ISP equipment fees: what providers charge and when owning pays off

The short version

• Many plans now include the equipment. AT&T's current plans carry no equipment fee, and Verizon Fios, Verizon 5G Home, T-Mobile, Frontier, GFiber and Ziply include a router or gateway. Xfinity's labels for its current 300 Mbps to 2 Gig plans list the gateway at $0. On these plans your own router saves nothing; buy one for coverage or control, not to cut the bill.
• The fees that remain are mostly on cable. Older Xfinity plans, Optimum's standard rate card (which excludes NY, NJ, CT and PA) and legacy Cox plans list $15 a month for a gateway; Spectrum charges $10 for its Wi-Fi router (Advanced WiFi) on plans that don't include it; Astound's Washington rate card lists $24 for a modem.
• The break-even rule: months to pay off = what you buy ÷ the monthly fees it removes. A $89.99 router against Spectrum's $10 fee pays off in 9 months; a modem and router for $339.98 against a $15 gateway fee takes 23 months.
• The main caveat: some charges don't go away when you own the gear. Phone service usually needs the provider's modem, some speed tiers need its gateway, and many Xfinity labels list a $30 "Unlimited data for customer-owned modems" fee. Check your own plan's broadband label before you buy.

What the big providers charge

Every figure below comes from the provider's own price list, fee schedule, broadband label or support page, checked October 29, 2026. Prices are monthly, before taxes, and can differ by region and by when you signed up. The first table covers providers where your own equipment can remove a charge; the second, providers where the equipment is included or has to stay.

Fees your own equipment can remove

The Cox rows come from Cox's Phoenix and Tucson pricing guide for October 2026, the Astound row from its Washington rate card (effective February 26, 2026); other regions publish their own sheets. Spectrum says its retail rates are the same across its 45-state area.

Where the equipment is included or has to stay

How each of these providers expects your own router to connect, and what you give up, is in our provider table and bridge mode vs IP passthrough.

Find the fee on your own broadband label

Since the FCC's broadband label rules took effect, providers must show a label at the point of sale listing "prices, speeds, fees, data allowances, and other critical information", put each customer's label in their online account, and publish the label data in machine-readable form. The label is the quickest way to see what your plan charges for equipment; look under the provider's monthly fees.

Labels vary by address and plan, which is why one provider can show several prices at once. Xfinity's machine-readable file, dated October 29, 2026, holds 97,027 fixed-internet labels:

• 43,992 list a $15 gateway lease, all on older plan names such as Connect More, Fast, Superfast and Gigabit.
• 42,076 list the lease at $0, including 18,412 of the 18,429 labels for the current 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gig and 2 Gig plans. The other 17 list no lease line at all; none of the current-plan labels lists a gateway charge.
• 7,794 of the 14,940 cable labels for those current plans also list a $30 "Unlimited data for customer-owned modems" fee, even though the same labels say the plan has no data usage policy and Xfinity's Gig page says "we don't have data caps on our latest internet plans". The labels don't say when the fee applies. (A further 183 current cable labels list "Customer Own modem" at -$10.00, which reads as a credit; the labels don't explain that either.) If you're on Xfinity and planning to buy a modem, ask whether it applies to your account before you switch.

Two more things labels don't show. Xfinity notes that the price on the label can differ from the cart because "discounts such as auto pay and paperless billing are not included in the price on the label". And labels describe plans on sale: if you've had service for years, your bill, not the current label, says what you pay. Optimum, for example, keeps separate rate cards for customers who started before and after January 8, 2024.

The break-even rule

Buying your own equipment pays off once the fees you stop paying add up to its price:

Months to break even = price of the equipment you buy ÷ monthly fees it removes, rounded up.

Count only fees that actually stop. If a modem is free (Spectrum, Cox's Spectrum plans), buying one saves nothing. If the plan includes Wi-Fi, a router only removes extender fees. The worked examples below use manufacturer prices from the RouterHaus catalog (checked October 20, 2026) for routers, and NETGEAR's own store prices for two modems that appear on several providers' approved lists (checked October 29, 2026): the CM2500, $249.99, with two gigabit ports, and the CM3000, $299.99, with a 2.5 Gbps port. The catalog has no modems; other modem makers' pages we read listed no price.

The Optimum rows use the standard rate card, which says it is "Not applicable in NY, NJ, CT, PA" (or two North Carolina towns), so they don't describe Optimum's tri-state customers. The second row assumes the fee rises the full $5 each year, as the offer allows; a slower rise makes the payback later. The Spectrum rows reflect a wrinkle in Spectrum's own pages: its shop sells Internet 500 at a 12-month price with Advanced WiFi as a $10 add-on, while its standard-rate disclosure lists Internet 500 at $85 "Includes Advanced WiFi". If the router is folded into the standard rate after the first year, a router of your own saves money only in that first year, so ask Spectrum how your bill will change.

Pick the modem by your plan, not by price alone. A gigabit-port modem such as the CM2500 tops out around 940 Mbps of real data (why gigabit Ethernet gives about 940 Mbps), and Xfinity's compatibility list rates it at "Up to 936 Mbps" wired. Older Xfinity tiers such as Gigabit (1,000 to 1,100 Mbps on its labels) and Gigabit Extra (1,200 to 1,300 Mbps) need a modem with a 2.5 Gbps port, which is the more expensive row above. How to choose one, and which lists each provider publishes, is in buying your own cable modem.

The routers in the table are the cheapest current mesh units in the catalog with a confirmed maker price in each group: the cheapest mesh unit overall (the eero 6, whose three-pack at $199.99 is also the cheapest three-unit pack in the catalog's pack prices) and the cheapest with 2.5 Gbps internet and LAN ports. Mesh kits can add units later as you need more coverage.

What one router or kit covers depends on your home, not its price; the network planner estimates the units you need, and home network setups by budget shows what each price level buys. If the router you'd buy sells extra features by subscription, add that to the cost: see router subscriptions compared.

When owning doesn't pay

• The equipment is included. Every provider in the second table above. Frontier's plans include an eero Pro 7 or eero Max 7, which the catalog lists at $299.99 and $599.99 as single units; a router of your own replaces it without lowering the bill. Verizon prices its own router at $399.99 to buy, and includes it with Fios plans.
• The provider's box has to stay. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon 5G Home gateways can't be removed, and some tiers require the provider's modem: Xfinity says "customer-owned modems are not currently compatible with X-Class speeds", Spectrum's symmetrical tiers need a Spectrum modem, and Astound says its 5 Gig by 1 Gig tier needs Astound's modem and an eero Max 7 because "there's no retail modem available yet that supports this speed". Your own router can still go behind these boxes, but it doesn't remove a fee.
• You have the provider's phone service. Spectrum says "Spectrum Home Phone service is not compatible with customer-owned modems"; Optimum's phone-certified list has one model, the Arris TM3402; Astound and Sparklight phone service need the provider's own phone modem (an eMTA). Xfinity Voice works with the voice-enabled models on Xfinity's list. Where the phone modem has to be rented, buying a separate modem adds a box without removing the rental.
• A bundle or feature is tied to the rented box. Spectrum includes Advanced WiFi with any bundle, so a bundled customer pays nothing for the router to begin with. Xfinity Pro requires Xfinity's gateway. On older Xfinity plans, the labels list xFi Complete at $25 and "Unlimited data for customer-owned modems" at $30; Xfinity's xFi Complete page now leads to its Xfinity Pro page, so ask what each covers before giving up the gateway.
• The fee is $0 for now. Optimum's offer charges nothing for the gateway for 12 months. Nothing stops you buying early, but the payback clock only starts when the fee does.
• You won't keep the service long enough. A 23-month payback doesn't help if you move or switch within a year, unless the next provider can use the same equipment. A router moves with you; a cable modem only helps if the next service is cable and the model is on its list. See what moves and what stays.

None of this makes owning pointless. Your own router can cover the home better, keep the same network when you move, and give you features some gateways lack; what owning your router changes covers those reasons. Behind a gateway that stays, set it up so you don't get double NAT.

Stop the charge: return what you replace

Federal law limits what a fixed broadband provider can bill for equipment. Under 47 U.S.C. § 562(c), it may not charge you for "using covered equipment provided by the consumer", or rent for equipment it didn't give you or that you've returned (except for the time you had it). The saving only starts once the rented box is back:

• Spectrum lists unreturned-equipment charges of $90 for a modem, $90 for a wireless router and $60 for a WiFi extender.
• Optimum lists $100 for a wireless modem, $80 for a wireless router, $130 for its Gateway 6 and $75 for an extender.
• Astound tells customers who switch to their own modem to "Return your Astound modem to avoid rental fees."

Keep the return receipt. Return deadlines and fees for AT&T, Verizon Fios, GFiber and Spectrum are in returning the provider's equipment. Don't return a gateway your service runs through: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon 5G Home gateways stay in place. More on running your own equipment with each provider is in the ISP independence topic hub.