The next time you go shopping for a home or mobile internet plan, you're going to see a new label lay out exactly what you can expect to pay, the typical download speeds you'll get and information about the internet provider's policies.
"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," Alejandro Roark, the FCC's bureau chief for consumer and government affairs, told reporters on a conference call.
Americans are still limited in many parts of the country to just a small number of providers. And in a report last month, the FCC found that tens of millions of Americans still don't have access to high-speed internet at all. The problem is particularly acute in rural and tribal areas, where roughly a quarter of Americans lack broadband.
"These are mechanisms which are designed to make it more likely that companies will compete with each other on the grounds of consumer price and quality of products and less likely to compete with each other on confusing terms or by misleading customers," the official said.