Home Internet Providers Now Have ‘Broadband Facts’ Labels
April 29, 2024
Home internet options to support work from home, smart home technology and entertainment have significantly grown over the past few years. But with that growth has come a lot of confusion around bandwidth, costs and equipment needs. Thanks to long overdue intervention by the US government, shopping for home internet service has gotten easier.
Historically, home broadband options have typically included cable, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), fiber-optic, and satellite internet services. Here’s a brief summary of each:
- Cable: Cable internet is delivered through coaxial cables, usually provided by cable television companies. It offers fast download speeds and is widely available in urban and suburban areas. However, upload speeds may be slower, especially during peak usage times.
- DSL (Digital Subscriber Line): DSL internet uses telephone lines to deliver internet access. It’s generally slower than cable or fiber-optic internet but is more widely available, especially in rural areas where cable or fiber may not be accessible. Speed and reliability can vary based on distance from the provider’s central office.
- Fiber-Optic: Fiber-optic internet delivers data using light signals through optical fibers. It offers the fastest speeds and most reliable connection but is limited in availability, often found mainly in urban areas and select suburbs. Fiber-optic internet provides symmetrical upload and download speeds, making it ideal for activities like video conferencing and uploading large files.
- Satellite: Satellite internet uses satellites to transmit data to and from a dish installed at the subscriber’s home. It’s available virtually everywhere, including remote and rural areas where other options may not reach. However, satellite internet tends to have higher latency and lower data caps compared to other types of broadband, and weather conditions can affect its performance.
When choosing internet for your home, you’ll need to pull together a list of local providers first. After that, you should consider factors such as speed requirements (based on your needs for work from home, entertainment, etc.), reliability, pricing, and any data usage limitations.
A recent change (April 10, 2024) will make comparing provider options easier. Major internet service providers in the US must now provide ‘Broadband Facts’ labels to prospective customers under FCC rules approved in late 2022. Modeled after the ‘Nutrition Facts’ labels the FDA mandates for packaged food, these broadband labels must disclose typical download and upload speeds, full non-promotional pricing, data caps, and hidden fees as part of the sign-up process.
It’s been interesting to see how the labels would actually appear when picking an internet plan. While some ISPs have done a great job integrating the new labels, many of them aren’t embracing this opportunity for more transparent marketing and have tried their best to make the labels as inconspicuous as possible or hide the new labels from consumers. In some cases, they omit key details, such as data cap overage charges and equipment rental fees. This is no surprise given that cable companies lobbied hard against broadband labels to begin with.
Charter really doesn’t want you to see Spectrum’s broadband labels, which are hidden by default on the plan selection page. To find them, you must click the tiny ‘Broadband Label’ text beneath each plan or check off the ‘Show all Broadband Labels’ box at the top. A customer who is unfamiliar with the FCC’s new rules might skip over the disclosures entirely.
By clicking those labels, you’ll see that Spectrum’s actual internet price jumps by $45 to $55 per month after promotional rates expire, and customers face additional fees for activation, reconnection, and late payments.
Much like Spectrum, Cox requires an extra click to view its Broadband Facts labels, though you can also find them by scrolling down the page. But Cox also uses other misdirection. Above each ‘View Broadband Facts Label’ link, you’ll find a separate ‘Plan Details’ link with more marketing BS and one key omission: It doesn’t list the overage fees for exceeding Cox’s 1TB data cap. But the actual Broadband Facts label makes clear, customers must pay $10 for each additional 50GB. The ‘Plan Details’ page also doesn’t tell you that Cox’s free WiFi equipment jumps to $15 per month after two years.
While Cox’s plan selection page advertises ‘up to’ a certain speed for each tier, its Broadband Facts labels show ‘typical’ speeds that exceed the advertised limit. So what exactly are customers getting?
Comcast’s Broadband facts label looks more like a billing statement than a Broadband Facts guide, but at least the information is easy to find, appearing directly next to your selected plan with no extra clicks required. The top of the label makes clear that Comcast customers face steep price hikes after their promotional rates expire, and it links to the company’s documentation on bringing your own equipment.
Still, the label is unclear regarding Unlimited Data — it costs an extra $15 per month as part of a cable modem rental fee, or $30 per month if you use your own modem. These two fee options appear at opposite ends of the label, and nowhere does Comcast specify its data limits and overage fees for customers who don’t pay the toll.
To find Verizon’s broadband labels, you must scroll to the bottom of the plan selection page or click a tiny ‘Jump to broadband facts labels’ link, which is hidden beneath a pile of other options halfway down the page.
Even worse, the labels themselves suffer from conflicting or missing information. While Verizon’s plan selection box states that average download speeds range from 750- to 940Mbps for a gigabit plan, the FCC-mandated label shows a ‘typical’ download speed of 939.67Mbps. The label also doesn’t say anything about equipment rental fees, even though Verizon offers a range of free and paid options, and it doesn’t link to information about bringing your own equipment.
T-Mobile’s Broadband Facts label appears prominently on the plan detail page, and while you do have to click a drop-down button to see the whole thing, T-Mobile shows enough of the label up front to make its purpose clear.
The only major problem is conflicting data. While the label advertises typical upload speeds between 15- and 31Mbps, T-Mobile’s FAQ section says to expect uploads between 6- and 23Mbps instead. That could be a make-or-break difference if you need a plan that can handle multiple Zoom calls at the same time.
While Optimum doesn’t list its labels directly on the plan selection page, it does include a big blue ‘Broadband Facts’ button below each plan, leading to an easy-to-read pop-up. But there’s still room for improvement as the label’s ‘typical’ download speeds exceed the maximum speed that Optimum advertises, and there’s no information about equipment fees. Optimum’s basic WiFi gateway is free, but range extenders cost extra. And while the label says the price increases ‘in periodic increments’ after 12 months up to the regular rate, there’s no way to see what those increments are or when they apply.
While most internet providers are treating broadband labels as secondary to their own marketing, CenturyLink made them a fundamental part of its signup flow. Enter a valid service address, and you’ll land on a plan selection screen in which the FCC-mandated labels serve as the sole description of your options. It’s a bit refreshing as you get a straight-forward rundown of what your money gets you.
While CenturyLink seems to be above board, there aren’t any links to any bring-your-own modem documentation. They also lack any ‘typical’ speeds that exceed the company’s advertised maximums. But no other ISP has embraced both the spirit and the letter of the FCC’s rules to the extent that CenturyLink has.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, the best Broadband Facts implementation comes from AT&T. Their labels appear prominently beneath each plan with no extra clicking required, so the experience truly feels like reading the nutrition labels on the food you eat. The information is clear, the ‘typical’ speeds line up with what AT&T advertises, but it doesn’t show the cost of additional WiFi range extenders. Keep in mind, AT&T’s fiber service has no data caps, no modem rental fees, and no rate hikes beyond the advertised price, which separates them in the home internet market.
Hopefully this helps if you’re in market for new or improved internet service. I’m in the process of re-evaluating ours from a cord cutter perspective so this research was helpful. For others it may help with streaming devices like I wrote about last week.
I’m curious what your thoughts are about home Broadband. Are you satisfied with the one you have? Are you thinking about potentially changing or upgrading? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience using the new ‘Broadband Facts’ Labels and how they impacted your decision making. If not, how did you choose the one you ended up going with? Based on bandwidth, availability, cost?
Let Debbie and I know what you think in the comments, DMs and emails as we really enjoy hearing from you. Thanks again to all those following Debbie and I through our home building journey. It’s great to hear your success stories and suggestions as we move through the process. And if you like the content I’m posting each week, don’t forget to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow.’
SmartHomeOnTheRange.com
In full disclosure, I’m not an affiliate marketer with links to any online retailer on my website. When people read what I’ve written about a particular product and then click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn nothing from the retailer. The links are strictly a convenience for my readers.
