Router and Modem Rental Fees Remain a Problem

[Tsing]

Congress passed a piece of legislation called the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA) in 2020 that was meant to prevent ISPs from charging customers a rental fee for cable modem routers even if they weren't using them, but the law doesn't seem to be working out too well based on feedback received by Consumer Reports.

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[Brian_B]

Imagine that, a cable company skirting the law.

 

[Zarathustra]

I struggled a little to order Verizon FiOS service without a modem or a set top box, as those were just assumed in all of their online order forms. I had to actually talk to customer service to customize that, but once I did, I've never been charged for them.

That said, whats to stop the ISP's from just calling it a "service fee" and charging it to all customers whether or not they rent a modem? Whose to say that fee has anything at all to do with hardware rental?