ISP Says It's Doing Away With Contract Requirements; Wants People To Pay Them For Offering Good, Reliable Service

from the what-a-concept dept

Over the past couple of years, our non-customers in annual focus groups have told us that the thing holding them back was our contract terms. Many people did not want to sign long-term commitments various reasons—some did not feel secure in their employment and feared they might not be able to pay for service in a few months; many said they were looking to move out of Eagle Mountain sometime in the coming year; others said they just don’t like contracts as a matter of principle. We agree—people should stay with us because we offer the best, most reliable service in Eagle Mountain, and not because we have them locked into a contract. However, until recently, our hands were essentially tied because of NECA and FCC regulation.

Contrary to some reports, we actually have never required a contact for internet customers. New customers could always choose to forgo a contract term. However, very few people ever chose to sign up without a contract because we have always offered free installation with a 1-year commitment. We previously required a $185 broadband installation fee if new customers did not want to sign a 1-year commitment up front. This was largely dictated by FCC requirements for telecommunications and broadband companies like us. Recently, these regulations have changed to give us more leeway in deciding how to set contract and installation terms.

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In this era of mega ISPs and few small or independent options in many regions, it's always nice to learn of smaller ISPs who realize that competing on providing good service is a better strategy for attracting customers, instead of the game the big guys play: lock you into long term contracts knowing they're going to screw you over sooner or later and you'll have no real alternatives so you'll deal with it. I had that experience myself with both Comcast (who took my service down from 10am to 4pm every day for nearly a month, and each day I'd call and they'd say it was "scheduled maintenance" for that day only, and refused to tell me if any was scheduled for the next day) and AT&T (who signed me up for service, and then cancelled it without telling me because I was too far from the CO). Eventually I found Sonic.net, who has been wonderful, but they're a local ISP.Over in Utah, an ISP called Direct Communications has announced that it no longer requires contracts and instead they want you to sign with them because, you know, they offerAs alluded to in that last line, they were limited by regulatory issues that just expired making this more difficult. While they actually did offer a no-contract option before, for regulatory reasons they had to require a massive installation fee in such cases:There will still be an install fee, but it's $75, which is much lower, obviously.I have no idea how good the company's service is, but this is the kind of thing you start to see when there's real competition (and less regulatory interference). It would be nice if more such ISPs were able to exist around the country, but they're still pretty limited, unfortunately.

Filed Under: broadband, contracts

Companies: direct communications