The fee will be illegal starting Sunday, December 20th. You should tell your ISP that you’ll no longer tolerate it, threaten to sue, and/or take advantage of any binding arbitration clause it may have with you.

Last year, Congress passed a law that should have fixed this ridiculous loophole as of June 20th, 2020. The law should take full effect tomorrow.

The actual text of the law still allows some BS to occur. If your ISP sends you a router, you’ll need to return it to avoid charges.

Frontier in particular has been notorious for charging customers $ 10 a month for their equipment. The company’s equipment page has changed to remove the part where it talks about the mandatory fee.

The all-in-one router boxes that ISPs typically offer worse Wi-Fi coverage than you could easily add to a house yourself. Wireless Wi-Fi systems are better, cheaper, and easier to use than ever before.