and cable (Road Runner, Earthlink or AOL BB). Since RR is $60. a month without a cable package I checked into Frontier and decided to give them a go. Bundled local phone service with their DSL Max is $65. a month; not bad! FrontierNet advertises download speeds up to 3 MBPS with this service, but it only happens in Rochester for now. Since I was paying $35. for Verizon DSL 768/128, this seemed like it was worth a try. I ordered phone and DSL service at the same time on December 17; Frontier shipped the Efficient Networks model 5200 modem and microfilters on the 18th, they arrived on the 23rd. My service won't be live until the 29th, so i'll post an update as soon as there's news.
UPDATE 12/30: The dial tone came on early morning of the 29th as promised. Got my PC hooked up in the afternoon, but the modem didn't sync. Called support, they say they're still working on it and should be ready by 7pm. That time came and it was still dead; called again, they say the ticket's still open and it should be on later tonight or tommorow. Next morning it still wasn't up. Tried to connect via my dial-up ISP and that's when I found the problem... NO DIAL TONE!! What a dummy I am; should have checked that yesterday. Rolled the PC to a working phone jack, plugged the modem in and it synced in less than a minute. DHCP was a VERY pleasant surprise; no DUN to deal with! Speeds after tweaking were 865/108, within Frontiernet's 80% threshhold; pings solidly in the 30's (not as good as OOL, but since I don't game it's good enough for now). I'll update again in a few days with reliability news.
UPDATE 12/31: The good news keeps coming! I cleaned up the connection to the telco jack in the room where I was having the problem; DSL and dial tone are perfect now. Speeds are as good as yesterday; I am also impressed with the 25MB total e-mail AND 25MB web storage space! Connection has been solid too; line quality is surprisingly VERY GOOD. Overall throughput is better than I expected.
UPDATE 1/08/04: The connection has been rock solid! Last speed test was 870/108, best so far and that's @ 5:45 p.m. on a Thursday, so throughput does not disappoint! Don't use e-mail or news enough to pass judgement on those yet, but so far I am most impressed. WTG FrontierNet!!
UPDATE 1/31/04: The service is still great with no downtime and consistent throughput, but you may noticed that I've lowered the value rating by two notches, and HERE'S WHY... I did some number crunching after receiving my latest phone bill from Frontier and I discovered something I didn't like at all. Don't get me wrong: $35. a month for 870KB down is not bad. HERE'S THE RUB: I pay for Frontier DSL Max bundled with local phone service. A whole lot of taxes, surcharges and fees are based on your telephone charges. When you bundle, the DSL is considered part of your phone service (not a seperate data service) and is taxed accordingly; you wind up paying an additional $10-11 a month! That means I am actually paying $46 a month for DSL. Since Earthlink Cable is $42. a month for up to THREE TIMES the download speed and DOUBLE the upload (not to mention a current promo for $30. a month for first 6 months and free install), I am ordering that today and will likely cancel this DSL service. Stay tuned!
update 2/25/04: Earthlink cable has been up and running here without a hiccup for six days, and yesterday Frontiernet reluctantly closed my DSL account. The modem still syncs, but since I can't check mail at their server I'd say it's gone. They are sending a prepaid shipping label to return the modem. It was a good ride and I'd recommend them to anyone in this area IF ONLY they'd lower their rates at least 20% or so, then the value would be there.
update 9/10/07: Frontier sent me an offer in snail mail (I went back to POTS 11 months ago) to re-up with their DSL product. They are now offering up to 3 mbps down for $24.99 a month for one year, $34.99 a month the second year with a modem rental fee of $3.99 a month and a two year contract with a $200 ETF. Sorry guys, your speeds are better now BUT there's NO WAY I'm going to lock into a contract now, when I am quite content with Road Runner Lite 768/128 @ $29.95 a month, no modem rental charge, NO CONTRACT. You telcos STILL DON'T GET IT. Nice offer, but still not good enough here.
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FrontierNet Internet Access
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I pay 50 $ a month in Needles Ca. Seems like alot but there is no other provider so they can charge whatever they want.