this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
265 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

86580 readers
3730 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 33 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 hours ago

USA?

USA...

Let's be honest though. This policy was a chicken-shitted rule only a liberal could love. Should we ban ISPs from tacking on extra fees and simply charging the sticker price? No, instead let's just require them to disclose it in the fine print!

[–] 6_Electrons@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What a wild world... Lived in the US my whole life... Figured I could do better else where so I left.

Now for internet I pay $22 a month and get symmetrical 700mbps...

[–] Sinax@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

8$ / month in Romania for 2Gb/s. Also, you can download ANYTHING here.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca -3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah but minimum wage is 80$ / month and you have to choose between betting shop and internet every month. Like some kind of real life adaptation of "Papers, please"

[–] Sinax@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

Minimum wage is 630$ / month after taxes. Are you an American?

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was looking at prices today, turns out I can get a symmetric and uncapped plan in Brazil that costs 1/5th of what I pay in the US. It's a fucking cartel.

[–] danielfm123@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] 6_Electrons@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I'm not far from either of those companies

[–] creamfresh@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

eh so definitely not Germany then

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 96 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Those poor ISPs...

Why does this administration hate the American people so much?

[–] BadlyTimedLuck@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

I think they stopped viewing us as people a long time ago. The administration has essentially become Mr Krabs and they only see walking wallets instead of a population

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 hours ago

Because the American people were stupid enough to vote for them.

[–] Jesusaurus@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's not that it hates people! It just values their money and ability to take that money over everything else!

[–] Broadfern@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It hates poor people. And punishes those poor people by continuously poor-er-izing them

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

Which is everyone with a net worth less than 1 billion dollars

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I don't know... some of the shit they've been doing and saying really seems hateful (above and beyond greedy corruption) at times

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Can someone share what fees they were charged while they were reporting it? In Europe my fees are:

  • internet fee

What else can there be?

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Meaningless vague stuff like this

[–] notptr@lemmy.cyberia9.org 2 points 8 hours ago

The metronet fee is what they said for keeping maintenance on the ont and the cost sending an tech out. They put in place in last year working their before they laid me off.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Deregulated Administration Fee" sounds like a fee for doing nothing

[–] Verqix@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Sounds more like the fee they directly use for lobbying to reduce oversight on ISPs.

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Centurylink added a fun one for me, a building relocation fee, I shit you not.

They mailed me paperwork stating how they need to charge an extra fee for when roads expand or move, and they have to relocate a building. So instead of just setting aside some of their profit for the few times they'll need to move a fucking building, now I get to specifically pay for this occurrence.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You were paying for it either way, they just broke it out as a line item.

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I understand this, but now they get to double dip, have a high price, AND charge more. Instead of having all the pricing roled into the final price, they get to say $65/m *

  • with additional taxes and fees

They also get to invent new situations to charge you for. Instead of just, "our service costs this much" they now get to add additional things like:

  • Hail damage recovery fee
  • Flood damage recovery fee

Who knows if they ever actually have to relocate a building like they told me. I'd like to see some figures in how often that actually happens, and how much it costs them as a company.

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

the slight difference is that now it doesn't affect profits

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

And now that they don't have to report them, how do they ask you to pay for them?

Here in Finland, you sing up for an internet connection for a certain price a month, usually for 12/24/36 months at a time and... That's literally it. E.g I have 250/250 fibre for 35€/month for the next year. If they want me to pay more, they'll have to increase the price next year when I renew it.

It's a slimy business tactic that applies the anchoring effect.

You're shopping internet plans. You see a plan that seems like a good deal to you and meets your needs. The price listed in bold text on the website is $50/month. If you look closely, there's a little asterisk referencing tiny text at the bottom of the page that simply says something like "plus additional fees."

So you feel it's a good deal, so you move forward. You enter all your personal info, everything needed to set things up. Then you get to checkout...and the price has increased to $70/month, inflated by a bunch of bogus fees.

You would think this wouldn't make a difference in your decision-making, but it does. It actually changes what the average person is willing to pay. Among the reasons:

Anchoring: When you're shopping, you've already subconsciously decided the plan is a good deal at $50. Then you put in the time investment to set up the account. When they spring the fees on you, your mind is in a state where it really doesn't want to reconsider things. You've already finished the price comparison portion of the task! So even though you can see the price increase, the plan still subconsciously feels like it's $50/month.

Anti-Competitive Behavior: these fees make cost comparisons much more difficult. The only way to see all the fees that your account will be charged is to go through most of the account sign-up process. You can't just quickly pull up the websites of various ISPS and quickly compare their plans/rates.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 1 day ago

In Spain I signed my contract about 5 years ago for 200/200 fiber and they no longer offer it so they changed it to 800/800 but the price stayed the same. The contract renews automatically every year.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 1 day ago

Jesus, that's insane.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Brendan Carr is a dummy.

[–] goatinspace@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago