back to article US broadband internet: Now with mandatory 'nutrition' labels

The FCC's "nutrition labels" for broadband internet services are now a required part of doing business for American ISPs. As of April 10, a rule passed in 2022 has taken effect requiring ISPs to display labels at the point of sale for internet service that include things like prices, service changes after an introductory …

  1. My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
    Thumb Up

    Three ways to make this idea even better

    1. Forget point of sale -- this needs to be on *every* monthly bill (mailed paper and downloadable PDFs) with the "introductory" and "contract" times counting down so people know when time runs out.

    2. Can I get this for my *current* plan? Based on how it's gone the last few years, it should read "$60/month, n/a for introductory and contract, $0 other fees, $0 taxes, 25/5" but I'd like to make sure my provider isn't going to sneak in some new terms.

    3. The example image: 1200 down, 200 up for only $109.99? As long as it's not one of the major coax cable companies, sign me up! I'll even move for that deal!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

      > 3. The example image: 1200 down, 200 up for only $109.99? As long as it's not one of the major coax cable companies, sign me up! I'll even move for that deal!

      Seriously, how on earth is it that in a country of >300 million people there is so little competition that anybody can possibly view that as a good deal?!?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

        That's probably a rural thing. For example, I see a plan in a city that is symmetrical gigabit for $55 per month, but you probably can't get that when you're not in a densely-populated and thus easily-cabled area.

        1. My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

          Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

          Oh, I'm not rural -- I'm firmly in the suburbs, less than 25 miles away from the center of downtown of a major city. But you're both right -- 1) lack of competition and 2) not easily fiber-cabled.

          As my top post says -- and I've repeated time and again, I pay $60 for 25 Mbps. Less than twice the price for 48x download speed (and 40x upload)? I'm sold; shut up and take my money as long as you aren't Xfinity (or similar cableco from other states).

      2. User McUser
        Thumb Up

        Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

        It's not all terrible here - I am lucky enough to live in an area with *three* actually competitive, actually high-speed broadband providers (local cable co and two FTTP services) which is soon to be four when my electric co-op rolls out their FTTP service here. I pay $77/month (incl fees and taxes) for symmetric gigabit and a fixed IP.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

      That sort of speed works out at about $50 in the UK (in the places that can have it)

      https://www.fibrely.co.uk/broadband

    3. Cheshire Cat
      FAIL

      Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

      3. The example image: 1200 down, 200 up for only $109.99? As long as it's not one of the major coax cable companies, sign me up! I'll even move for that deal!

      Here in New Zealand, thousands of km from the centre of the internet, we get that, plus unlimited usage and free phone service, for the same price in *NZ* dollars, which is about 60 USD. You yanks are being ripped off.

      1. Bebu
        Windows

        Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

        《Here in New Zealand, thousands of km from the centre of the internet, we get that, plus unlimited usage and free phone service, for the same price in *NZ* dollars, which is about 60 USD. You yanks are being ripped off.》

        Even from AU, we can envy the Kiwis their rational broadband. The AU NBN is the typical committee camel.

        I thought the FCC's Acme ISP label was taken from a the Optus NBN offering. :)

        The $89.99 intro. to $109.99 after 12 months ($20 or 21% increase) is signature Optus (from C&W days.)

      2. Snake Silver badge

        Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

        Yes, internet is no great deal here in the U.S. and I've mentioned it before. For a good number of us it is because of the distance that the ISP must service; a comment above from a user states "I'm only 25 miles from a city center" - 25 miles of run and maintenance adds up by the end of the year. Add in the usual, joyous U.S. capitalism of captive audience (no, to minimal competition in each area), lobbyists, certain parts of our own government (cough, GOP, cough) fighting against FCC ISP oversight, etc, and yep, we're screwed.

        But always remember, ~36% of our population supports and consistently votes for this because anything else is "communism"! So, Let Them Eat Cake, I can't be bothered to keep reminding them what idiots they are.

    4. WolfFan

      Re: Three ways to make this idea even better

      AT&T gives me 1000 Mbps up and down for $55.00/month. (The real values are closer to 800, naturally.) Of course, that's because:

      1. I got an upgrade to 1000 from 300, same price, for moving from Uverse tv to Direct TV Streaming; AT&T really wanted to be rid of all copper-based products.

      2. I got 300 up/down (really about 240) with a $5 price cut from Uverse 75 (really 60) down/20 (really 20, I nearly had heart failure) when I moved to AT&T fiber (yes, they can't spell).

      3. Comcast has an ‘aggressive’ pricing structure locally.

      Allegedly these prices will ‘never change’. We’ll see.

      YMMV.

  2. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Trollface

    COMMUNISM!

    n/t

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: COMMUNISM!

      Oh they do their best to make sure community broadband efforts don't get much traction by lying about areas they serve and getting states to ban it.

  3. Scott 26

    I remember the dial-up days of the 90s, and thinking "man we have shite internet [in NZ]".... and now I look at articles like this and think "man, it might have been rough, but we have it pretty good now".

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    enlightened

    This is actually a surprisingly good thing for consumers... I'm surprised the telcos haven't called it anti-capitalistic communism socialist pinko stuff.

    Obviously their lobbyists were given a big enough pot of cash to deliver.

    1. NeilPost Silver badge

      Re: enlightened

      The ‘regular’ monthly price after promotion needs to be as prominent as the intro/teaser price. Apart from that it’s great…

      It would be useful to see a cellphone contract version next - esp. oriented with clear info about additional costs like roaming, the impact of handset subsidy ‘finance’ and any insurance you get suckered into.

      …. and the UK’s useless equivalent regulator Ofcom should clone it immediately.

      1. KarMann
        Alert

        Re: enlightened

        It would be useful to see a cellphone contract version next....
        -- OP

        The labels are required for both wired and wireless services....
        -- TFA

        That is all.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: enlightened

      I meant "weren't" *facepalm*

    3. General Purpose

      Re: enlightened

      Or some big players think they can turn this to their advantage.

  5. bemusedHorseman
    Big Brother

    Do they also have to disclose "network management" policies, like how Comcast considers the entire bittorrent protocol to be "intrinsically illegal, with no legitimate use cases since it's only used for piracy" and will terminate your service for using even software that piggybacks on it (Windows 10's updater in default configuration uses it for P2P sharing of update data)?

    Seriously, if you're a Comcast user, try downloading a Linux ISO (completely legal content in every sense of the word) using your favorite torrent client (VPN or not, it doesn't matter, they can see the "torrent shaped" packets even inside a VPN tunnel even if they don't know what or with whom you're downloading), and wait for the "you do that again and we'll terminate you... as well as your subscription" email.

  6. druck Silver badge

    Monthly Rental?

    In civilised nations you get the modem for free, and often the WiFi extender too. Even if you didn't you could buy your own and be up before two years.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like