The Federal Communication Commission here in the US has pulled through for consumers. Below is taken from their website describing the new mandate that has gone into effect as of April 10, 2024.
Broadband Labels are designed to provide clear, easy-to-understand, and accurate information about the cost and performance of high-speed internet services. The labels are modeled after the FDA nutrition labels and are intended to help consumers comparison shop for the internet service plan that will best meet their needs and budget. (1)
For those that don't really understand why this matters, let me elaborate. Essentially, this forced label gets companies to explicitly state their pricing, from intro rates to regular rate, the performance rates of upload, download and latency, as well as any additional fees and terms that may have, previously, been hidden deep in fine print.
How do we know that this is a good thing? Well, when all the FCC is asking for is more transparent pricing and said companies try and push back, it generally means there there wasn't much transparency to begin with. In fact, many of the broadband providers kept asking for extensions. Luckily, the FCC stayed firm and went through with the previous due date. The Internet & Television Association, a group representing an assortment of cable companies stated in a letter that, “this new requirement would add unnecessary complexity and burdens to the label for consumers and providers and could result in some providers having to create many labels for any given plan [. . .] These unnecessary burdens would be felt by both small and large providers.” How else could you read this as except, "we are not willing to be held accountable to the random hidden fees we give out to screw over the consumer"?
I couldn't be happier!!! In what world could a consumer be expected to pay for a service that they don't have the full details for? Additionally, some of the non technical population, may not know the importance of upload/download/latency and not view as a determining factor in choosing a provider. It leads me back to a quote by Carl Sagan, "We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster."
My hope for these labels is that consumers are now going into choosing a provider fully informed of both price and quality of the services.
FCC Says Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T Must Start Displaying the True Cost and Speed of Their Internet Service Starting April 2024 (https://cordcuttersnews.com/fcc-says-comcast-spectrum-att-must-start-displaying-the-true-cost-and-speed-of-their-internet-service-starting-april-2024/)
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