This is the legislation that actually became law: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-con ... -bill/1865apl wrote:From what I can tell, the section I quoted became law on Dec 20 2019 (as part of the appropriations act, as you said), and is slated to take effect (after some delay) on Dec 20 2020.
And unless I am misunderstanding, it applies to any broadband provider, and makes mandatory rental fees for equipment not wanted by the consumer illegal.
Bundling of services is NOT the same as mandatory rental fees for equipment, and I thought it was already clear that I was only talking about the latter.
I guess I need to let this go for now and hope that the new regulations are able to make a difference industry-wide.
Some of the protections in this legislation do apply to both Cable TV and fixed broadband, but do not apply to telephone service. With regards to fixed broadband internet access, the primary protection is against inaccurate billing - charging customers for equipment they provided themselves.
This is likely in response to the rental fees that Frontier was charging to customers who used their own equipment - some news on that here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... 20fee%20to
I also don't think this will stop AT&T from renting equipment, because they lock the network down to the equipment they provide and rent, so consumers cannot return it.
Aside from these components, the primary protections of the legislation are for "covered services", which are defined as "multichannel video" service, which is subscription television. They require TV companies to disclose post-introductory rates, likely to deal with some of the sneaky practices that Cable companies have done with teaser rates and long term contracts. And they allow consumers to get an emailed copy of the terms of the offer they've agreed to, and allow for a 24-hour cancellation window if they disagree. This assures that call center reps at a Cable company who mislead consumers can be found out via the written terms.
So no, this doesn't disallow ISPs renting equipment for broadband internet and is not at all related to voice services, VOIP or otherwise.