It sounds like providers are trying to hide monthly fees in an attempt to obscure them. My ISP will let me ‘rent’ a modem for $10 a month, but I just decided to buy my own for $60 fifteen years ago. My brain says that’s $1800 (it could be wrong, it’s late). If I didn’t know I was paying a $10 monthly fee, I’d never have bought my own.

And if a fee is actually a tax, just put that on the bill. It’s pretty simple.

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a sequel to the sequel to the sequel of 2001 (called 3001) where Frank Poole is rescued a thousand years after been lost in orbit around Jupiter/Saturn. By then global warming isn’t caused by carbon dioxide or methane or even water vapor. It’s from 1,000+ years of waste heat generated by each human that’s ever lived. Even with 100% clean energy, everything still creates heat, and it has to go somewhere.

I will reserve my judgement until someone else repeats this. Too many times these types of papers end up being retracted due to mistakes or proven false later. FTL neutrinos come to mind.