Legal Question in Technology Law in Missouri

Re: Cable Modem Rental Required

Because the cable company is not your only option for internet service, you are not being forced to rent a cable modem. Renting the modem is simply part of what you must do in order to use this particular internet service instead of another.

AT&T used to have a nation-wide monopoly on telephone service. When AT&T required customers to lease its phones, it was not possible for other manufacturers to even enter the marketplace, let alone compete effectively. This requirement was outlawed before AT&T was dismantled. After the split, the regional phone companies each had monopolies on local service in their respective regions; had they been allowed to require customers to use their phones, they still could have effectively squelched competition. The phone companies then would have no incentive to keep the rental rates low.

There is no such danger in permitting particular ISPs -- whether they are cable companies or not -- to require customers to lease their modems for the simple reason that the customers have many other internet options available to them. In fact, the requirement of cable companies that customers to lease their descramblers seems more objectionable because in most places the customers have no other place to turn for cable service (though the recent advent of affordable satellite TV has changed this).

Bottom line: if you don't want to lease a cable modem, get your internet service from someone else.