Connecticut Gives Frontier A Wrist Slap For Years Of Bullshit Fees

For decades, federal regulators have turned a blind eye while your cable and broadband provider rips you off with a bevy of misleading fees. The fees usually come with nonsensical names like “regulatory recovery fee” or “internet cost recovery surcharge,” and are tacked below the line post sale, letting cable and broadband providers covertly jack up the advertised price of sale.

While federal regulators have long blessed this practice, once in a while you’ll see individual states do something about it. Like in Connecticut this month, where AG William Tong struck a settlement with Frontier Communications for generally being a terrible U.S. telecom monopoly.

The AG dinged Frontier for failing to upgrade its aging DSL network to fiber, selling speeds the aging network couldn’t deliver, and having terrible customer service. But it also dinged the company for charging consumers a $7 a month “Internet cost recovery surcharge” that was completely made up just to nickel-and-dime captive subscribers:

“Frontier has agreed to overhaul their customer service, and to end the hidden $6.99 monthly internet fee that cost Connecticut families $84 last year alone. Frontier must pay another $1 million to the state, and put up $200,000 to directly compensate consumers who have been wronged,” said Attorney General Tong. “We intend to hold Frontier accountable to every word of this agreement. If you continue to have any problems with Frontier, we want to hear from you.”

Washington State has also slapped Frontier’s wrist repeatedly for the hidden fees. The company was also repeatedly caught charging users a $10 monthly fee to “rent” modems that had already been purchased and owned. Frontier filed for bankruptcy in 2020, in part due to its failure to upgrade its aging network to fiber despite countless millions in taxpayer subsidies.

Of course for every state like Connecticut or Washington that’s doing the absolute bare minimum (fines and settlements that barely recoup the money stolen from consumers), there are states like Nebraska, Tennessee, or Kentucky, where predatory telecom monopoly behavior is routinely sanctioned by governments in exchange for a healthy flood of campaign contributions.