Can a phone company require you to pay “installation fees”
 

My mom was looking at getting DSL but they say because she has never had “internet “ she needs to pay all installation costs .

Far as I know federal law says that’s illegal, it’s free to your wall and legally you can take care of the inside crap yourself.

Ps provider is craptastic Frontier monopoly

Doubt that it's illegal, but not very nice. I would wonder what these installation fees cover since it is pretty easy to install these things yourself. Is the customer forced to use the phone company equipment like the dsl box and/or router? If so is there a monthly fee for the box?
Does she have a cell phone that gets a good signal where she lives? I get 9 gig of data included in my service for 45/mo. If the cable service(internet) goes out I just connect(which doesn't happen often) I just connect my cell phone to the computer if I want to browse using a large screen.
JJ

I would love to have the answer but I dont know. I do know that electric and natural gas utilities have a state regulated cost recovering calculation. If it costs more to serve than the break even point at x number of years, the customer pays the difference.

But communications utilities are different I beleive.

They say her phone line is inadequate which is why I call BS,
I have never heard of paying for new line to your home

I would call your state commission who has authority and ask their take.

https://psc.wi.gov/Pages/ForUtilities/Telecom.aspx

If she lives beyond currently served areas, it would be reasonable.

If she has had a copper wire land line since forever, the situation changes to flipping a switch.

Find out what needs to be upgraded.

Communication companies can charge for install fees, but you might be able to negotiate the price down. My parents needed a trench and new line run for cable service about 100 yards long, and the cable company charged something like a flat $100 fee.

DSL service depends on distance from switching equipment. Too far away, and the speed is either junk, or non-existent.

https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.c...t-distance.png

If cable is available, I'd go that option first assuming the price is reasonable. You might look into satellite service, though I know nothing about modern implementations, but I assume it's much more expensive.

I had DSL enabled at one apartment. The guy handed me a box and asked if I was sure that I knew what I was doing.

"I will be on-line before you get in your truck."

They charged me an installation fee and refused to waive it.

We had Frontier and it was down when you started this thread. I believe that it was out for three days.