The same monthly internet price can run on a different clock: a seven-offer audit of advertised price terms on US provider pages (observed 21 September 2026)
Description
A fixed, dated snapshot of how seven US home-internet providers' public offer pages described one selected offer each on 21 September 2026 (Spectrum, AT&T, Xfinity, EPB, Kinetic, EarthLink, Optimum). For each offer we coded 22 attributes: displayed monthly rate, stated rate window (the 'clock'), later-price disclosure, AutoPay/paperless conditions, equipment, installation, address qualification, taxes and fees, evidence locators, and a SHA-256 fingerprint of the captured HTML where a direct download succeeded.
Three of seven pages stated how long the displayed rate lasts (2, 12 and 60 months); four stated no rate period; four tied the displayed rate to AutoPay or payment method; one placed equipment on its own 12-month clock.
Scope: public web pages only. No customer bills, address-qualified quotes, orders or personal data. Seven hand-selected offers cannot rank providers or estimate national prices.
Files: advertised-terms.csv (7 rows x 22 columns), README-codebook.md, technical-note.pdf. Canonical web version with dated update notes: https://www.internetservice.ai/research/internet-bill-cost-study
Conflict of interest: InternetService.ai is an affiliate-supported comparison site; compensation did not affect which terms were recorded. AI tools assisted with retrieval, coding drafts and editing; the author reviewed every row and is responsible for the content.
Methods
One public offer page per provider, read once on 2026-09-21 before address entry. Direct HTTP GET where the server returned 200 (HTML SHA-256 recorded); where refused (HTTP 403), page text read in a browser and flagged. Terms recorded only when stated on the page, with locator and paraphrase. Crossed-out comparison prices never treated as the later rate. Blanks never converted to zero; subtotals only for stated months.
Files
advertised-terms.csv
Additional details
Related works
- Is documented by
- Other: https://www.internetservice.ai/methodology (URL)
- Is part of
- Other: https://www.internetservice.ai/research (URL)
- Is supplement to
- Other: https://www.internetservice.ai/research/internet-bill-cost-study (URL)
- References
- Other: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-48A1.pdf (URL)
Dates
- Collected
-
2026-09-21Single observation of each provider page