Are You Paying More for Internet Than You Have To? Try Buying Your Own Router

Equipment fee: Yes ($15 per month for modem/router gateway device rental)
Can you skip it? Yes

CenturyLink charges $15 monthly to rent a gateway that combines a modem and a router into one device. If you sign up for DSL with Century Link, that gateway will be one of three models: the Greenwave C4000, the Zyxel C4000LZ or the Zyxel C3000Z. If you have a fiber plan with Quantum Fiber, your equipment is included at no extra cost for an “initial period,” however long that may be. You can skip that $15 fee by using a gateway or modem of your own, but CenturyLink cautions customers not to use anything that isn’t on its list of approved devices.

“CenturyLink highly recommends using one of our certified or recommended Wi-Fi modems (gateways), which have been tested and approved to work optimally with our high-speed internet technology,” the company’s website reads. “Retired and third-party devices are more likely to cause performance issues and may not connect to your internet service correctly.”

Remember, if you’re replacing CenturyLink’s gateway with a standard modem, then you’ll also need to find a good router to go with it.