New York state officials have reached a settlement with T-Mobile following allegations that the carrier illegally restricted data usage on home Internet plans intended for low-income households. The agreement requires the company to remove data caps and speed limitations that state investigators determined violated the New York Affordable Broadband Act (ABA).
Alleged Violations of the Affordable Broadband Act
Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced the settlement on Monday, confirming that a state investigation found T-Mobile failed to comply with the requirements of the ABA. While the state law does not explicitly reference data caps, it mandates that home Internet providers serving at least 20,000 customers must offer specific service tiers to income-eligible residents.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, T-Mobile’s practices did not meet the statutory standards, which require providers to offer high-speed broadband for $15 per month at a minimum of 25 Mbps, or $20 per month for speeds of at least 200 Mbps. Officials stated that T-Mobile’s policy of throttling connection speeds once a customer exceeded a monthly data limit was in direct violation of these legal mandates.
Impact on Service and Settlement Terms
The investigation revealed that T-Mobile imposed a 50GB-per-month data cap on its low-income home Internet service. Once a user reached this threshold, their maximum download speed was throttled from 25 Mbps to 600 Kbps. State officials noted that, based on typical usage patterns, a customer could exhaust their monthly data allowance in as little as four days.
Under the terms of the settlement, T-Mobile must eliminate these data and speed restrictions. Furthermore, the company is required to expand the availability of these affordable plans to additional regions across New York and improve the accessibility of information regarding these offerings for potential customers.
T-Mobile has been granted a 120-day window to fully implement these changes, including the removal of speed limits and the expansion of the program’s reach.
