U-Verse Modem - Rent or Buy Options?

I would up switching to xFinity.com (Comcast).  I am not leasing a modem that I already own and the one I own is very high end.  In 5 years I would pay $600 to lease something that costs AT&T less than $50 (at wholesale pricing with volume discount).  The leasing model is great for the CEO of AT&T and his or her stock options, but crappy for the consumer.  I am a "militant consumer" and will not do business with companies that live for their share price at the expense of everything else - including the lifeblood of their business - their customers.  They just hope you are bad at math (its just that simple).  If you want to work for the rest of your life and never retire keep making decisions like leasing cable modems from AT&T U-verse at $1,200 over 10 years on something that cost AT&T less than $50 to purchase.  You keep doing that and I guarantee that you will keep working and working.

Should read, "I wound up switching...."

Don't do business with AT&T first of all. Second, if you have to, you're going to have to rent the router. Here is what happens if you buy a U-verse router: I bought a router on eBay a week before I started AT&T service, and the technician used that when he connected everything. Not only did AT&T charge me the monthly router "rent" fee (even though I was using my own router), but they charged me $118 for not returning MY ROUTER to them when I canceled service. I've been on the phone with them for hours and spent hours at AT&T stores trying to resolve this, and they said b/c the technician didn't note that I was using my own router, they have no way to prove that the router I bought was the router I used for service! ARE YOU SERIOUS AT&T. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. Forget getting the year's "rent" reimbursed that they took from me -- they charged me $118 for my own router!!!!!!! Thieves. Unforgiveable thieves.

Don't do business with AT&T first of all. Second, if you have to, you're going to have to rent the router. Here is what happens if you buy a U-verse router: I bought a router on eBay a week before I started AT&T service, and the technician used that when he connected everything. Not only did AT&T charge me the monthly router "rent" fee (even though I was using my own router), but they charged me $118 for not returning MY ROUTER to them when I canceled service. I've been on the phone with them for hours and spent hours at AT&T stores trying to resolve this, and they said b/c the technician didn't note that I was using my own router, they have no way to prove that the router I bought was the router I used for service! ARE YOU SERIOUS AT&T. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. Forget getting the year's "rent" reimbursed that they took from me -- they charged me $118 for my own router!!!!!!! Thieves. Unforgiveable thieves.

You tried to do an end-run around the AT&T terms of service, and it's all their fault?  Sigh.

OK, I am really confused by this?? I just did an internet chat with an AT&T rep as I was looking for instructions for purchasing my own modem returning my current one so I could have the rental fee removed from my account. None of this was mentioned at all and they even sent me a pre-paid shipping label for returning the equipment. What the heck?

You must have gotten a newbie or the wrong department.  If you are a U-verse customer you cannot avoid the equipment fee.  There are some new-customer promotions that credit back the amount of the fee for a certain number of months, but that's not what is going on here.

I'm just here for the {edited for word filter evasion} and giggles but personally with my personal experience ever having AT&T internet it sounds horrible, I thought I was paying a fortune for just internet service at $64.99 well $74.99 for a speed increase we just got. But with companies out there that allow you to rent OR OWN your own equipment like your modem (arris sb6183) and router (wrt1900ac) it's not worth it dealing with companies like this so many more options. Plus the fact anytime I want to "fine tune" my router or check the status of my modem to make sure I'm getting my downstream/upstream channeles I can. Sounds like with AT&T they force you to go through everything with them which no offense not everyone is going to know exactly what is going on which your equipment so many things that could impact it. But my advise to everyone one hear if shop around ask a lot of questions about new internet service from different companies and make sure they give you your internet freedom like this country intended it to be when we first invented it 🙂