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Old habits die hard: getting internet from AT&T ime still requires leasing their 'modem' for a monthly cost while cable providers let you bring your own device
by abawany 5y ago
Old habits die hard: getting internet from AT&T ime still requires leasing their 'modem' for a monthly cost while cable providers let you bring your own device to avoid the monthly fee.
- jandrese 5y agoOh yeah, those hardware leasing fees are a goldmine for companies. Every so often you see a story about some old timer that is still paying for the hardware lease on their landline phone and someone does the math to discover that they've paid tens of thousands of dollars over the years to lease hardware that costs $25 new.
- bluGill 5y agoThe hardware they are leasing costs more than $25 new, more like $100. Sure you can buy a phone for $10 at the store, but the phones people leased where a lot higher quality (drop one off the desk and your floor is harmed not the phone) with a resulting higher price.
- astura 5y agoThis is not true - I had AT&T DSL from 2009-2014 and when I signed up they didn't offer a modem rental of any sorts, they required everyone to bring their own modem, but they did offer them for sale. I was really short on money at the time and didn't have a DSL modem, I would have preferred to rent the modem but they said that wasn't an option - they could only sell me one.
- abawany 5y agoI've checked them out for the last 4 years while contemplating a move from Spectrum and every time, on checkout, there was the $10/month non-removable fee for renting the modem with no opt-out. This is in central Texas.