I have a pretty crazy idea, so hear me out. How about..... we don't charge so many fees? Especially for a country where the choice of ISP is often at the behest of the ISPs. Crazy, I know.
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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Every price includes various fees, costs, and other expenses. Most businesses list a single price for a thing so you know what you are going to pay.
The problem isn't the 'fees', it is separating them to pretend the cost is lower than it actually is.
ISPs are doing the opposite.
They advertise a price and stack an assload of fees on top. A few of those fees are out of their control, but the majority are fees they themselves are charging.
69.99 a month for 100 Mbps suddenly becomes 170 dollars after taxes and fees.
If you happen to live in an area where Google fiber threatens to compete, suddenly a plan appears where those fees magically disappear, and you get a decent rate for gigabit Internet.
Or if you threaten to cancel and get redirected to "customer retention." Amazing how "sorry there's nothing we can do" becomes "looks like we can make a few changes to your plan since you are a valued customer." But that's why they lobby so hard to be a monopoly. Can't cancel their service if they're the only service provider in hundreds of miles.
This is becoming less and less true. Ive tried this a few times in the last few years and they told me to just go ahead and cancel. One was Comcast who told me they wouldn't give me an intro rate and the only way to get it was to cancel and have someone else sign up for a new plan.
that's exactly what i meant by "at the behest of the ISPs". You can't go anywhere else in the USA, unless you move, and you might just well end up on the same ISP again. I live in Australia, and while the NBN has its issues, it's better than the american system, because you can go to any isp you want. Someone offering a cheaper service? BAM. Change ISP in a few short clicks.
Can’t they just lump all the fees together?
Main product itself: 10
Unspecified fees (don’t ask): 160
They're usually lumped together in a section on the bill but broken out by fee.
Having taken the calls from people wanting information on the fees, I'm sure the only reason they do tell you what they all are is to cut back on the swarm of angry callers wanting to know why their bill is so high.
How is that the opposite, and not exactly what they described?
here, the cable company currently is actually billing the advertised price if you're an internet-only customer. no taxes, fees, or other bullshit other than their ridiculously-high equipment fee if you want to use their wifi router. their rates also go up once or twice a year just because they value your continued business and don't want you to feel left out.
the telephone company, on the other hand, if you have dsl--look out. at least 25-40% in extra bullshit fees, nearly all of it is kept by them (i.e. not simply a pass-through to the government).
the latter option wouldn't fit with the strategy of enticing customers with a low advertised price and hitting them with the real price on their monthly bills
AKA deliberate false advertising amounting to outright fraud.
Jesus Christ... Like yeah, no shit, that's the entire point of the rule
Voting for an infamous fraudster convicted felon, get defrauded. 🙄
Nobody voted for being defrauded through hidden fees by ISPs.
Not even Republicans (or rather the vast majority of them that DON'T stand to profit from it) are deluded enough to want that or even think that they do.
~~The trump administration is~~ Republicans are literally against anything decent and for anything evil. When you think of it that way, of course they are all friendly to pedophiles and rapists.
Lolololol so cry to FCC because of all the fees you have to list because you want to false advertise and then charge way more than you’re advertising in fees. That’s the American way huh? Couldn’t just, IDK, not pass a ridiculous amount of fees to the consumers for a required in our society service?
This doesn’t really have to do with the number of fees at all. It’s “corrupt government that accepts corporate handouts further removes regulation on ISPs so they can implement shadier pricing strategies to further ill-gotten profits.”
There’s like two or three fees that are legitimate. Others are just a way to get people to pay more without realizing and have more trouble recouping their losses
Welcome to capitalism
Drug dealer: Okay okay, how about I dont list all my sources of income on my taxes?
There's just too many to keep track of!
see? the orange idiot got internet prices down!
now only 99c a month *
It’s the information war. They need to degrade the amount of information Americans have access to in order to quel the inevitable rebellion when the bottom drops out of the economy. First they’ll finish dismantling public schools, then they’ll take away your internet access or make it so expensive only the rich can afford it, or can avoid going to jail for thought crime for using it.
I'm so fucking thankful I don't work for a large ISP call center anymore. Customers will scream about their prices going up but somehow blame the last administration in the same breath.
Do we want the informed consumers making rational decisions kind of capitalism, or the kind where corporations exploit people who are helpless to whatever a lie they want to tell about the true cost of our decisions? Guess we have the answer.
This is so fucking stupid I can’t help but laugh