FCC Implements Broadband Labels

The Federal Communications Commission voted recently to implement consumer broadband labels. The pricing information alone must be giving shivers to the marketing folks at the biggest broadband providers. The requirement that I think will be the most controversial is the requirement to disclose the typical broadband speed and latency. Some providers will have a real dilemma with the speed disclosure. Some of the dilemmas include the following:

• It’s extremely challenging for a DSL or fixed wireless provider to tell any customer the speed, since speeds vary from home to home and by the time of day.  Even if one of these providers wants to disclose a reasonable estimate of speed, it’s hard to think how they can reasonably do so. I can’t imagine how these providers can provide a label to a prospective customer since the provider won’t know the real speed until they try to connect to the customer.
• What will broadband providers who have been exaggerating speeds in the FCC broadband reporting do? Just to use an example I heard yesterday, there are places where Starlink reported 350 Mbps to the FCC where a customer was barely getting 50 Mbps. If providers report the FCC speeds to customers, they are going to hear a mountain of complaints from folks who aren’t seeing the high speeds. But if a provider tries to be more truthful about speeds on the broadband label, it will have demonstrated that it has fudged the speeds for the FCC mapping.
• The most interesting speed issue might be upload speeds. It’s hard to think that any cable company or wireless broadband provider is going to report upload speeds under 20 Mbps because doing so would be an admission of not delivering broadband. But declaring 20 Mbps or faster upload speeds won’t sit well with customers who are getting something far slower.

My guess is that providers will report the same speeds to customers that are reported to the FCC. But a broadband provider that is exaggerating FCC speeds should be ready for an onslaught of customer complaints from customers that know the speeds on the label are not right. We won’t see the broadband labels in practice until at least next summer – but I’m expecting an uproar after folks see what providers say about prices and speeds.