# What kind of taxes and fees can I expect to pay for DSL?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 29, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752 "2004-09-29T23:10:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752/1 "2004-09-29T23:10:44Z")

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I’m condsidering getting Yahoo DSL for $26.95 a month cause it seems like a good deal. But they keep mentioning “additional taxes and fees” without ever explicitly explaining how much they could be. Does anybody know what to expect? Am I looking at another $3 or another $15?

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**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752/2 "2004-09-29T23:55:42Z")

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Probably for the router that they will most likely bundle with your subscription. I believe I pay a monthly fee to use it as well. Can’t remember the specifics since I got DSL about 2 years ago. I pay about $50 a month after everything is done.

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**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752/3 "2004-09-30T01:20:33Z")

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You can refuse the router and purchase one of your own for $50 or less (one time flat fee) but you need to make sure you’re not signing a contract to rent the hardware, or they’ll laugh and tell you to keep paying regardless of whether you use it or not.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-taxes-and-fees-can-i-expect-to-pay-for-dsl/266752/4 "2004-09-30T15:31:47Z")

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Your taxes and fees would depend specifically on your locality (state + county + municipality), and would be a combination of the telephony and sales/service taxes plus regulatory fees plus network-access fees (most likely, Yahoo DSL’s signal will ride your local TelCo’s wire to your home). Best tack would be to speak to some fellow-citizen who is also subscribed to something similar to your level of service, as close to your location as possible; or else call and speak directly to a (local or closest) rep from the DSL provider and of whatever is the regulatory entity for DSL in your area and ask outright to itemize what is the end-cost.