Three major companies in the U.S. touting to offer blazingly fast Internet connections face New York Attorney General's probe. The top legal official of the New York State wishes to know if these broadband providers are truthful in delivering their promised broadband speeds.
The three Internet providers that are under scrutiny of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman include Time Warner Cable Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. as well as Cablevision Systems Corp.
Letters were sent on Oct. 23 to executives of the mentioned companies to ask each of them to furnish copies of the disclosures they have made to consumers. Additionally, the companies are required to submit the copies of any testing they have carried out to examine their Internet speeds.
"New Yorkers deserve the Internet speeds they pay for. But, it turns out, many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another," Schneiderman mentioned in a statement.
The attorney general added that he is not going to permit a situation in which families, who are paying a hefty amount for their Internet access in New York, are not getting what they were being told.
Bobby Amrishahi, the spokesperson of Time Warner Cable, however, said the company is confident they are delivering the speeds as well as services to its consumers as promised. He added the company is looking forward to to settle the issue.
Cablevision, through its spokesperson Charlie Schueler, likewise said the company's service, dubbed Optimum Online Service, is always exceeding broadband speeds which has been advertised, including in Federal Communications Commission and internal tests. The company noted it is prepared to provide any performance information to the Attorney General.
Verizon, however, has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
In the meantime, Schneiderman's spokesperson revealed the agency had data indicating speeds were "far slower" than what was promised. The spokesman said the 2014 study by the Measurement Lab Consortium, otherwise known as M-Lab, along with a few consumer complaints as well as internal analysis, prompted the investigation into the Internet speeds.
Among the slew of information the agency requested from the Internet companies includes customer complaints, service reviews and service outages.
The probe comes a year after the FCC started investigating ISPs over their download speeds. To date, the FCC's scrutiny still continues.
