FCC Received 450 Complaints About Broadband Equipment Rental Fees

The FCC received about 450 informal consumer complaints over the past year about ISPs charging what they consider to be abusive or unwarranted broadband equipment rental fees, but only the FTC and other agencies are able to “regulate the fees charged” because of FCC rescission of 2015 net neutrality rules. That's what Chairman Ajit Pai wrote House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley, D-Ill. Quigley, whose subcommittee has jurisdiction over FCC funding, wrote Pai in August to raise concerns. The FCC has referred informal complaints about “potentially unfair or deceptive billing practices by” ISPs to the FTC and “does not have information about the procedural posture or substantive resolution of any matters referred to the FTC” Pai replied, released Friday. “That agency would be better positioned to convey that information.” He noted the FCC “does require broadband Internet access providers to disclose their commercial terms of service, including prices for services.”