Broadband Consumer Label

What It Means

The Broadband Consumer Label is the FCC-mandated standardized disclosure every ISP must display at the point of sale for every consumer internet plan, modeled explicitly on the FDA food nutrition facts label. Required by Section 60504 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and implemented by the FCC in November 2022, the labels became mandatory for large ISPs (over 100,000 subscribers) on April 10, 2024, and for small ISPs on October 10, 2024. Every label must display, in a standardized format with prescribed field order and typography: the monthly price (excluding taxes but including all ISP-charged fees), whether the price is introductory and for how long, the post-introductory monthly price, one-time charges (installation, activation, equipment purchase), monthly recurring charges (equipment rental, regional sports fee, broadcast TV fee), typical download and upload speeds in Mbps, typical latency in milliseconds, any monthly data cap in gigabytes and the overage charge per additional data unit, early termination fees and contract length, discounts and bundles, network management practices, privacy policy URL, and FCC complaint filing URL. The labels cannot hide behind a link, they must appear on the plan's checkout page, on marketing material, and on the monthly bill. The FCC requires machine-readable label format (structured HTML microdata) so consumer comparison tools like the Broadband Grade can ingest labels automatically and compare plans apples-to-apples. Labels ended the practice of hiding $15 per month equipment rental, $10 per 50 GB overage charges, and $200 early termination fees behind the headline promo price.

Frequently Asked Questions