Charter Claims States Can't Hold it Accountable for Slow Speeds Early last year, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Charter Communications (Spectrum) for, among other things, knowingly selling broadband speeds company executives knew they couldn't provide. The lawsuit alleged all manner of shady behavior by the cable giant, from admissions that it was actively gaming FCC efforts to measure speeds (via the custom-firmware embedded routers the FCC uses for said purpose), to acknowledging that it was considering actively causing congestion at interconnection points to drive up costs for transit and content companies.

Charter had tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing, among other things, that states lack the authority to hold ISPs accountable under consumer protection law. Last month a Judge disagreed, ruling that New York's lawsuit against the company could continue, and that New York state was well within its rights to protect consumers. Charter has since appealed that ruling, and continues to argue that FCC "authority" (which these days consists of rubber stamping every incumbent ISP whim) pre-empts state level authority over ISPs. Charter lawyers argue that the court "erred as a matter of law in denying Charter's motion to dismiss the complaint's allegations regarding actual broadband speeds, because those claims directly conflict with the FCC's regime for measuring and disclosing broadband speeds and are therefore preempted." The AG's inquiry found that Charter speeds for its premium plan (100, 200, and 300 Mbps) were up to 70% slower than promised. The lawsuit alleges that WiFi speeds were even slower, claiming that many subscribers get WiFi speeds that are more than 80% slower than what was advertised. The complaint notes that Spectrum-TWC charged New Yorkers as much as $109.99 per month for premium plans, but couldn't actually deliver what was advertised. But the lawsuit also catches Charter executives on e-mail admitting they were interested in gaming the SamKnows FCC router program in order to trick regulators and customers into believing they were getting the speeds they pay for. E-mails also hint that Charter execs considered letting peering points congest as part of a widespread industry attempt to kill settlement free peering and drive up costs for competitors like Netflix. You might recall that incumbent ISPs like Charter, Verizon and Comcast breathlessly denied this practice a few years ago after Netflix, Level3, and Cogent accused them of the practice and Netflix customer streaming performance began to mysteriously degrade. Charter has also been under fire lately after its merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, a deal Charter repeatedly promised would deliver untold "synergies" to consumers, resulted in fewer network upgrades, higher prices, and even worse customer service than the cable giant was already known for. Charter was also Charter has also been under fire lately after its merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, a deal Charter repeatedly promised would deliver untold "synergies" to consumers, resulted in fewer network upgrades, higher prices, and even worse customer service than the cable giant was already known for. Charter was also fined $13 million by regulators for failing to adhere to the modest deployment conditions attached to the deal.







News Jump Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 64 comments

firedrakes

join:2009-01-29

Arcadia, FL 17 recommendations firedrakes Member love how they got cuaght lying. over and over to!

ham3843

join:2015-01-15

USA 7 recommendations ham3843 Member If they can jail VW executives they can jail Charter executives too.

Lets see brass tacks from Charter behind bars next? »www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· 1jz_gHYk DigitalManny

join:2014-01-08

Glendale, CA 6 recommendations DigitalManny Member Yet we have a moron in chief and a moron for FCC Chairman How is that no Net Neutrality working for everyone of you Trumpsters and conservatives? mlcarson

join:2001-09-20

Santa Maria, CA 4 recommendations mlcarson Member Wifi I think you can discount the Wifi issue completely. The slowness on any connection above 100Mbs I can see being users with networking hardware that doesn't support 1Gbs. The interconnection peering point issue is the one that really needs to be investigated. Roadkill

Premium Member

join:2008-06-17

united state 2 recommendations Roadkill Premium Member The Battle of the FCC against everyone Perhaps this is where the great war of our time begins. Can the federal government actually tell state governments to buzz off? Will the National Guard and Reservists be mustered to insure all states bow down and allow Incorporated American entities attach all services and contracts? What will happen when a state government refuses to contract with entities like Spectrum, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, et.al.? I'm buying cases of Cheetos, crunchy, and maybe puffed too. This is going to be a long battle.



Edit: I forgot to mention NY is just the starting point. 47 more continental states to go.