NEW YORK, Oct. 26 (UPI) — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will investigate three Internet service providers to determine whether they provide slower service than advertised.
Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision System will be scrutinized by Schneiderman’s staff to determine whether they are really providing Internet speeds that allow multimedia content to be downloaded as customers carry out other Internet activities at the same time.
The attorney general’s office is particularly concerned with the effect of “interconnection disputes” that can arise when one company has to use another company’s infrastructure. This obstacle may deliver customers slower Internet than they paid for, including packages such as Verizon’s “premium” FiOS service and Time Warner Cable’s “Extreme” and “Ultimate” packages.
The three companies have until Nov. 8 to answer several questions about their policies.
Schneiderman said families who “pay a huge cost” for Internet access should not have to deal with restricted speeds. Tim Wu, Schneiderman’s newly appointed senior enforcement counsel, said the speeds actually delivered to customers may be sufficiently deviant from advertised speeds to as to render the pitches false.
In addition to the disputes, Wu said the nature of “last mile” service will be scrutinized, as well. This refers to the direct connection between a customer’s home and the network infrastructure, where a speed bottleneck may occur.
Schneiderman filed the investigation documents Friday.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Bobby Amirshahi told Bloomberg that the company is confident it is providing the speeds they advertised. Verizon says one of its packages can support up to eight devices and allow users to “upload large files to the cloud, perform quicker back-ups and play competitive multi-player gaming.”
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.