Yesterday, nine democratic senators asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse its course on broadband labels, which the FCC is considering scaling back.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, nine senators — led by Adam Schiff (D-California), Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) — said they opposed the agency’s proposed rulemaking that would scale back key broadband consumer label requirements adopted unanimously in 2022.
The letter is also signed by senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), and Mark Warner (D-Virginia).
The senators reminded the FCC that Congress gave the FCC explicit instructions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to create these labels, which are intended to help customers stay informed while choosing broadband plans.
Under the FCC’s new proposal, broadband service providers would be allowed to take actions such as bundling optional fees instead of listing them clearly and removing labels from customer account portals which consumers often use to compare and review their service terms.
“The broadband label framework was designed to work like nutrition labels, giving consumers a clear, consistent way to understand what services they are buying before they commit. After years of development and a bipartisan vote to implement these protections, we are now at the point where providers have integrated these labels into their systems and consumers are beginning to rely on them. This is not the moment to reverse course,” the Senators wrote.
“The entire purpose of the broadband label is to show consumers the real, total cost of service so that they can make informed choices. Allowing providers to bundle these fees into vague line items recreates exactly the kind of billing opaqueness that Congress sought to end. Families need to see what they are being charged and why.”
Senators Klobuchar and Lujan had sent a similar message to the FCC in October, shortly after the Commission said it would study the label issue.
