Nutrition labels are an excellent consumer tool that allow us to quickly understand the health content of any particular food before we choose to buy or eat it. The FCC must be a fan, because they now require all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to add their own "nutrition labels" to their services.
Under new Federal Communications Commission rules, Internet service providers must start putting "broadband labels" on their Internet packages that look very similar to the Nutrition Facts label on any food. These new rules will come into effect today (April 10) and apply to home internet plans as well as mobile broadband plans. (However, if a company has fewer than 100,000 subscribers, they have until October 10, 2024 to add the tag.)
On these tabs, you can find information such as broadband service prices, introductory rates, data allowances and speeds for each plan. You will also find links to more information about the Company's privacy policy and network management practices. You'll see them whether you purchase plans online or in-store.
While the goal of these broadband labels is to make it easier for consumers to buy internet plans, even the FCC understands that many of us won't understand all the terminology that goes into delivering home or mobile internet. Therefore, they have a lengthy glossary that consumers can refer to if there is a term they are unfamiliar with. For example, "pass-through" charges are government fees that companies choose to pass on to you rather than pay themselves, while "typical latency" is the time it takes for information to move from one point to another over the Internet.
If you want to see what a broadband label looks like before you try to buy an internet plan, you can also view a sample broadband label provided by the FCC here. You'll see the plan at the top, followed by the monthly price in clear and bold text. You can see that this example plan has an introductory price, and the price jumps to $109.99 after 12 months. Halfway through the contract, you'll know immediately what the rates are, whereas before that you might have needed to get that information from your ISP.
I think these labels are a great idea: if it helps consumers understand what they're signing up for, and potentially help them choose a better plan they didn't know existed, or negotiate a better price, I'm all for it. It may not solve the lack of ISP choices for U.S. consumers, but it should help stop consumers from paying ISPs more than they're already being charged.
