New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman believes the company Charter Communications internet provider has failed to live up to its promises. The company's subsidiary Spectrum has been sued for slow internet speeds.
Charter Communications Sued By NY Attorney General
A lawsuit from New York's top law enforcement officer allegedly claims that Charter Communications' internet speeds fail to deliver on company's promises. The second-largest cable operator in the U.S. was sued by New York's attorney general, on the claims that the company lied about internet speeds. The lawsuit was filed by Schneiderman on Wednesday, Feb. 2, in Manhattan's State Supreme Court.
According to CNET, the lawsuit is actually following a 16-month investigation. The attorney general argues that the internet speeds offered by Charter and its subsidiary, Spectrum, are slower than advertised. Before being purchased by Charter in May 2016 for around $60 billion, Spectrum had been known as Time Warner Cable. More recently, rumors say that Verizon is interested to acquire Charter.
NY attorney general Schneiderman tries to force
Charter to pay back its customers for a period stretching from Jan. 1, 2012, to today for broken promises on internet speeds. An estimated number of 2.5 million New Yorkers are using Spectrum-Time Warner. According to the lawsuit, for each year since 2012, Charter would have to reimburse customers up to $1 billion.
For countless everyday activities, Internet speeds are of great importance to consumers. From doing homework, paying bills, checking on social media and shopping online to streaming Spotify tunes and Netflix shows, the Internet has become a part of our daily lives. For many modern applications, the internet speed greatly matters.
NY Attorney General's Investigation
According to PC Mag, in 2015, NY attorney general Schneiderman opened an investigation into Cablevision, Verizon and TWC. Each of these cable companies was asked for details about speed tests and copies of disclosures made to customers. An online form was later launched by Schneiderman in order to allow consumers to check whether their advertised speeds are accurate.
In June 2016, Schneiderman's office asked Charter Communications to improve Spectrum-Time Warner Cable's Internet service. At the time, Tim Wu, senior enforcement counsel and special advisor to Schneiderman called on the ISP in a letter to Charter CEO Tom Rutledge to do more than rebrand as it integrated with TWC.
The attorney general's investigation found that the net speeds provided by Time Warner-Spectrum's were much slower than advertised. Another issue found was the fact that company's executives were ignoring engineers' warnings that it is impossible to achieve the promised speeds. Instead of getting 300 Mbps for a $110 monthly subscription, customers were getting on average only 85 Mbps, according to Schneiderman's statement at a press conference Wednesday.
Wi-Fi speeds were, on average, 80 percent slower than what the company promised to its customers. According to NY's attorney general, Charter's Spectrum subsidiary has built its business plan on deceit. The investigation was able to find some internal emails from the company's executives acknowledging that their advertising internet speeds didn't match what they are able to deliver.
The lawsuit also criticized Charter's Spectrum-Time Warner subsidiary for charging customers $10 a month to rent subpar modems. According to tech experts, these modems slowed down internet speeds even more. The company's engineers recommended in internal emails at least D3 modems, but the executives continued the policy of providing D2 modems in order to save costs.
