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The chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a plan that she claimed will lower broadband costs and increase the broadband services available to multifamily households.
Tenants living in multifamily properties are often forced to pay high prices for broadband and are given limited choices, according to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who today announced a plan to eliminate “bulk billing.”
Rosenworcel will seek to get her proposal adopted by the FCC, which would allow the agency to open up a comment period, according to a March 5 release put out by Rosenworcel’s office.
“Everyone deserves to have a choice of broadband provider,” Rosenworcel stated in the release. “That is why it is not right when your building or apartment complex chooses that service for you, saddling you with unwanted costs, and preventing you from signing up for the plan and provider you really want.”
Rosenworcel said her proposal would shut down the practice known as “bulk billing.”
“(The proposal) boosts competition and consumer choice and builds on our ongoing efforts to improve broadband transparency,” she said, according to the release.
Rosenworcel’s office described bulk billing arrangements as agreements in which “tenants are required to pay for broadband, cable, and satellite service provided by a specific communications provider, even if they do not wish to take the service or would prefer to use another provider.”
Rosenworcel’s proposal would allow tenants to opt-out of bulk billing arrangements, the release from her office explained.
“The proposal would also increase competition for communications service in these buildings by making it more profitable for competitive providers to deploy service in buildings where it is currently too expensive to serve consumers because tenants are required to take a certain provider’s service.” the release from her office stated.
Rosenworcel’s proposal builds on the FCC’s 2022 rules, “which sought to increase competition and transparency in multi-tenant environments,” by prohibiting providers from entering into certain revenue sharing agreements with building owners and by requiring providers to inform tenants about the existence of exclusive marketing arrangements, the release from Rosenworcel’s office said.
The next open commission meeting for the FCC is scheduled for March 14, according to the FCC’s website.
