AT&T’s policy to charge modem rental fee is illegal per the new federal regulation in Jan 2021

The newly enacted law provides that the ISP cannot charge equipment fee/rental for a piece of equipment that the customer owns.  At this point, AT&T uses equipment that is customized for them via firmware, does not sell that equipment, and there is no way to legally purchase such equipment from another party. 

Even if the customer is willing to purchase, he is not able.  Thus, since the customer does not, and cannot, own the equipment in question, AT&T can charge for it.  

Before you say that the ISP is required to allow use of compatible modems, that law applied to CATV and DSL services, which AT&T's current Internet products do not fall under.

There's a loophole I believe.

OP please educate yourselve before posting 

@bosuca You can always switch to Comcast. They allow you to use your own equipment that is certified for Xfinity to avoid any monthly rental fees. The equipment you can purchase is typically a lot better than what Comcast supplies (or any ISP for that matter).

Unfortunately the law does not require ISPs to sell the equipment if the customer wants to buy it.  The custom firmware thing is (Edited per community guidelines).  All firmware in all commercial modems/routers/APs are custom.  Some can be replaced by open-source firmware. Others cannot be.  That's not the point.  The real point is AT&T is able to continue charging rent and stay compliant with the law.  They have powerful lobbyists who help craft the language of laws that provide for their interests over consumer fairness.  

Do what I did Hunt for a deal I got a new Nokia wifi 6 modem for a year then got 2 extenders free so att does sell the fiber with out charging for the modem for the first year. Also u can always call 611 and tell them when u bought service it came w a free gateway for a year and get a 120 credit.  If u wanna supercharge ur modem use the p(Edited per community guidelines) through Lan and hook up a nighthawk u can YouTube videos to walk u through it because any of u that are told u are stuck w the (Edited per community guidelines)ty old bgw210, or pace and they won't give u the wifi 6 modem and keep sending u replacement old refurbished one u got 2 choices leave go to Comcast or Verizon and both if those u can negotiate with or if u are married gotta partner mom dad switch service to a family member get some free rewards cards and request only buying if it's guaranteed u get the newest wifi 6 nokia I took over my moms last year they sent my mom 8 modems to fix (Edited per community guidelines)ty nothing near 1000 gs internet we only were getting barely 100 come to find out 8 houses in my neighborhood had the incorrect wire fiber hooked up to our house so 2 years we paid got the top of the line fiber to find out we only had dsl wire hooked to our home tgats copper not fiber and is att going to refund my mom any money (Edited per community guidelines) no so that's why I took it over w my military. I was over seeing att screw my.mom knowing they got a monopoly where I live. Im o weeks right for rewards cards I was promised and att knows me know I will start blowing them up because they can screw my mom but they are not doing that to me att isn't screwing a disabled vet. BTW att needs American speaking in complaint calls if I leave u it will be over ur smart (Edited per community guidelines) Asians that do nothing to help at all. Like when u pulled 2000 bucks out if my acct and I had to try getting it fixed talking to these ppl that shouldn't be awnsering 2000 buck error calls and screwing w me because I'm (Edited per community guidelines) so maybe crazy bomb guy dealt with what I did and lost it. I was on the phone with att for over 50 hours trying to fix the error not one of ur cheap sweat labor could fix. So shop find a deal ww free modems for a year don't be afraid to ask for a income hookup to check numbers in urhome hope that helps

What?  Punctuation and formatting are your friend.  Also not mixing wireless (*611) and wired/fiber internet improves your credibility.  I only got through about 2 inches before I quit reading.

^^^^ same here.

It wasn’t worth replying to. 

So, I just got off the phone with AT&T. The guy at the Billing dept. confirmed that I could use my own equipment and waive the Equipment fee. So, when they transferred me to Technical Support, I was told the opposite; "We do not recommend using your own equipment". When I asked if I took the risk of using my own equipment, what would I then be paying for in the non-waivable equipment fee, I received no clear answer. "It's company policy", or "we can't troubleshoot it if it's your equipment". So, I asked for the policy in writing. What I received in an email, was not even close to explaining the equipment fee. This is some (Edited per community guidelines) that AT&T is pulling, and I'm stuck with them because my small town has no other choices.&n(Edited per community guidelines)p;

How do you guys feel about this?