| By Bob Weaver
Frontier Communications has been ordered to reduce their charges for their high speed Internet service, which fails to provide anything close to broadband speeds, to $9.99 per month.
Most Frontier customers are currently paying $20-$30 a month for the service.
The reduced rate will remain in effect until the mandated improvements allow Frontier to increase existing download speeds provisioned at 1.5 Mbps or lower to at least 6 Mbps.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has announced an estimated $160 million settlement with Frontier Communications to resolve complaints involving Internet speeds provided to consumers.
The settlement requires Frontier, who essentially has a monopoly on most parts of the state, to invest in capital expenditures to increase Internet speeds across West Virginia and provide access to areas currently without high-speed service.
The settlement also requires Frontier to contribute $500,000 to the state's Consumer Protection Fund.
Frontier's has advertised Internet speeds up to 6 megabits per second.
The AGs investigation found many customers expecting Internet speeds "up to 6 Mbps" frequently received speeds of 1.5 Mbps or lower.
Hundreds of Frontier customers complained they received service like the initial dial-up service, and in many rural areas like Calhoun, when a number of customers access service at the same time, the service essentially slows to a crawl.
The company essentially over-sold the service on rural lines.
Frontier denied any allegation of wrongdoing and entered into the settlement to resolve disputed claims without the necessity of protracted and expensive litigation.
The Attorney General's agreement with Frontier is not related to a lawsuit filed against Frontier by customers. READ: JUDGE DECLINES TO DISMISS CUSTOMER LAWSUIT OVER FRONTIER "HIGH SPEED INTERNET"
Poor Internet connectivity is not the only problem experienced in low-populated Calhoun County.
Following years of disrupted landline services in the Five Forks-Big Springs area of the county, the Calhoun Commission filed a formal complaint against Frontier with the WV Public Service Commission.
The problem affected families from not only communicating with family, but caused problems reaching emergency services.
Following the complaint and public hearings, Frontier replaced and fixed aging sub-stations which likely went back to the 1960s.
READ: UPDATE: RELIEF PROMISED FIVE FORKS-BIG SPRINGS FRONTIER PHONE CUSTOMERS - "Customers Are Victims, A Way Of Life, Tin Cans And String Service"
READ: BROADBAND PROMISES, BROADBAND DREAMS - WV 47th In USA With Broadband Connectivity, Years Of Smoke And Mirrors
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