New York Sues Charter, Alleges Time Warner Fraud on Internet Speeds

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
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I'm sure there are quite a few of you out there frustrated with the internet speeds you are getting from your ISP's and wondering why no one is doing anything about it. Well now someone is. Reuters is reporting that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against Charter Communications for promising faster internet service to customers than they have delivered. It will certainly be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Among the allegations in the complaint was an accusation that Time Warner Cable leased older-generation modems to 900,000 subscribers knowing that the modems could not achieve faster internet speeds.
 
Yey, a win for lawyers.
The only solution is to break up monopolies/duopolies and mandate competition.
When you have speeds and prices stagnate and not have the ISPs correctly service their customers you have to look why that's happening.
It always comes down to lack of choice.
 
<--- Giggles like little girl.

I have NEVER once gotten lower speed than what was advertised... except when there was an outage.

Companies I have had service through:

Comcast - great CS in AZ... horrible in AL, but once things were actually working properly, the speeds are good.
Mediacom - horrible CS and billing, but the service is good IF you don't mind data caps.
Knology (now WOW!), Good speed and they up the speed tiers every once in a while. Just have to make sure that when/if they drop rates that you call them to have them adjust your rate to what it should be.

And now ATT fiber AND Google fiber are going to be available in the no too distant future.

I really, really, really don't like ATT, but at least they are providing some competition for the area. Might actually go with them for at least a while if they are available before Google fiber.

For all I know, the fiber the ATT trucks have been laying are for Google fiber as ATT basically does the construction for most if not all the providers where I live.
 
A good many years ago I worked for TWC, Charter, and Sudden link doing various odds and ends mostly network programming and such, it was increadibly common for them to over provision modems to speeds well above what they could actually handle if a customer called in to upgrade the service and would only then offer to upgrade the modem if they called to complain. Additionally during fresh installs the contracted techs would use up their oldest modems first so there is a good chance that even when signing up for a 25 or 50MB package (the fastest they were offering at that time) they might only show up with something that topped out at 15 or 20 because they had to get it off their books.
 
Hopefully it is a good start to get some of the companies in line. Seems like they have had free reign to do whatever they want and no one is doing anything to regulate them. I almost like the idea of making them a utility and regulating them as such.
 
Lakados said:
A good many years ago I worked for TWC, Charter, and Sudden link doing various odds and ends mostly network programming and such, it was increadibly common for them to over provision modems to speeds well above what they could actually handle if a customer called in to upgrade the service and would only then offer to upgrade the modem if they called to complain. Additionally during fresh installs the contracted techs would use up their oldest modems first so there is a good chance that even when signing up for a 25 or 50MB package (the fastest they were offering at that time) they might only show up with something that topped out at 15 or 20 because they had to get it off their books.
Click to expand...

Aside from the ~$7 a month modem rent fee, I bought my own so I would'nt have to deal with whatever garbage TWC they gave me.

I've called their tech support 2 or 3 times (modem died once) and was pleasently surprised with the service.
 
Charter is unfortunately getting the lawsuit after buying TWC who is the proble (and rightfully so), but they are a fantastic SP with at rated speeds besides peak times (although UL kinda sucks) and they are constantly updating spectrum.
 
The customers are going to pay if the company loses.

My Internet randomly went out at night a few days ago, common for TWC.
 
Lakados said:
A good many years ago I worked for TWC, Charter, and Sudden link doing various odds and ends mostly network programming and such, it was increadibly common for them to over provision modems to speeds well above what they could actually handle if a customer called in to upgrade the service and would only then offer to upgrade the modem if they called to complain. Additionally during fresh installs the contracted techs would use up their oldest modems first so there is a good chance that even when signing up for a 25 or 50MB package (the fastest they were offering at that time) they might only show up with something that topped out at 15 or 20 because they had to get it off their books.
Click to expand...
I never rent a cable modem. It'd be one thing if it was a buck/month, but at 5-7, you've probably bought the thing within a year.

I have TWC, but however their network is set up, it's odd. I had a modem that was capable of over 100Mbps, but I had to get a better modem to get that speed with TWC.
That said, TWC has decent speeds (since they upped them in July or August of 2015 at no additional charge). The upload isn't great, but it's acceptable.
 
This is nothing new. I did a lot of research and discovered that my fiber ONT originally installed by Verizon many years ago and now owned by Frontier should have been switched to a new faster type when I upgraded to 50/50 service. Initially we were even told that a tech would come out to replace the necessary hardware. Well, they decided to send no tech and calls to tech support started to get the "you have what you need." Well, more calls to more techs with me having to explain to THEM that someone was supposed to get out here and replace the box with one actually capable of sustaining 100Mbps.

Finally after emailing the district GM again (I've had to email her before when no one else pays attention to the service going to hell) they sent out an absolutely awesome tech who knew exactly what should have been done and was like "yeah, you needed this new box. Holy cow this one you have is OLD. Is this Verizon's original hardware? I didn't know PPPOE was even still enabled on our network. wow. We'll have it done in under an hour. Call me if you need anything here's my card."

Yeah, internet providers are just a bundle of joy. It's not that I mind the end result but the journey was terrible. I got some grouchy or couldn't-care-less techs that just wouldn't go ASK a manager who knows how to deal with odd problems.
 
Advil said:
This is nothing new. I did a lot of research and discovered that my fiber ONT originally installed by Verizon many years ago and now owned by Frontier should have been switched to a new faster type when I upgraded to 50/50 service. Initially we were even told that a tech would come out to replace the necessary hardware. Well, they decided to send no tech and calls to tech support started to get the "you have what you need." Well, more calls to more techs with me having to explain to THEM that someone was supposed to get out here and replace the box with one actually capable of sustaining 100Mbps.

Finally after emailing the district GM again (I've had to email her before when no one else pays attention to the service going to hell) they sent out an absolutely awesome tech who knew exactly what should have been done and was like "yeah, you needed this new box. Holy cow this one you have is OLD. Is this Verizon's original hardware? I didn't know PPPOE was even still enabled on our network. wow. We'll have it done in under an hour. Call me if you need anything here's my card."

Yeah, internet providers are just a bundle of joy. It's not that I mind the end result but the journey was terrible. I got some grouchy or couldn't-care-less techs that just wouldn't go ASK a manager who knows how to deal with odd problems.
Click to expand...


I'm no fan of Verizon FiOS as my ISP, they do their fair share of annoying stuff, but when I upgraded my legacy FiOS to 150 service they immediately knew I had the wrong hardware, and scheduled a tech to come out and replace it without me asking.
 
Advil said:
This is nothing new. I did a lot of research and discovered that my fiber ONT originally installed by Verizon many years ago and now owned by Frontier should have been switched to a new faster type when I upgraded to 50/50 service. Initially we were even told that a tech would come out to replace the necessary hardware. Well, they decided to send no tech and calls to tech support started to get the "you have what you need." Well, more calls to more techs with me having to explain to THEM that someone was supposed to get out here and replace the box with one actually capable of sustaining 100Mbps.

Finally after emailing the district GM again (I've had to email her before when no one else pays attention to the service going to hell) they sent out an absolutely awesome tech who knew exactly what should have been done and was like "yeah, you needed this new box. Holy cow this one you have is OLD. Is this Verizon's original hardware? I didn't know PPPOE was even still enabled on our network. wow. We'll have it done in under an hour. Call me if you need anything here's my card."

Yeah, internet providers are just a bundle of joy. It's not that I mind the end result but the journey was terrible. I got some grouchy or couldn't-care-less techs that just wouldn't go ASK a manager who knows how to deal with odd problems.
Click to expand...

Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm no fan of Verizon FiOS as my ISP, they do their fair share of annoying stuff, but when I upgraded my legacy FiOS to 150 service they immediately knew I had the wrong hardware, and scheduled a tech to come out and replace it without me asking.
Click to expand...

need to replace an ONT? What brand ONTs were you guys given? With the venders that i deal with there are two options 1Gbps or 10Gbps. What we put on every house is going to be able to get 1Gbps if somebody upgrades to that. Once the price point of 10Gbps makes it practical to play with we start putting those into businesses just to be future proof. So I am curious what you guys have that would need to be upgraded as I wasn't aware that anyone made an ONT that wasn't 1Gbps as that is what all currently use standards are designed around.
 
Spaceninja said:
Hopefully it is a good start to get some of the companies in line. Seems like they have had free reign to do whatever they want and no one is doing anything to regulate them. I almost like the idea of making them a utility and regulating them as such.
Click to expand...

it is but sadly won't matter since Tom Wheeler stepped down from the FCC.. it'll be back to status quo in a few month or so once all the things he implemented are removed so ISP's can go back to doing what ever they want.
 
Exavior said:
need to replace an ONT? What brand ONTs were you guys given? With the venders that i deal with there are two options 1Gbps or 10Gbps. What we put on every house is going to be able to get 1Gbps if somebody upgrades to that. Once the price point of 10Gbps makes it practical to play with we start putting those into businesses just to be future proof. So I am curious what you guys have that would need to be upgraded as I wasn't aware that anyone made an ONT that wasn't 1Gbps as that is what all currently use standards are designed around.
Click to expand...

Can't remember what the old one was, but it was installed when FiOS first rolled out around here in 2005, and their fastest service was 75/25. They told me it topped out at 100Mbps.

Now I have 150/150

Thing is, both ONT boxes look the same. Big white plastic box on the wall.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Can't remember what the old one was, but it was installed when FiOS first rolled out around here in 2005, and their fastest service was 75/25. They told me it topped out at 100Mbps.

Now I have 150/150

Thing is, both ONT boxes look the same. Big white plastic box on the wall.
Click to expand...

that isn't surprising. A few main venders even use the same plastic shell for the outside ONTs. As a result everyone that makes 3rd party ones that work with them make similar units that all also fit the same housing. I was trying to find the brand that Verizon uses but can't find a model anywhere. I do see where the old model did only support 100Mbps for the Ethernet port. Almost sounds like the coax was faster off the ONT.
 
snowcrash said:
Comcast practically gets away with murder and the little guys like TWC gets sued.
Click to expand...
No kidding mate. If I didn't mention the fact that they gave me a DOCSIS 2.0 modem instead of a 3, they probably would never of cared.
 
Exavior said:
that isn't surprising. A few main venders even use the same plastic shell for the outside ONTs. As a result everyone that makes 3rd party ones that work with them make similar units that all also fit the same housing. I was trying to find the brand that Verizon uses but can't find a model anywhere. I do see where the old model did only support 100Mbps for the Ethernet port. Almost sounds like the coax was faster off the ONT.
Click to expand...


Actually. I misremembered.

When they swapped out the old 100mbps onto at my old house the white box was the same.

It looked sortof like this (found a pic online)

ont.jpg

In my current house the white box looks different. It's a newer Alcatel-Lucent box.

IMG_20170204_123046.jpg

Open it up and the actual ONT inside is some sort of Verizon branded thing labeled "I-211M-K". It's obviously manufactured for Verizon by some other company, but I can't see any other manufacturer information, at least not on this side.

IMG_20170204_123141.jpg
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Actually. I misremembered.

When they swapped out the old 100mbps onto at my old house the white box was the same.

It looked sortof like this (found a pic online)

View attachment 16211

In my current house the white box looks different. It's a newer Alcatel-Lucent box.

View attachment 16209

Open it up and the actual ONT inside is some sort of Verizon branded thing labeled "I-211M-K". It's obviously manufactured for Verizon by some other company, but I can't see any other manufacturer information, at least not on this side.

View attachment 16210
Click to expand...

Alcatel wouldn't make houses for anyone else most likely. So that is probably who is making them and branding them for Verizon. Which isn't that uncommon. My work is a small so when we order stuff from other companies we can only get it with custom firmware loaded and not branded. westell (before being purchased by netgear) used to do that with their ADSL modems. I think it was something like the 6110 was the normal generic model, 6111 was centrylink and 6112 was Verizon or something like that.
 
looked it up, yes that is a Alcatel ONT just branded for Verizon. As for the 100Mbps limit, original deployment was bpon (broadband passive optical network) which did have a limit if around 100Mpbs per ONT. That standard was moved away from and replaced by GPON (gigabit passive optical network) which is of course a 1Gbps per ONT.
 
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