Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program Shutdown Silent on Broadband Labels

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order on winding down the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), but the FCC was silent on a key issue: What’s going to happen to the agency’s rules that legally require internet service providers (ISPs) to display broadband “nutrition” labels that promote the ACP? In late 2022, the FCC adopted label rules that require broadband ISPs to “display at the point-of-sale clear, easy-to-understand, and accurate information about the cost and performance of broadband services …” ISPs apparently still need FCC guidance on whether they are to jettison the ACP section in their broadband consumer labels and when they would need to do so. Without word from the FCC, ISPs could be caught in a bind in needing to promote the ACP via consumer labels and rejecting eligible ACP applicants under the FCC’s enrollment freeze that begins on February 8. 

[Ted Hearn is the Editor and Publisher of Policyband, a new website dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the broadband communications market.]