New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against Charter/Time Warner Cable saying that Spectrum-TWC (best and most recently known as Time Warner Cable) knew they could not provide the high speed internet they said they could offer.
From at least January 1, 2012 to the present (the “Relevant Period”), Spectrum-TWC conducted a systematic scheme to defraud and mislead subscribers to its Internet service by promising to deliver Internet service that it knew it could not and would not deliver. As described below, this scheme had two separate components: first, Spectrum-TWC promised Internet speeds that it knew it could not deliver to subscribers; second, Spectrum-TWC promised reliable access to online content that it knew it could not deliver to subscribers.
The first component of Spectrum-TWC’s scheme consisted of promising consumers, including its subscribers, that they would obtain throughout their homes the Internet speeds advertised in various subscription plans. Spectrum-TWC failed to deliver on this promise by leasing to a large number of its subscribers older-generation modems and wireless (or “WiFi”) routers that it knew were incapable of achieving the promised Internet speeds. In addition, Spectrum-TWC failed to make adjustments to its network, such as reducing the size of service groups and increasing the number of channels for each service group, that would enable a subscriber to achieve the promised speeds. Not only did Spectrum-TWC fail to deliver the promised Internet speeds, it repeatedly assured subscribers that they could achieve the same results with wireless as with a wired connection, even when it knew that the wireless connection suffered from unavoidable, real-world limitations.
According to Ars Technica, New York State officials tested these alleged “high” speeds and the results weren’t just underwhelming, they were outright criminal.
State officials said they conducted a 16-month investigation that reviewed internal corporate communications "and hundreds of thousands of subscriber speed tests," concluding that Spectrum-TWC customers were "dramatically short-changed on both speed and reliability," the attorney general's announcement said. The 87-page summons and complaint filed in the New York State Supreme Court is available here.
"The suit alleges that subscribers’ wired Internet speeds for the premium plan (100, 200, and 300 Mbps) were up to 70 percent slower than promised; Wi-Fi speeds were even slower, with some subscribers getting speeds that were more than 80 percent slower than what they had paid for," the announcement said. "As alleged in the complaint, Spectrum-TWC charged New Yorkers as much as $109.99 per month for premium plans [that] could not achieve speeds promised in their slower plans."
The reason Spectrum could not provide these speeds is greed. Either old equipment that could not provide the speed promised were employed or other corner-cutting and “cost-saving” procedures were applied that in essence degraded the service being paid for. This is a great example of why there needs to be competition and regulations.