Speak for yourself; I own my cable modem outright. But I do understand (and I don't care) that the ISP can essentially reprogram that device, since that's how the technology is intended to work. That device is just feeding into a router I control, anyway.

If they want to update the modem/baseband, why not just put "modem" or "baseband"? And why do they have to do it without notice?

unless your talking about your wireless carrier, in this case, Verizon.