It's becoming common to not expect Internet speeds advertised by Internet providers. The state attorney general of New York, however, hopes to change this, and has launched a probe into three major Internet providers in an attempt to see whether they are charging customers for Internet speeds that they fail to deliver.
Letters were sent to Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, asking each of the companies to provide disclosures that they had made to customers, as well as copies of the results of testing that they may have done on 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," said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement. "Families pay a huge cost already for Internet access in New York, so I will not tolerate a situation in which they aren't getting what they have been promised."
Of course, the three companies involved have expressed confidence in their speeds and that they deliver on promises made to customers. Cablevision has even said that its speeds often surpass advertised speeds.
The investigation is mostly focused on what are called interconnection arrangements, or deals made between Internet service providers and other networks for the mutual exchange of data. The concern is that customers who are paying a premium for high Internet speeds may not be experiencing speeds that they pay for due to technical issues that arise because of these interconnection agreements.
The probe isn't coming out of the blue, however. According to a spokesperson for the attorney general's office, findings from a 2014 study combined with consumer complaints prompted the investigation.
Another concern that will be investigated is whether or not Time Warner Cable and Cablevision can deliver speeds to consumers over "the last mile," or in between a customer's home and the Internet service provider's network infrastructure.
Via: Reuters
