Returning your old internet equipment

Return deadlines and fees, side by side

Returning HughesNet equipment

• What goes back: the leased modem and its power supply and the satellite radio; Fusion customers also return the multipath device, its power supply and the wireless antenna, plus any leased mesh Wi-Fi nodes.
• What stays: the outdoor antenna (dish), its mount and the cables don't have to go back. No equipment has to go back if you bought it.
• How: Hughes sends de-install and return instructions, and the parts go back in a Hughes return box with a prepaid label inside. Ask for the box on the cancel call.
• Deadline and fees: within 45 days of cancelling, or $300: $100 for the modem and power supply and $200 for the radio. Fusion: $500. Mesh nodes: $50 each.
• HughesNet Voice: the phone adapter goes back too, with its own fee if it doesn’t.

How to cancel HughesNet, step by step

Returning Viasat equipment

• The rule: call Viasat within 7 days after service ends to arrange the return; the modem and transceiver must reach Viasat within 30 days or unreturned-equipment fees apply.
• Fees: up to $500 for current ViaSat-3 equipment: $100 for the WiFi Gateway 3 modem, $350 for the Tria 3 transceiver and $50 for the power adapter.
• How: Viasat either sends return instructions or, at its option, a prepaid shipping package. Call Viasat at 1-855-463-9333.

How to cancel Viasat

Returning a T-Mobile 5G Home Internet gateway

Send the gateway back within 45 days of cancelling. If it doesn’t come back undamaged, T-Mobile charges up to $370. Follow the return instructions T-Mobile gives when you cancel, and keep the tracking number. If you’re cancelling inside T-Mobile’s test drive, the gateway has to come back for the refund too. T-Mobile offers a 15-day test drive: cancel inside 15 days of activation, send the gateway back, and ask for the refund (paid as a bill credit) no more than 30 days after you cancel.

Returning Verizon 5G Home equipment

Every piece of Verizon-owned equipment has to be back with Verizon 30 days after you cancel, at the latest. Its fee is up to $300 per item, so a router plus a Wi-Fi extender can cost twice that. Return each piece, and photograph each one. On LTE Home or Home Internet Lite? Ask Verizon for your deadline: the terms above are from its 5G Home page.

Returning AT&T Internet Air equipment

AT&T gives you 21 days from the day you cancel. Its return page says to take the All-Fi Hub with its power supply to a FedEx Office or The UPS Store and get a tracking receipt. If it doesn’t come back, AT&T charges $200, and leased Wi-Fi extenders have their own fee. AT&T’s general cancellation page shows a different amount; its fee schedule and its return page agree on the one here.

Returning a DSL modem

AT&T DSL: AT&T's fee schedule lists no unreturned-equipment fee for AT&T DSL, because DSL modems were bought rather than leased; check your bill if AT&T sent you a leased gateway. AT&T’s newer service over copper (called AT&T Internet) uses a leased Wi-Fi gateway, and that one does carry a non-return fee in the same schedule.

Frontier, CenturyLink, Brightspeed, Kinetic and Fidium: we haven’t verified each company’s return rules. Look at your bill: a monthly equipment, modem or lease charge means the modem is leased and probably has to go back. Ask on the cancel call, and get the deadline in writing.

The photo-everything checklist

1. Ask for the return kit when you cancel

   Ask how the return works (a box, a prepaid label or a drop-off store) and write down the exact deadline date. The clock starts on your cancel date, not when the box arrives.

2. Photograph everything

   Take a photo of each part with its serial-number sticker readable, then one of all the parts laid out next to the open box, then one of the sealed box with the label on it.

3. Pack exactly what the provider listed

   Power supplies count as parts. Don’t leave anything out, and don’t send extras that belong to you, like your own router.

4. Hand it over and get a receipt

   Drop it at the carrier or store the provider names and get a receipt with a tracking number. Don’t leave it on the porch for a pickup.

5. Track it, then check two bills

   Screenshot the “delivered” status. Then check your final bill and the one after it for an equipment charge.

Charged for a “missing” part? What to do

1. Call and give the facts

   Say: “I returned [the parts] on [date], tracking number [number], delivered on [date]. Please remove the equipment charge.” Ask for a reference number.

2. Send your proof in writing

   Send the photos, the receipt and the tracking screenshot by the provider’s chat, email or account messages, so there’s a record. Ask them to hold the charge while they check.

3. Escalate if it isn’t fixed

   Ask for a supervisor or the billing disputes department. If the provider still won’t remove a charge you can prove is wrong, you can dispute it with your card company if you paid by card, or file a complaint with the FCC or your state attorney general’s consumer office.

Checking method: each price, fee and rule here links to the provider’s or regulator’s own page, dated the day we read it. No internet provider pays for a place on this site; the only income is the Starlink referral explained on our money page. Our fact-checking · How we make money · Corrections