The Consumer Broadband Nutrition Label: What you Need to Know

The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules outlining how broadband providers must design the label, what information it needs to include, and where it should be displayed. The FCC also adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking public comment on crucial accessibility and including network management statistics. Such requirements include the following:

• Labels must be prominently displayed at the point of sale:  The Report and Order requirequireBroadband Nutrition Label to be displayed at the point of sale, meaning that as soon as a consumer begins to shop for or compare service offerings, the provider must make the label available.
• Plan Transparency: In order for the labels to meaningfully inform consumer choice, the FCC required that they include an identifier for each plan to help a consumer differential between plans. This can be by specifying speed or through a unique plan name. 
• Machine Readability: While the Commission adopted the 2016 format for the new Broadband Nutrition Label, the new labels are required to be machine-readable. The ability for label contents to be read by computers ensures that key accessibility software is able to read the label and make that data available. 
• Language Accessibility, Price, and Performance: Finally, the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks clarity on key questions surrounding whether the labels should be available in languages other than those in which they market their service. 

The Broadband Nutrition Label has the potential to be a critical transparency tool, but the FCC must go further than hiding away basic plan information online.