This whole rent-the-router/modem-you-absolutely-need-to-use-our-service is getting more and more popular.

Here in Germany one big cable-ISP (Kabel Deutschland), while not charging for the modem itself, wants you to fork over for enabling WiFi on it.

_Enabling_ it via firmware, mind you. Every modem has the hardware capability, however depending if you fork over the 5€ per month they'll enable or disable it via forced firmware updates.

Sadly, it seems the days where you got a subsidized router for a certain percentage of the retail cost with your contract, as it was for almost all telcos a few years ago, are gone :(