Internet ‘nutrition labels' would boost consumer literacy when comparing plans: prof

Toronto Star

3 days ago

The CRTC should move forward with implementing its proposed 'nutrition label' requirement to help shoppers compare home internet plans, despite opposition from some providers, an internet researcher says.
The change would make it mandatory for internet service providers to list certain metrics — such as those describing price and speed — for plans they offer through a standardized label.
The concept has been compared to food nutrition labels at grocery stores, which list information about serving size and calories in a standardized format.
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Adapting that model for the telecom sector would help improve consumer literacy, which 'too often relies on marketing and advertising' from individual companies, said Fenwick McKelvey, a Concordia University associate professor of information and communication technology.
Speaking on the third day of a four-day CRTC hearing, he shared a personal anecdote about driving past a billboard that advertised Canada's 'fastest' internet.
'If a company is going to spend the money and take the risk of advertising the fastest internet, then I would assume you also want your audience to understand what that means,' McKelvey told a panel of commissioners Thursday.
'Yet, most Canadians don't understand, and they are asking for better tools to help them make informed choices. Many find it difficult to compare internet service because of vague terminology and overwhelming information.'
In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission began requiring last fall that internet providers display standardized labels, both in-store and online, containing information about cost and performance.
However, some from Canada's telecom industry have questioned whether the U.S. regulator's requirements are helping consumers when they shop around for internet plans.
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Representatives from Rogers Communications Inc., who also appeared Thursday at the hearing, said the company already provides key information that customers need when purchasing a new internet plan and that the proposed requirement would be redundant.
They also cast doubt on the notion that disclosing additional performance indicators would help customers make informed decisions.
Ciara Beauchemin, Rogers senior vice-president of residential marketing, said 'technical jargon' — including metrics such as latency, jitter and packet loss — is not widely understood by the general public.
'Mandating any new obscure and potentially misleading performance metrics will not assist consumer purchase decisions and will likely frustrate or confuse the average customer,' she said.
'We see this as harmful to the goal of this proceeding, which is to make it easier for customers to shop for home internet services.'
Rogers senior vice-president of regulatory affairs Dean Shaikh told commissioners that standardized labels would be expensive to implement and those added costs would 'ultimately be borne by consumers.'
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'I would say you should be satisfied with the fact that in a competitive market, we're already delivering the information customers need to make informed purchasing decisions,' Shaikh said.
However, McKelvey said there is a 'distinction between literacy and advertising' when it comes to the information that providers like Rogers publicize on their websites or other public spaces.
'That information often could be interpreted as advertising, and my expectation would be consumers might be a bit more skeptical of that type of information because they've been trained naturally to kind of be wary of advertising,' he said.
The hearing, which wraps up Friday, is part of a CRTC consultation launched in December on how to help consumers shop for home internet plans.
It's part of a broader push by the commission to give consumers more control over their internet and cellphone services. The regulator opened three additional consultations last year that sought feedback on potential changes around notifications, fees and self-serve options.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2025.
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