FCC’s Streamlined Broadband Label Rules Take Effect September 14
At least one major provider has already changed how it displays labels ahead of the deadline.
WASHINGTON, August 27, 2026 – The Federal Communications Commission’s overhauled broadband label rules take effect September 14, easing several requirements that internet service providers had flagged as burdensome since the labels debuted in 2022.
Not every piece of the order is live on day one, however. One of its more consequential provisions is delayed pending approval from the Office of Management and Budget. And at least one major provider appears to have already changed how it displays the broadband fact labels ahead of the deadline.
The revised rules stem from an order the FCC adopted unanimously at its July 22 open meeting. All three commissioners voted in favor, including Democrat Anna Gomez, giving the deregulatory move bipartisan approval.
The order rolls back several transparency requirements that had been put in place when the FCC first adopted the labels under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (D) in November 2022.
Several changes take effect September 14
The 2022 rules were designed to make labels easily accessible to consumers at the moment of purchase: providers had to display the actual label, not simply an icon or link to it, in close proximity to an associated plan advertisement, and had to make each customer’s label easily accessible within their online account portal.
The new rules roll that back significantly, allowing providers to substitute a prominent hyperlink or icon, both in account portals and at the point of sale itself, as long as the link sits close to the advertised plan and leads directly to that plan’s label.
Also eliminated was the requirement that providers make label information available in a machine-readable format, which had been intended to let third parties collect and aggregate label data.
Providers already rolling back the labels online
Providers appear to be changing how they display broadband labels even ahead of the new order’s effective date, with Verizon already beginning to implement changes.
Attempting to locate a label through a Verizon customer account portal turned up no label at all, and clicking through to the relevant “Plan” page returned a failed page load.
Both Verizon’s consumer and business broadband facts pages route users through a lengthy click-through process, with no label surfacing as a result.
Trying to order new customer and business service found labels that have already been extremely pared down. A business plan order flow displayed only a minimized, largely unreadable shell of a label, while a consumer plan page displayed the same.
By contrast, AT&T’s machine-readable label pages remain live and searchable by plan, and Spectrum’s consumer and business label pages continue to display full labels directly, without the truncation or navigation hurdles found on Verizon’s site.
Communications lawyers at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP said it is “at least possible” that the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau would not investigate providers that take early advantage of the new rules.
A delayed provision advocates had targeted
Not every piece of the order goes live on September 14.
According to the Federal Register notice, the instruction revising how providers disclose passthrough fees is delayed indefinitely, pending approval from the OMB under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The FCC says it will publish a separate notice once that provision takes effect.
The passthrough-fee change was among the provisions consumer advocates fought hardest against during the rulemaking.
Under the current rules, passthrough fees – which represent the third-party costs providers choose to pass through to consumers and which vary by consumer location – must be itemized individually.
Once the delayed provision takes effect, providers will be allowed to disclose a single maximum amount, or an exact total for a specific location.
Digital rights organization Public Knowledge raised the sharpest substantive objection, warning there is no “principled limit” on how providers could bundle passthrough fees under the new disclosure option.
Background on 'nutrition labels'
Congress directed the FCC in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create standardized broadband “nutrition labels,” disclosing prices, speeds, fees and other key plan details.
The FCC hosted three virtual public hearings in March, April and May of 2022 to gather consumer and expert feedback, then adopted rules that November requiring providers to display the labels at the point of sale.
In 2023, the Commission clarified several aspects of the rules in response to petitions for reconsideration or clarification by reaffirming that providers must itemize fees added to base monthly prices, including government program-related fees passed through to consumers.
Under new leadership, the FCC in October 2025 asked whether it should eliminate several disclosure requirements and how else it might “streamline the label requirements.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr cast the changes as a decluttering exercise rather than a retreat from transparency, saying the new rules eliminate outdated requirements and give providers more practical ways to make labels.
Small and rural provider groups led the response: NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association argued that label compliance often requires outside legal help many small providers lack in-house, a position echoed by WISPA, Breezeline, ACA Connects and Joink.
The order leaves the core disclosure fields intact. Labels must still report typical download and upload speeds, latency, data allowances, pricing and contract terms. They must also remain accessible to people with disabilities and available in any language a provider uses to market its services.
The concept predates the mandate. Under the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet rules, the commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee was asked to design a nutrition-style disclosure format; it released mobile and fixed versions of a label in April 2016, though display was voluntary at the time.
