• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 3, 2016

Six Democratic senators, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, are criticizing broadband providers' "troubling and questionable" billing practices.

"A lack of competition in the market has left many Americans without robust options when purchasing cable and broadband," states the letter, signed by Sens. Ron Wyden (Oregon), Al Franken (Minnesota), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Jeffrey Merkley (Oregon) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts). "Given the power big corporations have over American consumers, the need to stop unfair billing practices and ensure affordable cable and Internet services for all Americans is all the more important."

The lawmakers call particular attention to Comcast's cable modem rental fees, which now come to $120 a year. The company has long faced complaints by consumers who say Comcast has charged them rental fees even after they purchased their own modems.

Sanders and the other lawmakers say they are "troubled" by these complaints. "Many consumers report having to call and remedy this problem throughout several billing cycles," the lawmakers write. "In fact, customer help board found online at Comcast's Help and Support Forum contain complaints about this exact problem."

The lawmakers ask the FCC for more information, including whether regulates incorrect equipment fees.

For all the lawmakers' rhetoric about the lack of broadband competition, Sanders and the others are focused on a problem that isn't likely to prove controversial. After all, few people are going to argue that a company has the right to send incorrect bills.

Notably, today's letter doesn't address a topic with far-reaching policy implications -- providers' use of data caps. Comcast, for instance, recently unveiled Stream -- a $15 a month online video service that doesn't count against consumers' data allotments. Currently, some Comcast subscribers in test markets can only consume 300 GB of data a month before they're charged overages of $10 per 50 GB. Net neutrality advocates argue that this billing structure gives consumers an incentive to choose Stream over Netflix, Amazon or other competing over-the-top services.