Frontier Confirms Cap Plans – CEO: $1-$2 per GB only way to stay profitable…

3 Nov 2008

Earlier this year, customers of Frontier were annoyed to find that the carrier was planning to implement 5GB per month caps for their DSL services starting this winter. Customers discovered the plans due to references in the company’s acceptable use policy, though the company really wasn’t willing to talk in detail about their cap plans. Despite the negative reaction, Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter has more on the company’s plan to cap users and charge customers a dollar or two per gigabyte should they go over usage limits. From the Associated Press:

Wilderotter said Frontier was looking at providing higher monthly limits, perhaps 20 gigabytes per month, in more urban markets like Rochester and Elk Grove, Calif., where usage is higher than rural areas. The company will also sell plans with higher download caps for higher prices, Wilderotter told The Associated Press, at increments like 10, 20 and 50 gigabytes. . . “All networks are going to have to move to that paradigm in order to stay profitable,” Wilderotter said at a conference in New York.

It looks like Frontier is warming to caps that are higher than 5GB, but anything 50GB or under remains fairly paltry in the age of HD video. While Wilderotter claims the caps are designed to tackle high-consumption users, they’ll actually impact a lot of regular users. Frontier is fortunate in that many of their markets are more rural, where customers won’t have a choice of alternative provider if they don’t like the caps. In many markets, Frontier’s primary competitor is Time Warner Cable, who is experimenting with 5-40GB caps of their own.
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