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<p>Northeastern Pennsylvanians have a lot of choices when it comes to broadband Internet service, so it might help you to know the Federal Communications Commission has just rolled out a new labeling system that will make it easier to decide which of the mobile and fixed broadband providers offer the best deal for your dollar.</p><p>The FCC&#8217;s &#8220;Consumer Broadband Labels,&#8221; designed to look just like nutrition labels on packaged foods, clearly break out charges once disguised in the tiniest print of a multi-page contract nobody wants to read, such as activation and installation fees; charges for a month-to-month service option as opposed to a two-year commitment; early termination and administrative fees, as well as performance and speed of the service.</p><p>The agency&#8217;s 2015 Open Internet Transparency Rule does not require carriers to use this specific label, but it does require them to provide the same clear, accessible information that enables consumers to compare providers.</p><p>The required disclosures include data allowances, which Comcast/Xfinity customers should be particularly happy to learn. For the past couple of years in trial markets, the Philadelphia-based cable and broadband giant has been quietly enforcing a monthly data limit on many customers &#8211; quietly, that is, until the customer gets smacked with a surprise charge &#8212; $10 for every 50GB over the 300GB limit.</p><p>A spokesman for Comcast said that customers in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market are not affected by these limits, adding that no customers in the company&#8217;s Keystone Region are in a trial market.</p><p>If you&#8217;re a regular viewer of streaming video services in a trial market, however, those nasty little overage fees add up quickly. If you&#8217;re a streaming-video viewer who has decided to cut the cable-TV cord, this is Comcast&#8217;s way of saying, &#8220;We&#8217;ll get your money, anyway.&#8221;</p><p>In fact, during the first 10 months of last year, the FCC received nearly 12,000 complaints about Comcast regarding billing, speed and availability, nearly twice as many as its three biggest competitors, Time Warner Cable, AT&amp;T and Verizon, which generated a combined total of 6,724 complaints. A big chunk of the Comcast gripes were connected to the data limits and from customers in test-market cities across the country who thought they had signed up for two years of unlimited broadband service, but around mid-contract, started getting hosed for as much as 40 percent more than they expected, having unknowingly exceeded their &#8220;data cap,&#8221; according to the FCC.</p><p>&#8220;Customers deserve to know the price they will actually pay for a service &#8230; before they sign up for service,&#8221; said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, unveiling the new broadband labels earlier this month. &#8220;These labels provide consumers clarity about the broadband service they are purchasing, not only helping them to make more informed choices, but also preventing surprises.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Christine Young </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_Christine-Young-9.jpg</photo0><caption0>Christine Young </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Christine Young at Consumerwatchdog@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Consumer Watchdog: FCC’s new labeling system makes it easier to decide how to get the best bang for your buck