In his complaint to the FCC, Comcast’s VP of regulatory affairs, Jordan Goldstein, wrote that the government should grant their petition “to avoid the unnecessarily onerous burden associated with itemizing non-mandatory passthrough government fees.”

The ISPs are pushing back about non-mandatory passthrough government fees though. Unlike mandatory fees, which are required by law, non-mandatory pass-through fees are typically discretionary charges that ISPs choose to levy on their customers to offset expenses related to compliance with regulations or taxation.

Is this just not the cost of doing business? Do we pay a liquor license fee when we go to a bar? I think most people would find that absurd because that is just one of the business costs of opening a bar and those fees and taxes the business pays is baked into the price of food and beverages.

To most, this just looks like a way for ISPs to advertise their services at low prices while offloading the cost of doing business onto the consumer. Which the FCC is actually fine with. However, they are no longer fine with these providers lack of transparency in offloading these costs to the consumer.

Some non-mandatory pass-through fees (which FCC allows to be bundled into the base price if the ISP wants to do it that way):

Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee: ISPs may charge this fee to cover the costs associated with complying with various government regulations related to the provision of internet services.

Local Franchise Fee: Some local governments impose franchise fees on ISPs for the use of public rights-of-way or utility infrastructure.

State and Local Taxes: These could include sales taxes, use taxes, or telecommunications taxes that ISPs may pass on to customers as a way to cover the tax burden imposed on their services.

911 Fee: This fee helps fund emergency services like 911 call centers and systems.

Internet Infrastructure Surcharge: ISPs might implement this fee to cover the costs of maintaining and upgrading their network infrastructure.

Broadcast TV Fee: Though not directly a government fee, some ISPs list a Broadcast TV Fee on bills to cover the retransmission of local broadcast stations, which is influenced by regulatory requirements

Universal Service Fund Fee: This fee is used to support the Universal Service Fund, which helps provide affordable telecommunications services in underserved or remote areas (such as affordable broadband internet and phone service for low-income households, rural healthcare facilities, Tribal lands, schools, and libraries.)

Some other fees that some ISPs like to charge that are just literally the cost of doing business.

-Network access and maintenance fee

-Network enhancement fee

-Broadband cost recovery fee

-Internet infrastructure fee

-Municipal construction charge

-Administration fee

-Technology service fee

-High-speed network recovery fee

Some of these fees above would be like if a bar decides to charge a renovation fee after doing a remodel of their premises. Again, these fees are all just the cost of doing business and if they’re going to offload that cost to their customers, then their customers need to know exactly what they are paying for in advance.