We recently noted how a long-standing practice of Canadian ISPs to impose bogus fees below the line in order to jack up the advertised price (also very common here in the States) was coming back to bite them. A lawsuit filed against Bell, Telus, and Rogers for a completely nonsensical "system access fee" has been allowed to move forward, and the suit has several of the companies scrambling. Rogers, who after the lawsuit shifted from charging a system access fee to an equally bogus "regulatory recovery fee," appears to now be rolling that fee into the regular price of service for some users.

A document obtained by Mobile Syrup indicates that only "new activations and existing customers migrating to an in-market plan will be affected by this change." Rogers also appears to be busily scrubbing their website of references to the fee.

"Although government costs still remain, including the government regulatory costs in the monthly service fee allows us to communicate pricing more effectively," Rogers informs users. "It will be much easier for customers to understand," claims the company.

It will also be much easier for Rogers legally if they stop ripping customers off with bogus fees -- while fighting a legal case about ripping customers off with bogus fees.

Rogers (and other ISPs across North America) claim the "regulatory recovery fee" is related to the cost of government regulation, at the same time that they've enjoyed significant deregulation of broadband markets. Lawyers for the lawsuit highlighted that the fee itself is pure profit; in 2004 alone Canadian incumbent ISPs collected $863-million in regulatory recovery fees, compared with the $126-million estimated to have actually been paid to governments.

Breaking out the cost of doing business below the line -- or just making up fees completely in order to jack up the advertised price -- has been a favorite pastime for Canadian and U.S. ISPs for a decade, and we've yet to see a single regulator take this false advertising seriously.