It's super cool that ISPs are allowed to be the worst companies on earth. Really great idea to pass the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and turn what everyone knew would become (arguably already was) a utility into the Wild West.
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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Biden made it a lot better. The 100/10 floor did a LOT of good.
If it's subscription based then they need to care, maintain, and upgrade the hardware for free each time it's due.
In their world, it will never be due for such things. They will just move it to "not supported" and claim "upgrades are not available"; because they didn't make any.
Yeah, it's a rip off move.
Enshittification
The forever payment system at work. Always pay and its never yours.
My ISP tried to push me to accept their wifi routers with the plan, they would have been free for 6 months and then only 14€/month, i.e 168€/year. For two TP-Link Deco routers that are less than that to buy new.
But hey, they would upgrade them every 5 years for ""free""!
My dad just switched to Starlink. I advised he watch his bill closely because Musk is going to start playing money games any day. He blew me off, confident they would operate like most other cable companies and keep his prices set for 2-3 years even without a specific contract lock. Don't say I didn't warn ya'.
Also, double fuck you to Musk. My parents are rural and this is far and away the best service they're able to get. Instead of paying around what the others charge plus a little more because they are better, my folks are going to get taken to the cleaners.
confident they would operate like most other cable companies
Oh god, imagine this being the best case scenario
I remember the first time i had to go in to drop off my set top boxes after a move (back near the turn of the century) and the cable company customer service was behind 6" of bulletproof lexan.
With a bank style secure drawer to deal with the boxes.
Not a good sign for agreeable customer service.
Wasn't Biden going to build out the broadband infrastructure to reach rural communities? What happened to that project? Did it get DOGEd?
Yeah, billion$ that got bogged down by state level politics, telecomm company resistance, and lack of Democratic party backbone.
I don't know how much momentum was even left to get DOGE'd.
"You will own, uh, nothing, and you will, uh, be memed"
- Some Afrikaner billionaire
Don't companies usually wait until after their IPO to enshittify their products?
Musk really needs to do it now to get a decent listing.
The problem is he has no income for all his AI stuff, Twitter advertising revenue is still in the toilet, and spaceX's biggest customer is the US government, but the Democrats fucking hate him, and the mid terms are coming up.
So time to squeeze the little guys to get some revenue.
PCMag notes that you can save money in the long run by buying the router from a retailer. “Over the long term, the $10 monthly fee isn’t a great deal, either, since it means forking over $360 during a three-year subscription,” the article said. “The standard dish currently retails for $349 at retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart, but it’s been discounted to $199 or even $89.”
Seriously, this is raging for the sake of raging. It's not like they stopped selling the equipment.
I'm shocked /s
I really really wish I had a viable alternative
I feel that way about Comcast...
And they will drop the extra charge after you've paid it off right.... right guys?
Just like when Comcast forced me to rent their modem if I wanted a static IP on my business account. Fuck them and I made dynamic IP work for my needs. I did have to move my email server to a 3rd party host.
Rat bastards. They should be tried for their crimes against humanity.
I wouldn't be surprised if they make this retroactive to even apply to the people who bought their hardware.
When I was 18, I signed up for an internet service for the first time. They asked if I wanted to rent or purchase a modem/router, and because I did the math and saw that it would be more economical in the long run to purchase it, that's what I chose. I paid extra up front so that the hardware would belong to me and I could take it with me later.
Fast forward to moving day, when I canceled my internet plan and boxed up my modem/router to take with me. A few months later, I got a call from the company. They said I never returned my hardware and that I owe them a fee to replace it. I told them I purchased the hardware up front; it's mine, I already paid for it.
Their answer? "No you didn't."
The gaslighting commenced as they claimed to have no record of that. They continued to harass me for months, threatening legal action and debt collection and all that. Eventually I got fed up and just paid the fine. Essentially paid for it twice, but fuck me I guess. This is america where the consumer is always wrong.
Rent-to-own isn't that common, even though maybe it should be. With most rentals (of anything) you have to keep paying indefinitely. That's why there's usually a cost/benefit analysis of renting vs owning.
Renting can sometimes be better for less tech-savvy people, since the company owns the equipment and is familiar with it, and will replace it at any point if it has issues
I am still trying to figure out why I have to pay my ISP $10/mo to use my own modem, or $20/mo for one they provide and $30 if I want them to enable wifi on their modem.
The article says you can still buy it at a retail store like Best Buy though.
Probably a way to lower initial cost for new customers. $400 or however much it is, is a hefty ask before you even tried the service.
they had been offering a no-cost equipment promo in some coverage areas for awhile, with only a year or something commitment. you paid $20 to ship the gear. your recurring bill was the monthly plan rate. that's it.
they're probably going back and now charging those sign-ups a 'rental' fee.
How dare you use logic in an emotional,hate-inducing post!
lololol
Till they go out of stock.
Yeah. If you want one do it now.
Petty rent seeking dildos. This will surly make them a trillion dollar business.
MAKE. IT. SHITTY(-ER)!