Comcast is not happy about new federal rules that will require it to provide broadband customers with labels displaying exact prices and other information about Internet service plans.
Broadband label that ISPs will be required to display to consumers at the point of sale.In a filing last week, Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission that it is "working diligently to put in place the systems and processes necessary to create, maintain, and display the labels as required." But according to Comcast, "two aspects of the Commission's Order impose significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the broadband label requirements."
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The FCC was required to implement broadband label rules in a 2021 law passed by Congress. Although the FCC approved the label rules in November 2022, it's not clear when they will take effect. They are subject to a federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review because of requirements in the US Paperwork Reduction Act.
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While some of these fees are related to government-issued requirements and others are not, poorly trained customer service reps have been known to falsely tell customers that fees created by Comcast are mandated by the government.
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The US broadband industry is united in opposition to a requirement that Internet service providers list all of their monthly fees. Five lobby groups representing cable companies, fiber and DSL providers, and mobile operators have repeatedly urged the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate the requirement before new broadband labeling rules take effect.
The trade associations petitioned the FCC in January to change the rules and renewed their call last week in a filing and in a meeting with FCC officials. The requirement that ISPs list all their monthly fees "would add unnecessary complexity and burdens to the label for consumers and providers and could result in some providers having to create many labels for any given plan," the groups said in the filing on Friday.
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Comcast submitted its own filing urging the FCC to scrap the rules in June. The calls to weaken the FCC's truth-in-billing rules angered consumer advocates, as we wrote at the time. "The label hasn't even reached consumers yet, but Comcast is already trying to create loopholes. This request would allow the big ISPs to continue hiding the true cost of service and frustrating customers with poor service," Joshua Stager, policy director at media advocacy group Free Press, told Ars.Congress required the FCC to implement broadband labels with exact prices for Internet service plans in a 2021 law, but gave the FCC some leeway in how to structure the rules. The FCC adopted specific label rules in November 2022.
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Latino advocacy group ALLvanza also objected to the data-collection rule on privacy grounds, saying, "Many Latinos are already hesitant and/or unwilling to provide identifying information to companies or the government due to privacy concerns, fear of discrimination, potential immigration status issues, mistrust of institutions, and cultural preferences for privacy."ISPs could avoid the requirement to collect identifying information from consumers in retail stores by providing hard copies of the label. The FCC defended the compliance plan in a submission to the OMB last month as part of the Paperwork Reduction Act review, saying it needs detailed information to ensure ISPs follow the rules.
Previously:
Comcast Complains to FCC That Listing All of its Monthly Fees is Too Hard - 20230615
(Score: 5, Insightful) by istartedi on Friday June 16 2023, @12:21AM
Comcast openly confesses to having substandard accounting practices. Shareholders and/or regulators should demand an audit. (paraphrasing what I said on that other site).
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Friday June 16 2023, @12:28AM (3 children)
If they can, and do, charge for it then it shouldn't be to very hard to display should it? Just list all the items on the bill and their cost. Don't they know what they charge for or is it the customer service people that can't explain what the various costs are? How does their phony accounting work out how much money they make?
There is a simple solution tho -- sell a package, just $x a month to do whatever you like, surf as much as you like, phone as much as you like, infinite messages etc. Then you don't have to specify the bill just note it down as the "super deluxe mega phone package $$$$", or?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 16 2023, @07:31PM (2 children)
Depending on the state you live in, the company might have to contract with each individual municipality, every little podunk village they serve, and each will end up with a different bill.
Each deal is "special and unique snowflake".
Note the cableco generally acts as a taxation agent adding fees to the citizens then providing "free" services to the municipality up to and including free service for various muni and school district buildings. It's not free of course, the city is just indirectly taxing the cable subscribers.
In a way, I get it, because every little podunk village can demand various aerial or underground cable installations etc. On the other hand its just taxation by another name, let the city pay its internet access bill for town hall out of general revenue funds.
This is why, ads never mention price. It takes a customer service rep logged into the billing system to even guess what the cost will be to each individual address. Its a cableco thing...
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday June 17 2023, @02:23PM (1 child)
If they can figure out how to charge me, they can figure out how to list the charges.
Or are they they seriously trying to argue that doing the math is substantially easier than listing the math that they're doing?
Just how stupid do they think we are?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2023, @09:51PM
Compliant enough to buy it.
Instead of storming the council chambers with recall threats if they don't toss the cable monopoly out and instigate a community ISP utility.
(Score: 5, Touché) by krishnoid on Friday June 16 2023, @12:34AM (3 children)
No problem! Any fee you don't list, you're not allowed to charge the end-user. Glad we could resolve this for you quickly.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2023, @02:45AM (2 children)
Eh, despite all the obvious answers, you know the FCC will back down, that is, if the chief wants to get that cushy Cpmcast job when he rotates out of government "service"
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday June 17 2023, @08:13PM (1 child)
That's the big problem I have with Biden's "Junk Fee" solution, it's VOLUNTARY. Congress should outlaw it, with penalties being not fines, but prison time. If junk fees are outlawed, Comcast will have no choice; except for the problem of the American Congressional Extortion.
"Nice little re-election campaign ya got there, Senator, be a damned shame if I gave a hundred million to your opponent's campaign instead of fifty million for each of you."
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2023, @11:09PM
Biden is just following orders, the magic works
Hmm, I guess we just gotta stop reelecting those people who take their money then, I mean, unless you have a more workable idea
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday June 16 2023, @02:21AM (2 children)
They said
Somehow, I suspect the representatives are saying exactly what they were trained to say.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Friday June 16 2023, @05:21PM (1 child)
it seems to me that what Comcast and Verizon have been doing is listing changes as "taxes" which makes the customer assume it's a tax they're required to charge their customers. The reality is that those are taxes that they are required to pay, and which they're nice enough to pass on to the customer.
It's always amazed me that the feds seem to have let them get away with that because they're a) ripping people off and b) literally blaming it on the feds! It's amazing they haven't been called out for that shit sooner.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday June 22 2023, @11:52PM
That's exactly what they've been doing, and for quite some time. Before them, the baby bells were doing it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2023, @02:51AM
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday June 16 2023, @07:02AM
You don't know yourself why you tack it on. So it's kinda logical that it should be removed since it obviously is a charge without a reason.
Deal?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Friday June 16 2023, @08:19AM
"Comcast estimates it will need to create 251 separate broadband consumer labels to comply with the rules as of the initial compliance date"
So? You're a multi-billion dollar company, I'm sure you can manage that.
And, like any restaurant or other business: If you have too many items on the menu to be practical to manage, maybe you should cut your menus down.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Flyingmoose on Friday June 16 2023, @12:04PM
They can go out of business for all I care.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dale on Friday June 16 2023, @02:55PM
I'd suggest they create a query system against their billing system since it seems rock at charging the appropriate fees easily even on the first bill. What a garbage excuse.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Saturday June 17 2023, @03:23PM
They are able to know the prices to calculate the invoice, but not to display them on a webpage.
The word astonishing is not enough.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday June 17 2023, @08:24PM
Unless you live in a valley and can't pick up a signal over the air, if you have cable or satellite you're foolishly wasting your money. Cable and satellite TV became obsolete when TV became digital and took away every single reason for cable, except the ones they had already removed out of greed.
The internet is as necessary as a telephone was fifty years ago so every household has it. If they can't afford internet they damned sure can't afford the ridiculously priced cable, which is twice or more as expensive as internet service. There is a plethora of FREE TV programming on the internet, never mind the paid streaming services. Pluto alone has hundreds of channels, more than cable had when I ditched cable 2006 after the tornadoes, after the landlord stopped including it.
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