Shopping for Internet Plans Can Be Confusing. New Rules Will Simplify It

Additional charges and terms. These include any onetime fees when you sign up for a plan as well as possible early termination fees. Keep in mind, you won’t see taxes in the numbers listed. Prices will also differ by location.

Discounts and bundles. ISPs may provide discounts and perks. They may be attached to the separate wireless service you subscribe to or perhaps the use of your own modem, router or other gear. If such discounts are part of the deal, you’ll see some of the details in this section.

Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). This government program helped low-income households pay for broadband, with eligible recipients able to receive up to $30 a month for internet service. But unless Congress votes to extend it, the ACP is on borrowed time.

For now, the label has a section for the ACP where broadband providers could indicate yes or no for whether the plan is part of the program. Since new enrollments in the program ended Feb. 8 and the ACP is expected to run out of money after April, providers can indicate “NA” or “not applicable,” at least until the program’s ultimate fate is determined.

Speeds. You will see typical download and upload speeds, expressed in megabits per second (Mbps). Latency speeds, a measure of internet responsiveness, will also be shown and expressed in milliseconds (ms).

But this can get tricky. What’s typical for one consumer may not be for another.

Several factors can affect the speeds a consumer experiences, including the number of devices in the home tapping into broadband, the quality of your modem and router, and how many people are competing for broadband in your neighborhood.

Data included with monthly price. If you don’t have an unlimited plan and are responsible for additional data charges, that will be reflected here.

Network management and privacy. The label should include links to the ISP’s network management policy, such as under what circumstances it may block content or throttle or slow down your connection, and its privacy policy, including how it protects your privacy and handles your personal data.

Customer service. A specific phone number and email address should be listed.

Where will you see the labels?

The FCC is requiring companies to display the labels at the point of sale, which may include websites, provider-owned stores and other retail outlets. The label itself must be presented, not an icon or link to the label.

“By requiring that providers display introductory rates clearly, we are seeking to end the kind of unexpected fees and junk costs that can get buried in long and mind-numbingly confusing statements of terms and conditions,” the FCC’s chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, said in a statement. “You shouldn’t have to be a lawyer to know just what is in your internet service plan or an engineer to understand just how your provider is treating your data.”

One place you won’t see the labels, at least under the current rule, is on your monthly bill. Still, labels are supposed to be displayed at online billing portals. And providers must make a label available within 30 days to customers who request it.

Accessible to non-English speakers, disabled people

If a company advertises in more than one language in the United States, it must make the labels available in those languages. The FCC says this will help promote digital equity — the universal ability to access and use online resources — among the fast-growing populations of Hispanics and Asian Americans. 

Labels must be “machine readable,” which the FCC points out is “data in a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost.” Machine readers of one kind or another may help blind people or others with disabilities make out the contents of web pages.

An internet service provider will have to make all of its label information available on a spreadsheet on its website. Other groups will be able to use this information to better analyze plans and create comparison tools that would help consumers in their search for the least-expensive highest-speed plan that suits their needs. 

Rosenworcel, the FCC chairwoman, also hopes to bring greater pricing transparency to cable and satellite TV viewers. In March, the commission voted to enact rules that would require cable operators and direct broadcast satellite providers to clearly state the all-in price for video programming services on promotional materials and subscriber bills.

This story, originally published Nov. 22, 2022, has been updated to include the dates when broadband labels went into effect, the ACP’s updated status and the FCC’s vote on cable and satellite TV pricing transparency.