Comcast and other ISPs asked FCC to ditch listing-every-fee rule. FCC says “no.”

  • SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    The absolute balls on ISPs even complaining about that. I can’t even imagine charging people these fees and then basically saying “we charge our customers so many fees that we don’t actually know what the fees are, we just know we are getting every single penny we can put of them.”.

    Also the balls on people who are downvoting this post. It’s like these people want to be charged more money without knowing why. Mind boggling how some don’t Like transparency

    Imagine if the FCC didn’t say this. How much more everyone would be gouged without knowing why

    • smegger@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. If you’re unable to explain the fee, then you’re unable to prove it’s a justified one

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’d like them to take it a step further and for each of those fees ask why it isn’t a part of the base price.

        • NotYourSocialWorker@feddit.nu
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          1 year ago

          Agreed. It’s actually a simple choice for them. Either explain every single item on the list, or advertise the real price of their service in all commercials and so on.

          I’m guessing that they want to eat their cake and save it. Or maybe more accurately: keep their cake and eat yours…

  • reversebananimals@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Providers are free, of course, to not pass these fees through to consumers to differentiate their pricing and simplify their Label display if they believe it will make their service more attractive to consumers and ensure that consumers are not surprised by unexpected charges.

    This official response is brillaint. “Feel free at any time to just stop charging bullshit fees.”

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      1 year ago

      This is the ‘regulation’ that conservatives bitch about so much.

      It’s a good thing when government steps in to protect citizens from corporate greed.

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly.

        The modern conservative position “against excessive government regulation” is analogous to the historical argument that the civil war was over “states’ rights”.

        Back then, it was only about states’ rights specifically as it related to a state’s right to legal slavery to prop up their exploitative economic system that perpetuated the wealth and prosperity of the elites at the expense of everyone else.

        Now it’s only about “excessive regulation” against deceptive and manipulative business practices designed to prop up their exploitative economic system that perpetuates the wealth and prosperity of the elites at the expense of everyone else.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      1 year ago

      Because this generation of Americans has been indoctrinated to believe all government owned businesses is a bad thing.

      It’s better to funnel taxpayer money to private corporations that routinely fail to deliver quality products while the owners rake in the profits.

      • tb_@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And that government owned businesses have to be profitable. And even when they are (USPS) there are still calls for cutting costs…

        Because surely spending another few hundreds of millions of taxpayer money on the army and “just one more lane” is far more effective.

        • bobman@unilem.org
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, everything except the military because it funnels money to corporations.

    • ______@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Won’t ever be because we’re in the stage where everything is marketed as much as possible.it would take a massive cultural and political shift to change that.

      • 3laws@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nah. It will happen. It happened with electricity, the telegram and advanced education; it will happen to the internet.

        • bobman@unilem.org
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          1 year ago

          Yes. Just not for a very long time.

          The cultural shift will occur, and future generations will be laughing at us for not having it sooner.

          Like, why support paying private businesses taxpayer money? The same work still needs to get done, only now there’s a small group of owners profiting from the excess funds.

  • schema@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    But charging it is easy enough?

    In its dismissal of the broadband industry’s claims that itemizing fees would be too confusing for customers and too burdensome for providers

    Sounds like there is a lot of shady shit in there that people will ask about if they had to list it.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The Federal Communications Commission yesterday rejected requests to eliminate an upcoming requirement that Internet service providers list all of their monthly fees.

    In June, Comcast told the FCC that the listing-every-fee rule “impose[s] significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the broadband label requirements.”

    The five trade groups kept up the pressure earlier this month in a meeting with FCC officials and in a filing that complained that listing every fee is too hard.

    They complained that the rule will force them “to display the pass-through of fees imposed by federal, state, or local government agencies on the consumer broadband label.”

    That would give potential customers a clearer idea of how much they have to pay each month and save ISPs the trouble of listing every charge that they currently choose to break out separately.

    The FCC rules aren’t in force yet because they are subject to a federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review under the US Paperwork Reduction Act.


    The original article contains 503 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lol that’s not an argument. You obviously have the capability to bill people those fees, but you don’t have to print/show those fees? Ya no

  • reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    They don’t have any problem figuring out what to charge me after I sign up. Whatever process they use for that they can use to tell me what it’s going to cost before I agree. Unless internet access is like healthcare and nobody has any idea what anything costs and your bill is full of $40 Advils and charges for services you never received.

  • bobman@unilem.org
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    1 year ago

    Glad I cut the cable for good this time.

    I just use Visible for Internet and spend $25/month.

    Nice seeing an extra $600 in my bank account after a year of no cable internet.