{"id":36571,"date":"2018-07-30T19:52:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/323225"},"modified":"2018-07-30T19:52:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T19:52:00","slug":"spectrum-isp-kicked-out-of-ny-for-allegedly-throttling-online-games-and-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/07\/30\/spectrum-isp-kicked-out-of-ny-for-allegedly-throttling-online-games-and-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"Spectrum ISP kicked out of NY for allegedly throttling online games and streams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Public Commission issued a letter\u00a0revoking its approval<\/a> of the 2016 merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable (operating as Spectrum in New York) last week, giving\u00a0the ISP\u00a060 days to submit a plan \u201cto ensure an orderly transition to a successor provider(s).\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a big deal for the industry as it’s an issue that will likely become more prominent after\u00a0the repeal of net neutrality earlier this year<\/a>, which might cause internet service providers to\u00a0block or limit access to content by\u00a0offering\u00a0paid workarounds.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0decision comes after allegations that Spectrum\u00a0defrauded consumers by providing internet service that was much slower than advertised.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharter, doing business as Spectrum, has \u2014 through word and deed \u2014 made clear that it has no intention of providing the public benefits upon which the Commission\u2019s earlier approval was conditioned,\u201d the letter writes.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, the Commission directed Commission counsel to bring an enforcement action in State Supreme Court to seek additional penalties for Charter\u2019s past failures and ongoing non-compliance. That enforcement action will be filed today in State Supreme Court in Albany.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter continues to list several reasons for taking action, stating that Spectrum repeatedly failed to meet deadlines, failed to fully commit to its obligations under the 2016 merger agreement, and purposefully obfuscated\u00a0its performance and compliance obligations to the Commission and its customers.<\/p>\n

The last item on the list references a complaint made in 2017<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0then-Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on behalf of consumers using Netflix streaming services and playing Riot Games\u2019\u00a0League of Legends.<\/em><\/p>\n

Using customer complaints\u00a0as well as data from Netflix and Riot, Schneiderman alleged\u00a0that Spectrum falsely advertised the internet speeds customers could expect while paying for the 300, 200, 100, and 50 Mbps\u00a0plans, all while leasing out hardware that couldn’t actually handle those promised speeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The complaint speculates\u00a0that only when customers complained enough did the ISP boost their individual connections, wanting to avoid action by the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n

Schneiderman\u00a0went on to argue that Spectrum deliberately bottlenecked internet speeds for streaming and online gaming until companies like Netflix and Riot agreed to pay extra for “access to Spectrum customers”.<\/p>\n

Again, the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality\u00a0will likely make these types of issues more frequent in the market, as consumers will be forced to re-consider\u00a0their contracts with local ISPs and then hold them responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Public Commission issued a letter\u00a0revoking its approval of the 2016 merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable (operating as Spectrum in New York) last week, giving\u00a0the ISP\u00a060 days to submit a plan \u201cto ensure an orderly transition to a successor provider(s).\u201d This is a big deal for the industry as it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}