Many Americans are very frustrated that every month they have to pay a mandatory router rental charge as part of their ISP bill. It gets added even if you purchase and use your own router in many cases. However, as of yesterday, Dec. 20, the practice is now illegal and you can demand your ISP stops the charge.
We first heard about the new US law back in January when President Trump signed a spending bill which included a new "consumer right to accurate equipment charges" rule. It effectively stops ISPs from charging for equipment the consumer supplies, which means the router rental fee must disappear for those consumers. It's taken nearly 12 months, but the charge is now illegal.
As The Verge reports, your ISP can still charge for a router sent to a customer, but that customer should be able to return the router, have the fee canceled, and supply their own router instead. The charge is typically $10 a month, so the cost of buying a router is soon recouped. A good budget router can cost less than $50, meaning you'll start seeing the benefit of money saved in less than half a year.
Don't expect ISPs to take the initiative here and cancel the fee automatically. If you are already using your own equipment, contact your ISP and demand the fee is stopped. Send them a link to the bill if they protest. Alternatively, if you are using the equipment supplied by your ISP, do some research, see if there's a good alternative available and check the process for returning the ISP-provided equipment before attempting to cancel the fee. You want to avoid any internet downtime, especially as we are all so reliant on the internet for communication right now.