Charter's Spectrum sued for slow internet speeds
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Feb 2, 2017
"The allegations confirm what millions of New Yorkers have long suspected: Spectrum-Time Warner Cable has been ripping you off", said Schneiderman, claiming that even after the merger with Charter, "Spectrum-Time Warner Cable continues to offer Internet speeds that we found they can not reliably deliver".
New York State sued Charter Communications Inc. claiming it ripped off millions of customers with promises of faster Internet speed than the company knew it could possibly deliver.
Schneiderman said internal corporate communications in 2013 showed that the company's own engineers warned that the company would have to upgrade the modems and wireless routers provided to customers in order to deliver promised internet speeds.
Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in the state's Supreme Court against Time Warner Cable and its new parent company, Spectrum. As Attorney General Schneiderman stated, your cable company 'has been ripping you off'. "Even now, Spectrum-Time Warner Cable continues to offer Internet speeds that we found they can not reliably deliver".
Schneiderman's office began investigating the company's internet speeds previous year, soon after Charter acquired Time Warner Cable. Spectrum-Time Warner Cable has approximately 2.5 million subscribers across NY state, it said.
The only thing keeping Time Warner Cable from being the most hated company in America is Comcast, and it tried to merge with them once.
The investigation was started when Charter bought Time Warner Cable, then renamed to Spectrum.
In a press conference, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office filed the lawsuit after fielding thousands of complaints from unhappy customers.
However, the state contends that only select TWC customers who had volunteered for the FCC's study received new modems and "VIP treatment", while the rest of the company's customer base continued to use antiquated equipment.
"Public Knowledge is glad to see the New York Attorney General protecting broadband users". "Overcoming this history will require more than a name change; it will require a fundamental revolution in how Time Warner Cable does business and treats its customers". You can visit this website to run a broadband speed test, then report your results to state regulators.
Among the claims, the suit alleges that Spectrum-TWC leased "deficient cable modems" - including older single-channel DOCSIS 1.0 and DOCSIS 2.0 models - to more than 900,000 subs in NY that could not deliver advertised speeds.
