As the TVPA (Television Viewer Protection Act) goes into effect on Sunday, I took it upon myself to call Frontier support to see whether they were prepared to answer questions about the change in regulation. In case you’re unfamiliar, Ars Technica released a fantastic article about TVPA today. I called Frontier because since I bought a house in November 2019, I’ve paid an additional $10/month to rent a modem/router, despite my efforts to return it. And believe me, I tried to return it.
When I’d previously tried to avoid Frontier’s $10/month charge last December (2019), I had already purchased and installed a replacement router/modem and called Frontier support, intent to ship theirs back. Even when I threatened to cancel the service, a customer retention advisor was unable to make an exception to allow me to avoid the charge. Frontier said my only option was $200 to buy their box outright. My new router/modem is superior in specs to the one Frontier provided and cost me around $60, so I knew that was a rotten deal.
Since ISPs (Internet Service Providers) were given an additional 6 months to comply with the new regulation, I figured there would be something new by today, the last business day of the week before the law takes effect on Sunday, December 20.
First, I searched for mentions of TVPA on the Frontier web site or press releases. Search results: ZERO! Aren’t we glad they had 6 additional months to prepare? Seems like they really made it count.
“Surely phone support will be more helpful to answer questions about TVPA,” I thought. I like to give people and corporations the benefit of the doubt because I’m considerate like that.
I spoke to a lovely support agent, Haley (spelling uncertain) in West Virginia. Her southern drawl was comforting, yet equally uninformative. She said she hadn’t been asked about it TPVA by a customer yet, but she knew it was a new regulation and did realize it was necessary to use the word “compliance” when referring to it. Haley told me it would eventually be possible to send a box so I could return the modem/router and that I would need to have alternate hardware to maintain service, but that there was not yet a procedure to allow her to do that.
“Will Frontier refund the cost of the rental fees before TVPA takes effect?” I asked.
Haley assured me the answer was no. I believe these advisors are doing their best and Frontier’s predatory modem rental policies are a fact of life when it comes to anti-competitive environments. If a consumer only has one or two ISPs in their area (as is typical in the US), the consumer doesn’t have much power.
And indeed, we see many examples of anti-competitive behaviors from US-based companies and regulators have had a tendency, over the past few decades, to look the other way.
Most citizens in the US have only 1 or 2 ISP options in their geographic area, excepting satellite-based solutions.
Frontier has had a rough 2020. Although purchasing Verizon’s FiOS infrastructure back in 2016 resulted in some initial outages, Frontier managed to maintain some incredible value and performance for those customers, despite the predatory rental fee.
When it suffered a massive DNS failure earlier this year, I realized our only other ISP option was significantly slower while costing more.
Pandemic has not been an easy time for Frontier. In April 2020, it filed for bankruptcy protection. At the time of the outage, the stock was $0.10/share and that’s exactly where it continues to sit today.
I suppose we should send thoughts and prayers to Frontier that they’ll be able to comply with the Trump administration’s burdensome new regulation (insert sarcastic emoji here).
Regulations like TVPA could protect consumers from unfair or predatory charges for devices an ISP like Frontier would otherwise force a customer to rent. That’s important for consumer empowerment, but consumer benefit runs contrary to Trump’s narrative that regulations generally harm the consumer. It’s a shame Trump’s tendency towards sweeping generalizations about regulations will likely prevent him from being able to take credit for a potentially positive regulation. But what will happen? Stay tuned.
Update: I (Devin) would later consult for Frontier Communications’ restructure and rebranding efforts through Bottle Rocket Studios contract after it declared bankruptcy. I worked alongside McKinsey & Company to help Frontier revise its marketing toward potential new customers. Perhaps this post is part the reason I was tasked? Who is to say?