Your Home Internet Bill Can Be Deceptively Confusing. Now It’s (Slightly) Easier to Understand.

Figuring out what you’ll actually pay for your home internet service each month has often been like trying to follow a recipe with an incomplete list of ingredients. There’s the advertised price, but what will you pay after the promotional period ends? What about the cost for the modem you have to rent? Or the overage fees if you exceed the data cap that’s hidden in the fine print? The true costs of a home internet plan must now be displayed up front due to a new government-mandated “broadband facts” label, modeled after the nutrition labels on packaged food, that internet service providers are required to include for each plan. These regulations require internet service providers to clear up confusion over their offerings by itemizing basic points of a service plan that might otherwise surprise subscribers after sign-up. “The new broadband label tells people the two most important things they need to know when they’re buying internet service, or any service: how much will they pay and what service will they get for that price,” Chhaya Kapadia, chief of staff at the Washington think tank New America’s Open Technology Institute.