From Ars Technica · · 3m
T-Mobile broke New York's low-income internet law
New York says T-Mobile illegally capped data and slowed speeds on plans it was required to offer to low-income households, and has forced the company to fix it.
In brief
New York says T-Mobile illegally capped data and slowed speeds on plans it was required to offer to low-income households, and has forced the company to fix it. New York settled with T-Mobile over violating the Affordable Broadband Act by imposing a fifty gigabyte monthly cap and reducing speeds to six hundred…
T-Mobile broke New York law
New York officials say T-Mobile violated the Affordable Broadband Act by imposing a fifty gigabyte monthly data cap on low-income home internet plans it was required to offer.
Speeds dropped to crawl
When customers exceeded the fifty gigabyte cap, T-Mobile reduced their maximum download speed from twenty five megabits per second to six hundred kilobits per second.
Cap hit in four days
New York says a typical customer could hit the fifty gigabyte data cap after about four days of usage, then face severely reduced speeds.
What the law required
The Affordable Broadband Act requires home internet providers with at least twenty thousand customers to offer plans at fifteen dollars per month for twenty five megabits per second, or twenty dollars for two hundred megabits…
Only in 5G areas
T-Mobile only offered the required low-income plans in areas where it had deployed five G wireless service, even though it offered full-price plans delivering twenty five megabits per second in four G areas.
Hidden from search engines
T-Mobile specifically coded its website to prevent search engines from indexing the webpage with information about the low-income plans, making it difficult for New Yorkers to find them.
Settlement announced Monday
Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the settlement on Monday after a state investigation found T-Mobile violated the Affordable Broadband Act.
T-Mobile admits nothing
Although the settlement includes New York's findings, T-Mobile did not admit to any violation. The company said it neither admits nor denies the attorney general's findings.
T-Mobile's statement
T-Mobile said it has a long history of helping customers in New York stay connected through low-cost broadband and is updating its plan to meet state requirements while maintaining the same low price.
“We have a long history of helping customers in New York stay connected through low-cost broadband, and we're updating our plan to meet the state's requirements while maintaining the same low price.”
One hundred twenty days to comply
The settlement requires T-Mobile to eliminate speed limits, expand availability of low-income plans to more parts of New York, and make it easier for customers to find plan information within one hundred twenty days.
Law survived industry challenge
New York started enforcing the Affordable Broadband Act in January twenty twenty five after winning a nearly four year court battle against broadband industry groups, including CTIA, that tried to kill the law.
Price hike settlement too
Last month New York also settled with T-Mobile over violating a price guarantee promise. From twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen, T-Mobile advertised price guarantee plans promising never to change the price customers paid.
Prices rose by five dollars
In twenty twenty four, T-Mobile began raising prices on these plans by approximately five dollars per phone line.
Thirty eight million in value
T-Mobile agreed to give affected customers reimbursement options and a price lock until May twenty twenty nine.
The bottom line
New York settled with T-Mobile over violating the Affordable Broadband Act by imposing a fifty gigabyte monthly cap and reducing speeds to six hundred kilobits per second on required low-income home internet plans.
