Frontier Users Must Pay 'Rental' Fee For Equipment They Own Until December (arstechnica.com) 56
An anonymous reader writes: Broadband and TV providers can keep charging "rental" fees for equipment that customers own themselves until December 2020, thanks to a Federal Communications Commission ruling that delays implementation of a new law. A law approved by Congress and signed by President Trump in December 2019 prohibits providers from charging device-rental fees when customers use their own equipment, and it was originally scheduled to take effect on June 20. As we've written, this law will help Frontier customers who have been forced to pay $10 monthly fees for equipment they don't use and, in some cases, have never even received. But the law gave the FCC discretion to extend the deadline by six months if the commission "finds that good cause exists for such an additional extension," and the FCC has done just that.
The FCC ruling on April 3 (PDF), which we didn't notice at the time, extends the deadline to December 20 and says that providers need more time to comply because of the coronavirus pandemic: "As the nation tackles the COVID-19 pandemic, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and providers of fixed broadband Internet access service are among the entities that are integral to the Commission's ongoing, nationwide effort to keep Americans informed and connected during this national emergency. So that these service providers may focus their resources on this critical effort, we provide appropriate flexibility for MVPDs and providers of fixed broadband Internet access service to fulfill their obligations under the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 (TVPA)... we find that good cause exists for granting a blanket extension of section 642's effective date until December 20, 2020."
The FCC ruling on April 3 (PDF), which we didn't notice at the time, extends the deadline to December 20 and says that providers need more time to comply because of the coronavirus pandemic: "As the nation tackles the COVID-19 pandemic, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and providers of fixed broadband Internet access service are among the entities that are integral to the Commission's ongoing, nationwide effort to keep Americans informed and connected during this national emergency. So that these service providers may focus their resources on this critical effort, we provide appropriate flexibility for MVPDs and providers of fixed broadband Internet access service to fulfill their obligations under the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 (TVPA)... we find that good cause exists for granting a blanket extension of section 642's effective date until December 20, 2020."
Blame the pandemic! (Score:5, Insightful)
UPDATE 'customers' SET 'rentalFee'=0 WHERE usingOurModem=FALSE;
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Yep, and it's working like a charm. Stock market is doing great.
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Frankly, I find the stock market baffling right now, and these days it's how I make my living. Sure, the economy is rebounding nicely, but every company's annual earnings is going to suck this year. Everyone's next few years is going to be at least a few percent below what they thought in January. Stock prices coming back to where they were 6 years ago doesn't make sense even with the Fed propping up the junk bond market.
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*6 months ago
PE ratio around 23 for the last 12 months (Score:2)
Not that I totally disagree with what you're saying, but the current price of stocks as a multiple of earnings isn't out of rhe norm. Looking at expected earnings over the last 12 months, which includes lockdown period, the price-earnings ratio is about 23. That's normal. Slightly high normal, but normal.
https://www.macrotrends.net/25... [macrotrends.net]
Two things help justify that. A lot of people who, in January, were planning to replace their old junker car pretty soon robably DIDN'T end up buying in February or March
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They are doing well because of the fed, at over a trillion a month, all without a peep out of congress. They have to care for their portfolios. It's the bailout nobody wants to talk about, it's not in any of the bills passed. It's just happening right under our noses, and then the government will be busy selling austerity to the rest of us, gutting the social safety nets.
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The Fed is mostly buying corporate bonds though, which is new and shocking, but if the economy does OK the Fed can gradually sell them again. If not, no one will be talking about austerity as the inflation will cut everyone's benefits silently (while the dollar amount keeps going up), without any politician having to take the blame.
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When you implement a policy of central planning which relies on trillions of more dollars of debt, anything is possible. What the Fed has said is private companies are too big to fail and it will use whatever amount of taxpayer dollars are necessary to make sure nothing happens to them. The free markets are no more, socialism is the way to go via direct market manipulation.
People on the other hand . . .
And yes, this is taxpayer dollars at work. The taxpayers are the ones who get to foot the debt bill whi
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So when does that happen then? Because for whatever reason the US fed seems to be able to print money hand over fist and somehow the dollar doesn't actually devalue. Perhaps because the EU and Japan also love to print money. Interest rates are going to be low for a very long time.
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Oh? A quick check shows that the price of flour has gone up by a factor of five since I was a child. Bacon has gone up by a factor of seven. Milk, the same. Ditto potatoes.
So, the dollar seems to have devalued by a factor of about eight in 60 years....
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And what factor did wages and investments go up by? Or the value of the dollar against a basket of stable country currencies? One of my grandparents told they earned 1GBP per week when they started out, The average now is over 500GBP per week.
If the fed can print money and have rich people pay for it in interest rates that are too low - maybe not so bad.
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The law gave the FCC the option of extending the deadline by 6 months, one time.
Anybody paying attention knew that the FCC would exercise this option and that December was the real effective date because of that clause.
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UPDATE 'customers' SET 'rentalFee'=0 WHERE usingOurModem=FALSE;
You must work at a small IT company. The reality is that 'customers' table will be spread across multiple databases, the usingOurModem will be multiple columns cross referenced to other databases each unique integers rather than a boolean dependent on the exact serial number of each device shipped to customers, and rentalFee will be referenced in multiple software packages which will all crash since a value of zero was considered invalid at the time of design.
Re: Blame the pandemic! (Score:2)
You could set it to one cent then, and most people would not care. What can you get for 12 cents these days?
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Even if it was/is difficult to discontinue the charge. It wouldn't be any more difficult to announce that once the change has been made you will be credited for the amount you were charged past the original deadline. This isn't going to happen so it is just more free money for the ISPs that are charging people for their own equipment.
Pure Deceit (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies clearly desired to charge X +y, while advertising price X. So they pretend y is optional. In part because they do not expect people to actually say no to y.
Then the customers come along and say "OK, then I won't get y". And the companies prove their lie by still charging for y.
Should have declared y is required and included it in the price.
Re:Pure Deceit (Score:5, Insightful)
This ruling is crap and shows the FCC doesn't exist for the people but for the ISPs. They could have said something in between like by Dec 2020, the ISP has to refund that charge without additional penalties or interest. The ISPs could then invest that money and gotten a good return. Or even require that the ISP provide an account credit to that amount. This way the ISP doesn't need to spend money mailing checks.
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The text of the law does not give the FCC any discretion to set a different date.
https://congress.gov/bill/116t... [congress.gov]
(b) Effective date.—Section 642 of the Communications Act of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this section, shall apply beginning on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act. The Federal Communications Commission may grant an additional 6-month extension if the Commission finds that good cause exists for such an additional extension.
The extension only comes in a one time, six month unit.
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Yes, it gave discretion to set a different date: the 6-month extension was not mandated by the law. The FCC had discretion to not approve it.
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Frontier is out of business after promising but failing to bring service to the very centrally located zone of the incredibly large metropolis I live in. It's hard to even blame them for this mistake in light of that one and what I assume must be a litany of others preceding it. They really let me down, too. I was hoping for someone to rescue me from the likes of AT&T and Time Warner. Oh well, maybe next year.
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You can be certain that AT&T and Time Warner have well paid your local politicians to ensure that no new competitors are ever allowed near a utility pole in your neighborhood.
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This requires a law? (Score:5, Interesting)
How is a law required to explicitly prevent someone for charging for a service that they aren't providing?
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This is intended from stopping them before they steal your money, instead of leaving you to try to claw it back after they steal it.
You can already sue them anyways, and hope they don't cut off your service.
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It sounds like the sort of thing small claims courts are for.
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Actually, bullshit lie this usually had to be fought through you're local public utilities commission, which often the committee is entirely made up of people on your local utilities' payroll.
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Are you sure? What then gives Comcast the automatic right-of-way to dig through my property and bury their wires there without me having the right to refuse or dig their crap out if they don't pay me rent for running their stuff through my property? I should charge them for rent of my own wires and fiber too, whether they use them or not, or even whether I buried them on my property at all. Same logic as they apply to charge rental fees on equipment they do not provide.
The FCC is broken (Score:2)
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So, working as intended by the corporations. Noted.
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That's what happens when the head of the FCC is a "former" lawyer for Verizon (who still collects a paycheck from them; back-earned 'dividends'... right).
um (Score:2)
for some they are the only choice so we can bill (Score:2)
for some they are the only choice so we can bill what we want and you just got to take it.
Youtube TV, Hulu TV, Sling TV etc (Score:1)
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So how do you propose to get Youtube, Hulu or Sling without an ISP? This bill covers charges for things like modems and routers as well as set top cable boxes. Many/most people get their Internet service from one of those "coax cowboys".
Misleading tag blaming Republicans w/o merit (Score:1)
Neither the links, nor the ruling, give any information on who did or did not approve of it. Nor are there any posts as of this writing here that state or give evidence of who voted how. So people that don't know and don't care to post are rigging the narrative in their political direction. Also, if you want to give the FCC further powers, consider that this kind of thing will always happen no matter who is in power.
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One of the tags I see on the story is: #assholerepublicans. Sigh.
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How is it misleading?
The FCC is controlled by Republican-appointed commissioners.
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How the Democratic members voted is not considered. Or that they voted at all.
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You're confused. This is about the Fourth Branch, not the Legislative Branch.
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Who currently is the head of the FCC? Is he a republican or a democrat? It may have been a bi-partisan group that came up with the law but it was the head of the FCC that chose to use the 6 month extension.
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The FCC Commissioner still has only one vote.
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The commission is made up of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The head of the commission decides what direction the FCC will take. He has 2 other Republicans that will go along with his decisions. This sound to me like anything that the FCC comes out with can rightly be blamed/credited on/to the Republicans.
Complete BS (Score:1)
The pandemic is no reason to delay the succession of fraud.
WTF (Score:3)
WTF!!! They shouldn't need a special law for this case. Charging someone rent for something you know you never delivered is simple fraud no matter what industry you're in and no matter what the something is. This and other cases where law enforcement and the courts bend over backwards to make crime legal if you're large enough is exactly why the people are losing faith in the law.
Simple solution - issue credit/refunds later (Score:2)
Ok, I get they may be busy now, so they cannot change their billing systems, but they should still be able to simply credit it later. Allow people to stop paying now, accumulate late fees, they are not allowed to disconnect during the pandemic anyways, then when it's over they can just credit everyone for all the rental and late fees they charged them that they shouldn't have. Seems a fairly simple solution.
Frontier is HORRIBLE!!!!! (Score:3, Informative)
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As I understand it this would be a civil matter, and not a matter for the police. Also they will not be willing to send out an expensive lawyer to fight you over small change.
IANAL, Not even American. So please check the laws in your area before doing as I suggest. But if you do do it, please let us all know the result.
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Frontier is the worst. (Score:2)
ISP I've ever done business with. Pure evil.
Capitalism - without the Capital! (Score:1)
What a great idea.