T-Mobile sued for illegal 50GB cap on low-income home internet
New York AG accuses T-Mobile of unlawfully capping low-income home internet plans at 50GB and throttling speeds down to 600Kbps.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- New York Attorney General accuses T-Mobile of illegally capping low-income home internet.
- Plans were secretly subjected to a strict 50GB monthly data limit.
- Internet speeds were severely throttled down to just 600Kbps after exceeding the cap.
- State regulations explicitly mandate home internet speeds of at least 25Mbps.
The New York Attorney General's office has launched legal scrutiny against major carrier T-Mobile, alleging that the company violated regulations by imposing a hidden data cap on affordable home internet plans intended for low-income households.
While the initiative was marketed to bridge the digital divide for struggling families, investigators revealed that T-Mobile quietly enforced a restrictive 50-gigabyte monthly usage ceiling, undermining the reliability of the essential service.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
According to the findings, once customers hit the 50GB threshold, T-Mobile aggressively slashed their connection speeds down to a sluggish 600Kbps, rendering everyday digital tasks such as remote work, online learning, and video conferencing virtually unusable.
Data throttling is a common practice in mobile network management, but applying severe bandwidth caps to fixed home internet services is a different matter. When state laws establish a baseline broadband standard of 25Mbps, dropping speeds to kilobit levels effectively strips the service of its core utility, disproportionately harming vulnerable populations who rely on it for education and employment.
The legal framework governing these broadband deployments requires providers to maintain consistent performance standards. By reducing speeds to 600Kbps, T-Mobile directly defied regulatory expectations for fixed broadband infrastructure.
Source: Ars Technica
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