Don’t be alarmed if you feel a little hungry next time you shop for internet service. Starting April 10, the US Federal Communication Commission is requiring that internet providers display labels with the key ingredients of their plans — and they look a lot like the nutrition labels you see at the grocery store.
“The FCC borrowed the nutrition label format from food products because we wanted to make basic information about broadband internet service easily recognizable and easy to understand,” said Alejandro Roark, bureau chief of the FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, said on a call with reporters.
Internet providers are notorious for their complicated pricing structures. Between autopay discounts, introductory pricing and hidden fees, you often don’t know what your bill will actually look like until it’s too late. I write about the internet for a living, and even I have to call providers directly to find out basic information like upload speeds and price increases. That’s the kind of obfuscation the FCC is looking to clear up.
“The fundamental idea is that competitive markets work better when consumers have appropriate information,” Blair Levin, a former FCC chief of staff and a telecom industry analyst at New Street Research, told CNET. “Requiring ISPs to provide this kind of minimum level of information to consumers really is kind of a no-brainer.”
Monthly price
At the top of the label is the monthly price, along with any increases you can expect. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of being an internet customer: Your bill might double after a year or two, and you won’t know until it happens. You can sometimes find out what your price increase will be by combing through the fine print, but many ISPs simply say it will return to the “then-prevailing rate” after the promotional pricing expires.
The broadband label looks to take the surprise out of that process by requiring that providers clearly state how long the introductory pricing lasts and what it will jump to when it ends.
That said, it’s better in theory than practice at this point. I checked a handful of major internet providers, and almost none of them were complying with the FCC’s vision.
