Frontier customer bought his own router—but has to pay $10 rental fee anyway

Enlarge / A Wi-Fi router. (credit: Getty Images | deepblue4you)

Buying your own router instead of renting one from an ISP is one of the few reliable ways to save money on a broadband bill.

But what if you buy and use your own router and the broadband provider still charges you a $10-per-month rental fee? That’s the bitter reality for Frontier Communications customers such as Rich Son of Texas.

Son has been a Frontier customer since April 2016 when Frontier purchased Verizon’s wireline networks in Texas, California, and Florida. Prior to that, he was a Verizon FiOS customer and purchased Verizon’s FiOS Quantum Gateway router for $200 in order to avoid monthly rental fees.