Dave Wilson wants to be an educated consumer.
That’s not easy — at least, not when he’s looking at internet providers.
He went to the Optimum store next to Fresh Market to get information about his current plan.
Right now he has 2 cable boxes and 2 phone lines, plus DVR and a core package. With taxes, it’s over $300 a month.
The MSG channels, for Knicks and Rangers games, were just blocked, due to an inability of Optimum and MSG to agree on carriage fees, Dave adds.
“I’m not even sure what the core package gives me now,” he says. “It’s so messed up.”
The Optimum folks could not print anything out, or even provide many details about different plans. “It varies,” they said vaguely.
Instead, they gave Dave a phone number to call, to learn more and negotiate.
He went to Optimum’s Norwalk location, and got nowhere there either.
“These locations are set up to sell phones and exchange cable hardware,” he says. “They’re very non-friendly consumer environments. It’s so strange to run a business this way.”
Frontier was no better.
He ended up on the phone with a call center “in some netherworld. They can’t fully describe or explain their offerings either. And they can’t email me information, ‘due to company policy.'”
All Dave wants is to educate himself about options (and get documentation of what he’s offered, so there is no bait-and-switch).
Since Dave can’t get much (or any) info from the companies himself, he hopes “06880” readers can help.
What do you know abou the cost of Optimum and Frontier? The quality of service? What are their strengths, weaknesses and differences?
Click “Comments” below. As always, please use your full, real name.
Hi Dave, welcome to Westport.
Not sure if you’ve been here a long time or not anyway I am a frontier customer and I can say that all they do is jack up the rates However, I do have Five TVs hooked up with cable boxes, one phone line and Wi-Fi of course Cost is $349 a month Service sometimes gets a little glitchy, but overall it works I have older people in this house, so cutting the cord and streaming is not an option at this moment
I believe they have a new user program going on. At least my friend in California. Got a good deal.
Hope this helps
When Optimum came to Westport in the 70’s the charge was $15 per month ‼️💰
Tom, Cablevision went “live” in 1981. The first night, there exactly 12 subscribers. The office was at Post Road West next to the Birchwood golf course. Administrative offices, News 12, and “call center” were there. At the time, there were exactly two phone lines coming in. The set boxes were controlled out of their Long Island headquarters.
Cut the cord!!! There are many services out there for current TV, News and Sports (YouTube TV, Sling, Hulu, etc.). Like Optimum and Frontier, you just pick the packages you want including DVR.
You mentioned two phones. If they are land lines, you’ll have to pay for those via Optimum or Frontier along with your Internet (WiFi).
For comparison purposes I used to pay around $160 for optimum (Core TV pkg and internet) and some streaming apps. Now I pay Optimum $60 for internet, $54 for Sling Core, plus some streaming services. Not a huge savings but at least I don’t have to fight with Optimum every time they put their price up!
Good luck!
I just left Optimum when Cablecards were no longer supported, which meant I could no longer use my TiVo.
Switched to YouTubeTV ($83) and for Internet, TMobile Home Internet ($45), with a Roku, AppleTV or other streaming device.
Also possible, but more work, is to use an OTA Antenna and pull in the major networks (an OTA can be set up with a DVR)
An important distinction is being lost.
“Landlines” are old tech phone lines. Copper wire carrying electricity with the phone service. A wonderful thing that works during most power outages. Reaches the correct 911. Very reliable due to underlying tech, which we won’t get into.
You cannot get a landline from Optimum because they have no copper wire. Only source is Frontier, which under a half dozen names is CT’s original phone company. If you have a landline — great! Frontier will not sell you a new one, and if you become their internet customer, they will cut any landline you currently have. Old tech they don’t want to support anymore.
The only phone service Optimum offers is called VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol. When the power goes out, it dies, too. If your internet goes dead, so does your phone. Now this is the only new phone service Frontier offers. Should they call it a “landline,” they will be lying. When a friend does, s/he will simply be confused.
As always, caveat emptor.
, being chartered as a cable ca wonderful thing. Since they carry their own power, they work during out
About two years ago, I’m heading to bed and see our landline phone flashing an error light. I pick up and do not get a dial tone. I checked and was not get POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). In the morning I called Frontier (we were SNET/SBC) and they said there was a problem on a street feed to us. The person did not know when it would be repaired. A few days later I called again, and Frontier’s rep said they did not have a timeline.
I offered the option of disconnecting my landline, yes the one started in 1988. The whole point of a landline is reliability. So much for that concept. The person did offer or month or two at no charge. I think we had been paying $56 a month.
But as I thought about it, I wasn’t getting scam calls or politicians calling anymore (I’m looking at you Tony Huang, “mister calling AFTER I requested you to remove my number in person”).
I do get spam/scam stuff on my mobile but at least my Pixel phone does a good job of screening unwanted calls.
Frontier switched to fiber February 2024. They sent a letter to customers informing to switch over or lose landline, or words to that effect. Great cost cutting for Frontier. Terrible for customers. Their service with copper was reliable. From the moment they switched my service to fiber it has been unreliable ever since then. Sometimes phone works, sometimes not. One never knows. Recently, the week with New Years Eve/Day and the day after, I was without phone service all that time. Every tech who has been here has been terrific. Frontier does not have a direct phone line to call so you have to chat with a bot until it is possible for a living breathing tech to get on the chat. My old landline was copper. This new fiber service is voip although I can think of another four letter word…
I miss Ma Bell.
We used Optimum for about eight years, during which the service dropped several times a year. When they started offering fiber, we jumped at the chance for what we hoped would be more reliable internet (we only use them for internet, nothing else). Big mistake. Our internet would drop at least once a day for a minute or so—just long enough to kick us off Zoom calls.
They came out to try to fix the problem at least six times, but nothing worked. By last spring, I was calling them weekly to have their team reset the system remotely. I was hesitant about switching to Frontier because I’d heard their customer service wasn’t great, but enough was enough.
When I called to cancel Optimum, they kept me on the phone for over an hour just trying to process the cancellation.
We switched to Frontier fiber in July, and since then, our service has never dropped. I haven’t needed to call customer service even once, and the installation experience was excellent. I wish I had switched sooner.
Dave:
I cannot emphasize the following statement enough (but the all caps should help)… THEY BOTH ARE THE ABSOLUTE WORST.
Their respective programming packages are way too expensive, their customer service resources are inadequately trained and the bulk of their service technicians only want to do the bare minimum when it comes to installation.
Find the least expensive internet option and sign up for one of the many streaming option out there. You may not save all that much depending on how diverse you want your streaming channel lineup to be but at least you’ll be saved from dealing with two crappy companies.
Spectrum is by far the best internet provider ive ever had, but theyre in texas. If you can learn to live with just streaming, life gets better. It’s 12$ a month. I still have my cell phone with spectrum unlimited talk & text 39$ a month.
have used OPTIMUM for over 35 years( not by choice). Am a senior always paid my bill on time. My TV function is so inefficient(constant breakdowns). Have been to the office in Norwalk so many times, also without satisfaction. Have dealt with hour long phone calls repeatedly, often with an outsourced person whom i have trouble understanding. When the technicians appear they usually fix the problem, only for another problem to appear weeks later. It appears the company is ONLY interested in profits, constantly hailing their 5G service(useless). My bill hovers around $200 a month which is unreasonable considering the problems i have with OPTIMUM. Won’t whine anymore but find this company exasperating. I would NEVER recommend them.
We pay optimum $62 a month for 1 gig fiber internet and core tv (the absolute base tv package that still includes news12). All other programming streamed across 5 TVs at a cost of around another $90/month. The customer service from optimum has been so bad for so long that we try to deal with them and pay them as little as humanly possible while still getting high speed internet.
I switched to Frontier fiber several months ago.
1gig internet, phone and 120 channel You Tube TV( surprisingly excellent selection of channels)
and phone for $135 a month$100 a month less than I was paying optimum with only 300 gig internet that constantly went down. Frontier phone has a battery that allows 8 hours of actual talk time when electricity goes out. No complaints so far…
I agree with Dave that the service in store in Westport is awful.
I tried to get the same information with regards to my current package after the last price increase and how I could downgrade by getting rid of channels I never watch. Impossible to do – you can add service in a heartbeat but try and downgrade and you will be on hold for hours. I was given the number for the help desk with the advise to ” tell them you want to cancel and they may find a special”. Great way to run a company when service employees are told to tell customers to leave.
Then if you do get through to the India or wherever help desk they have the gall to say “thank you for choosing Optimum” – like we have an actual choice!!
We have a legacy copper land line with Frontier and if their service on this line is any indication of their interest in customer service for internet then I am not sure I am ready to make the change. I
The whole thing is an unacceptable mess but that’s what happens with monopolies that don’t care.
When Mom passed I took her cable boxes to the Norwalk store and told them I wanted to cancel and why. They said I could return the boxes but had to call to cancel the service. I thought it would be less hassle when I called to just say I was Mom rather than try to prove her death and my authority to cancel since I had all her plan information. Their retention department held me hostage on the phone for at least 20 minutes trying to offer me lower and lower priced plans. It was outrageous. Not a fan.
We switched from optimum to frontier as it was cheaper. Frontier has several levels of coverage. We got one of the cheaper levels. An independent guy came twice for hours to set up the lines and connect our computers. It was fussy and we both had to be there. He could only set up one of two tvs which is a pain. We set up sling and YouTube on the one tv. The tv rarely connected and my desktop was iffy and slow. So we bought 2 boosters which made this better but not great. Though cheaper , to me it’s not worth it. It takes a long time for the tv to turn on, failing half the time. Then it takes several clicks to find the channel you want. They are not numbered so it’s hard. There’s no favorites folder. Many times we have to use the remote to type in the channel’s name. To switch channels such as during commercials, it’s the same pain. The second tv remains disconnected. My computer still bags out of internet at busy times. My husband cares only about the less cost and doesn’t seem to care about ease of use and consistent service. But I am not happy with frontier.But I see on Westport Front Porch accolades for Frontier and I don’t understand why. I live near Saugatuck shores if that’s a factor.
Hi Dave! I live in Southport and use GoNetSpeed. I pay $49.99 a month and get great speeds and great service. Most of my neighbors have switched to GoNetSpeed as well. I’ve used the company for two years with no complaints. I don’t know if they service your area though. Re cutting the cord, I did it long ago. I pay for Netflix and Prime. My kids swear by YouTube TV, but I’m not a big TV person.
Without repeating what others have experienced, Optimum is the worst! It has been so bad, I have had to contact the Public Utilities Commission several times. That regulatory intervention has resulted in getting some immediate attention from Optimum to resolve the reported issue, but invariably another problem develops just when you believe the service issue has been resolved.
A couple of steps to at least cut your costs with Optimum if you want to stay with them:
1. Find out the cost for a new subscriber from Frontier and any other local providers, easy to do online.
2. Call Optimum and make sure you get through to the retention department to cancel; don’t speak to the initial agent; tell them you want to end the service because it is too costly; they should offer you a better deal at least for a 6 month or year term, and if not, switch to Frontier.
Good luck.
Optimum was a nightmare, terrible in all the ways already described above. And no matter how many times we got them to lower the rate, a few months later it would tick back up to where it had been – last rate in 2024 was $220. Moved to Fairfield, signed up for 1Gb Frontier fiber, it started out at $111 plus $70 for YoutubeTV. YT has already gone up $10. Service is almost perfect, 2 or 3 times in 6 months I’ve had to reboot the Frontier box, 5 minutes later it is working. Only initial problem we had was a learning curve thing – don’t connect 1Gb service to 500Mb wifi, it slows down to a fraction of the expected speed. Upgrade your Wifi to match line speed. Lastly, there are less expensive alternatives to YoutubeTV.
I downgraded from Optimum Internet+TV+VOIP, to simply the cheapest Optimum Internet available. That took about 2 months of OptiFrustration, but got it done. Then got TMobile Home 5G as well, for redundancy and additional bandwidth.
Multiple-WAN routers can make the switch imperceptible.
1. Don’t fall for a carrier’s Internet+TV+VOIP(or Mobile!) bundle. They’ll hold you and your phone number hostage as long as possible should you become dissatisfied. Diversify.
2. Only accept the bare minimum hardware from the Internet carrier (Optimum/Cable modem, Frontier/ONT). Get and set up your own far superior router/WiFI infrastructure.
3. Get a suitable UPS to power that Internet infrastructure, to ride out power outages long enough to have your generator start up, whether automatically or manually.
4. Trees take down cable lines (almost) as easily as power lines.
5. Any company that has needs a Retention Department, has a shaky business model.
Ken…I want to move to just Internet from Optimum – cable now, to fiber, but I need a land line. Suggestions?
“Classic”, copper-based, not-dependent-on-on-Internet, “POTS” landline service really isn’t available from anyone any more, in particular apparently not from Frontier, who inherited the old copper infrastructure from SNET->ATT, etc and are desperate to abandon it on our poles. So your only non-Optimum avenue is some sort of independent VOIP-based phone service that runs over whoever’s (Optimum, Frontier, etc) Internet you subscribe to. There are many such independent VOIP providers (Vonage Home, Ooma, Zoom, Ring, etc…). I’ve never used any of them as I moved voice entirely to mobile. Make sure whichever you choose is compatible with fax machines/fax service if that’s what’s on your mind. (if not that, I’m really curious of your requirement). All of them will port in your phone number and will provide some sort of POTS interface that connects to your home internet router and provide a good ‘ol phone jack to plug in your good ‘ol phone such as the one Dan recently featured. I assume you’ll still have a mobile for emergency purposes (irony).
Good luck!
Hi Dan,
You certainly stirred up a hornets nest by bringing up internet providers. We have Optimum since they first offered the service and have not any of the nightmare problems that so many others encountered. The few problems we have had over the years were quickly taken care of. We have core TV and two landlines with them. We are now upgrading(?) to 2 GB fiber. Hopefully it will not be as bad as some others have experienced.
Many people I know are using You Tube TV. I tried it but being so accustomed to Optimum I found it a little awkward. BUT… once you get used to it I’m told its great. Its about $70 a month before you add on the apps ( alot cheaper than Optimum) $300 + a month is absurd.
I do have Optimum – not fiber yet – and I do need a land line for security system. They provide a model that provides jack for the landline. I want to get rid of all that – I already have YouTube TV for network and cable channels I need. Does anyone know how I get the landline with just Internet from Optimum?
I do not believe the “land line” you can get from Optimum is what your security system requires. I had needed a real land line (copper wire) for mine, and so had to keep my 1998 era AT&T (now Frontier) line @ $55+/month until my security system company switched me to a connection that has (as I understand it) it’s own cell number for connection. I then cancelled my Frontier phone and got an “internet phone” from Optimum, which goes out if my internet goes out.
FYI – I recently asked Optimum tech support about fiber service and was told the current fiber system does not support the DVR rewind function.
I’ve had Cablevision since 1998. My complaint, other than price, is that they don’t block scam/spam. I was getting 10+ spams everyday – mostly from gmail addresses. I used their blocking/filtering options for about a year but finally had to block all hotmail and gmail addresses due to the massive numbers of junk from them making their way into my inbox and junk folder. I now have my own gmail address for my gmail/hotmail friends and am weaning myself from my Optonline account. Interestingly, Optimum is not opening any new Optonline accounts.
DirecTV
We are now using Verizon 5G and the download speed is faster than Optimum. Cheaper too, ($35 vs $85). So far no complaints.
Hi Dave – I, too, have complained about Optimum and the how expensive they are. It took losing the MSG channels for me to light a fire under me. My husband is a huge Knicks fan, so not having the Knicks is unacceptable. We found Gotham Sports, which carries the New York area sports – Knicks, Yankees, Rangers, etc. It’s not cheap, but Knicks and Yankees in our household is a requirement. Now I’m comparing different streaming options like the Disney+ Hulu bundle vs YouTube, etc. I heard about GoNetSpeed for internet, but they aren’t in my area yet. Sounds like I may be stuck with Optimum for internet. Thank you everyone for preparing me for a long conversation with Optimum to drop their TV and phone service.
Deb, the Knicks and Yankees should pay you to watch them!
My condolences.
My advice based on recent experience – BEFORE you call Optimum to cancel, call Frontier and have them install fiber – no more than 500mb for $45/month. At the same time, download YouTube TV on your smart TV and start the 10-day free trial. It’s actually a much better TV experience than the old cable boxes (and of course you can rewind and fast forward!)
When you are up on Frontier and happy with YouTube TV, THEN call Optimum to cancel. It took only 5-10 minutes because I had already made a final decision.
Now enjoy TV (including on your iphones and tablets) for half of what you were paying before.
Thank you for the advice Andy. And Jason, I hear you:(
Optimum sucks and Frontier is doing something in my neighborhood to speed up my internet. Curse the day
I cancelled DirecTV. P.S. Firefox blows too.
Time to cut the cord! Got rid of Cablevision while keeping Optimum for Internet. I suggest checking out several streaming services and try one or two first before cutting the cord. I chose Fubo as it carries the Tennis Channel. Hated the Cablevision interface and customer service (none). Saved money and got better TV. I use an Amazon Firestick which has a great interface and also portability when we travel as I can take it with me. Got rid of the phone line as only my mother-in-law called that number.
For those who indicate they need a landline for a security system I recommend you look into SimpliSafe. Does not need landline and works really well. Excellent customer service.
I’ll preference this by saving Optimum has terrible customer service and expensive products.
We have had Optimum since when they started. I’ll concentrate of our recent experience. We have all three services they offer -Internet, TV, and Phone. Prior to 2023 we had the old cable system. It would go down for about 5 minutes everyday.
We switched to their 2 GB Fiber system and it has gone down maybe twice in two years. It is very fast and the one computer that is directly connected gets 1 Gig service continually. The other computers in the house get around 300 mbps Wi-Fi service over an Erros router system. The last two years have been a delight
No need to talk about pricing, because they charge everyone a different price. They have no standards and if you don’t complain, they will keep raising your price until you do complain.
You don’t need a landline for your security system. My company switched me to a cell phone based security system — independent of the cell service that have.
Verizon is buying Frontier and they wanted Frontier to get rid of all of the POTS lines. There was a big fight in Greenwich, as I recall, to stop this because so many seniors rely on their POTS lines. So, in order to go through with the acquisition, Frontier was forced to keep those copper phone lines, for now (even though the CEO of Frontier announced back in 2023 that the company would be totally out of the copper line business within 5 years). BUT, in January of 2024, the state of Connecticut found out that Frontier’s copper lines were ‘out of service’ about 1/3rd of the time so there is some sort of investigation going on, although I do not know if this has continued since the announcement of the merger this past Fall. This is why Frontier calls me 3 or 4 times every single day, sends me one or two emails every single day, sends me a letter at least once a week, to switch to fiber (and get rid of my copper line). Where I live, in the downtown area, I get zero cellular reception on my Sprint/T-mobile phone inside the house. I have to walk out to the street to get a signal, as confirmed by T-Mobile when they tracked the signal from their end. They told me that the nearest tower was only about a mile away but with the merger another tower had been taken out of service. Before the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, I would get one or two bars of cellular service on the cell phone while standing in the kitchen. Neighbors, too, get poor cellular reception in their homes and we are all reliant on the wifi for ‘cell’ service inside the house. Long story short, in an emergency, the only reliable service I have is the POTS line. Until they stop repairing it, I guess. BTW, the same fight is going on in other states like Wisconsin and California. In California, the state is forcing ATT to come up with a workaround for the copper lines while letting customers keep the lines. Apparently, removing all copper lines will affect seniors, small businesses, and even some hospitals which rely on that technology for faxes, the most.
I paid $140 for my Optimum service in Wilton….. now in Westport, (for the exact same service), they are charging me $310.
For those with unacceptable indoor voice cellular reception but with Cable/Fiber Internet from Optimum/Frontier, if your cellular carrier (TM, VZ, ATT) allows you to turn on Wi-Fi Calling (IOS: Cellular->Settings->Wi-Fi Calling) on your smartphone, that’s a plausible solution.