by Karl Bode
One of the most misleading practices in the broadband industry is the tactic of adding sneaky, below the line fees to artificially keep the advertised rate the same. It's effectively a form of false advertising, in that consumers sign up for one rate, then wind up paying significantly more after an ISP saddles their bills with various nonsensical fees. Many of these fees, like the "regulatory recovery fee" or broadcast TV fee are simply the cost of doing business, and are not government mandated despite being designed to sound like it.
Given that regulators have turned a blind eye to this practice for fifteen years (longer if you're talking about POTS), many companies don't even try very hard when trying to make up such fees.