We are all familiar with the nutrition labels on our food. Many of them strike me with horror and make me walk out of my local supermarket in dismay and sadness (it's Snyder's Pretzel Dips). But now the broadband industry is about to mandate this level of transparency.

After nearly a decade of legal battles, the FCC now requires Internet service providers (ISPs) to display costs, rates, and speeds in a manner reminiscent of nutrition labeling.

As noted above, ISPs have done everything in their power to block this FCC requirement, and a long legal battle over it is ongoing. However, there is no longer any way to hide these sneaky charges.

Each label states:

For the big ISPs, the deadline has passed; T-Mobile, Google Fiber, Comcast, Verizon, and others are implementing them. For smaller regional ISPs (those with fewer than 100,000 lines), these labels must be in place by October 10.

Other than the clarity added by these labels in the first place, one thing is clear. One would hope that the next step would be to come up with something similar to the automatic compensation system in the event of an Internet outage, as seen in the UK.

However, this is a very good starting point for an industry that has prided itself on being vague about details, such as misrepresenting actual transmission speeds.