Time Warner Cable Accused of Fraud Over Internet Speeds


State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed what he calls an "unprecedented" lawsuit against Charter Communications, the new parent company of Time-Warner Cable, now known in some places as 'Spectrum,"claiming that the cable and internet provider failed to deliver on promised internet speeds and reliability.  

Schneiderman says for years, Time-Warner Cable promised "blazing fast" and "reliable" internet service. In reality, he says it was neither. 

Many New Yorkers, Schneiderman says, were paying around $110/month for what they thought was 300 megabits per second of internet speed.  The truth is, many got only about 85 megabits per second, or about 70% slower than what they were paying for.  The difference was even more striking, Schneiderman says, when you talk about Wi-Fi.

Schneiderman says this was, in fact a "calculated corporate strategy" to defraud customers.  Internal e-mails, he says, show that company executives refused to spend money to upgrade the system.

He alleges that TWC even manipulated an FCC test to hide what it was doing from federal regulators.

In a statement, Charter says it is "disappointed" that Schneiderman is suing the company over promises made by Time Warner before the acquisition. It says it's making "substantial" investments to upgrade the system.

Photo: Getty Images


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