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Internet Service Providers Required To Display Consumer Friendly Product Labeling

The new federal rules say any company, large or small, that offers standalone broadband internet service is required to prominently display consumer friendly labels at the point of sale, including in store and online.

Broadband labeling has been in development since 2015, and was completed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Biden Administration.

The new federal rules take effect April 10, 2024. They say any company, large or small, that offers standalone broadband internet service is required to prominently display consumer friendly labels at the point of sale, including in store and online.

This broadband label was purposefully stylized after food nutrition labels.

*Courtesy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)*

The labeling will resemble the nutrition labels found on food products. The labels must be easy-to-read and include broadband prices, introductory rate details, data allowances and broadband speeds. The labels must also include easy-to-navigate links to learn more about available discounts or service bundles, network management practices and privacy policies.

Separate labels must be displayed for each standalone broadband service offered and it cannot be buried where multiple clicks are reduced to a link, thumbnail or icon that a consumer might miss.

FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Alejandro Roark said it was vital to get internet access service clarified and simplified.

“The FCC borrowed the nutrition label model format from food products because we wanted to make basic information about broadband internet service easily recognizable and easy to understand,” Roark said. “Our rules require that these labels be fully displayed at the point of sale, including on the main purchasing pages that providers may have online.”

Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council Jon Donenberg said the labels will help consumers comparison shop for internet service, eliminating obscure terms and fine print.

“It will make sure that you have a clear, straightforward explanation of your home internet and mobile plans and services before you sign up for anything,” Donenberg said. “That transparency will also save you money. By making it easier to directly compare plans from one provider to another. Consumers will be able to get the best and most affordable deal on the market or the exact type of service that they need. And companies can compete on offering better terms, not just more confusing ones.”

Roark said the labeling requirements will be extended to the consumer’s monthly bills.

“We’re also making sure that consumers access the standardized, easy to understand information about their internet service plan and doesn’t end when they sign up for service.” Roark said. “In particular, the commission required internet service providers to make the labels accessible on a consumer’s online account. That means that consumers will be able to find this information whenever they pay their bill, compare their current plan to other plans, or engage in any other activity online.”

Regarding potential violations of the broadband labeling laws, the FCC Enforcement Bureau and other bureaus will monitor public reporting consumer complaints to the commission, notices from partner agencies and use other investigative tools to monitor compliance with the law, and refer matters to the Enforcement Bureau as appropriate.

Consumers who feel that the transparency rules are not being met may file complaints with the FCC. The commission will follow up on those complaints to see if there is some larger pattern that may need to be acted on.

To view a glossary that helps consumers better understand the information displayed on the label, click here.

Click here for a sample home broadband label.

Click here for a sample mobile broadband label.

W.Va.’s $1.2 Billion Broadband Connectivity Program Underway

Plans to connect the last 300,000 locations in West Virginia with affordable internet went public on Friday.

In laying out the plan to spend more than $1.2 billion federal dollars for broadband deployment, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she asked an internet expert a few years ago what it would take to get the last West Virginian connected.

“The things he said were time and money,” Capito said. “Well, we’ve got the money now, the time should be condensed.”

Gathered in the Governor’s Reception Room at the State Capitol, state and federal leaders explained that Implementing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program dictates spending the still unsecured funding on connecting first the unserved then the underserved. The funds will be released in installments after the state’s five-year action plan, due August 12, is approved. You can see the West Virginia Deployment timeline here.

West Virginia Office of Broadband director Kelly Workman said after the submitted plan, comes a series of proposals.

“Up next is our initial proposal,” Workman said. “The initial proposal includes 20 different sections. Basically, the state of West Virginia will be telling the federal government how we intend to spend this money, where we will spend it, how we will execute our challenge process and so that will go through those 20 sections and answer all those questions.”

A national broadband project leader, Assistant U.S. Secretary of Commerce and chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Alan Davidson said before he writes a big check, the state must pass a big homework assignment.

“There are a whole series of requirements about how the money will be spent, how the grants will be given, and just making sure that there’s good oversight,” Davidson said. “So this money gets spent quickly, but wisely, and that we’ve got good hooks in at the back end to make sure it’s getting spent the right way.”

Davidson pointed out that many West Virginians are eligible for the $30/Month Affordable Connectivity Program.

The roadblocks to statewide broadband connectivity have always been the high provider costs and challenges of running cable up the last mountain or the end of the deepest hollow.

Workman says concerns over equipment supply chain issues and bucket trucks back ordered have been planned for and addressed.

“They have scaled up,” Workman said. “We are hearing that most of the supply chain issues are leveling out. The providers are telling us that it can be managed. We proactively reached out to the providers in West Virginia, to say, what would you like to see in this plan? What can we do to facilitate your expansion to the most rural parts of our state? All of their comments will be integrated into our plan. And I think that that process in our relationships with those providers, is extremely beneficial to us going forward.”

Davidson says his boss, President Biden, likes to say this isn’t just a connection program, it’s a new jobs program, creating up to 150,000 nationwide.

“And we want to make sure that those jobs are filled by the communities that are being served by these networks,” he said. “This is a wakeup call for folks. Hey, we’re saying these jobs are coming and we’re trying to do all we can to make sure that people are trained up and ready for them.”

West Virginia is hoping to secure the first 20 percent of the funding, about $240 million, this time next year. The remaining 80 percent, roughly $960 million, will be distributed in 2025 once the federal government approves the state’s final proposal and reviews how well it complied with its initial proposal. The plan outlines statewide broadband connectivity to be completed by 2028.

$1.2 Billion Coming To Connect Every West Virginia Household To Internet

The funding was allocated based on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) broadband coverage maps. New maps out this past May show that West Virginia has the least connectivity of any state in the country after Alaska.

The just over $1.2 billion announced for West Virginia Monday comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Both of West Virginia’s U.S. senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, announced the $1,210,800,969.85 in federal funding to the Mountain State through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

In a Zoom press conference, Manchin and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said new mapping uncovered more than 86,000 underserved or unserved West Virginia state locations – including 300,000 households.

Manchin compared this broadband development era to hearing his grandparents talk about the rural electrification of West Virginia back in the 1930s.

“Maybe 10 or 15 percent of West Virginia have electricity, because we’re so rural,” Manchin said. “With that rural electrification, it changed people’s lives, it really did. The same thing is going to happen with this.”

Raimondo said the funding will help overcome all topographic obstacles.

The reason that hasn’t happened is because it’s very expensive to lay the fiber in a rural area, or in a mountainous area,” she said. “The internet providers haven’t done it because it doesn’t make economic sense for them.”

Raimondo said federal measures will ensure every home has access to affordable, high speed internet.

“This is plenty of money to get to everyone,” Raimondo said. “We mean the small farm or family at the end of the long road in rural West Virginia, because we’re going to subsidize the companies to make that infrastructure investment. Then we’re going to hold them accountable to provide the internet at a price that, that family can afford.”

Raimondo said the money won’t go out until the state is able to show how they’re going to implement the BEAD program. Manchin said his staff and state offices, working with internet providers, have been coordinating the coverage plan.

“We’ve been looking at our underserved areas for what, seven, eight years, so we pretty much know where they are,” Manchin said. “We’ve been in contact for quite some time with the State Economic Development Department and all the different development offices around the state, trying to make sure they have a plan. We’re pretty far down the road, I think.”

An announcement from the Biden administration Monday detailed that every U.S. state, territory and protectorate received a share of more than $42 billion to improve broadband connectivity.

Neighboring Ohio, for example, will receive $793,688,107.63 to deploy affordable, reliable high-speed internet service. More than 183,700 homes and small businesses in Ohio lack access to a high-speed Internet connection.