Broadband nutrition labels | FCC | Allconnect.com

Broadband providers like Frontier, Spectrum, Verizon and others have six months to provide a Broadband Facts label for their services.

The labels will be similar in format to the required food nutrition labels we’re all familiar with.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hopes the labels will provide consumers with a more transparent and easier way to shop for internet, “Broadband is an essential service, for everyone, everywhere. Because of this, consumers need to know what they are paying for, and how it compares with other service offerings,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. 

“For over 25 years, consumers have enjoyed the convenience of nutrition labels on food products.  We’re now requiring internet service providers to display broadband labels for both wireless and wired services.  Consumers deserve to get accurate information about price, speed, data allowances, and other terms of service up front.”

The label will show your monthly price, contract requirements, any additional charges and terms like early termination fees or taxes and any discount or bundle pricing that is available.

ISPs must also list if they participate in the government’s Affordable Connectivity Program.

Plan speeds, both upload and download, along with latency and monthly data allowance, will also be shown.

The FCC says the labels will include the following:

• Providers must display the label – not simply an icon or link to the label – near an associated plan advertisement.
• ISPs must make each customer’s label easily accessible to the customer in their online account portal and provide the label to an existing customer upon request.
• Labels must be machine-readable to enable third parties to collect and aggregate data to create consumer comparison-shopping tools.
• Labels must be accessible to people with disabilities.
• ISPs must show speed and latency.