New York State authorities have successfully forced telecommunications giant T-Mobile to eliminate data caps and throttling practices on low-income home internet plans following an investigation that revealed the company was failing to comply with state regulations. The enforcement action, announced jointly by the Office of the Attorney General and the administration of Governor Kathy Hochul, targets shortcomings in how T-Mobile implemented offerings mandated under New York’s Affordable Broadband Act.
The investigation, spearheaded by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that T-Mobile had systematically placed monthly data limits on broadband plans specifically designed for lower-income households. Under the terms of the Affordable Broadband Act, eligible residents across the state must be given access to reliable home internet services at tightly regulated prices. Specifically, the law requires eligible households to be allowed to purchase broadband connections operating at speeds of at least 25 megabits per second for $15 per month, or higher-tier connections reaching speeds of at least 200 megabits per second for $20 per month. Crucially, the statute dictates that these prices must be free of additional hidden taxes or mandatory equipment rental fees, ensuring that low-cost options remain genuinely affordable for families facing financial constraints. Furthermore, the legislation explicitly mandates that internet service providers must make reasonable efforts to actively promote these affordable options so that vulnerable communities are aware of their rights and availability.
However, the inquiry by the Attorney General’s office revealed that T-Mobile was undercutting the spirit and letter of the law through restrictive internal practices. Investigators discovered that the carrier had quietly placed monthly data caps on its Affordable Broadband Act plans. Once a household crossed a threshold of 50 gigabytes of data usage within a single billing cycle, T-Mobile would drastically throttle connection speeds down to as low as 650 kilobits per second. State officials noted that consuming 50 gigabytes of data is remarkably easy for a modern household, pointing out that an average family could exhaust this arbitrary limit in roughly four days of typical broadband use, which includes basic activities such as remote work, online learning for children, streaming educational video content, or managing household healthcare needs. Throttling speeds down to 650 kilobits per second renders a modern internet connection virtually useless for these essential everyday tasks, effectively neutralizing the benefits of having broadband access in the first place.
Beyond the implementation of data caps and severe throttling, state investigators uncovered additional roadblocks erected by the carrier that limited consumer access. T-Mobile was selectively restricting the availability of its Affordable Broadband Act plans, offering them only in specific geographic areas where the company had already deployed its 5G wireless network infrastructure, rather than making the plans broadly accessible wherever the carrier offered home internet services. Compounding this issue, the company was actively preventing detailed information about these low-cost internet plans from appearing correctly on its website through search engines. By blocking web crawlers and search visibility, T-Mobile made it exceedingly difficult for eligible New Yorkers to find information about the discounted plans through standard online searches, forcing consumers to navigate opaque website pathways to discover options they were legally entitled to purchase.
The resolution of the investigation brings significant changes to how T-Mobile must operate these plans moving forward. Under the agreement reached with the state, T-Mobile is required to completely remove the restrictive data caps from its Affordable Broadband Act offerings. In addition to lifting the caps, the company must expand the availability of these plans, making them accessible in all geographic locations across New York State where the carrier offers home internet service. T-Mobile has also agreed to fix its website architecture to ensure that search engines can freely access and index detailed information about the affordable plans, allowing eligible residents to find enrollment details easily.
State leaders emphasized the critical importance of reliable internet connectivity in contemporary society and praised the outcome of the enforcement action. Reliable and affordable internet service is a basic need for all New Yorkers, but T-Mobile flouted the law designed to help vulnerable New Yorkers access it, Attorney General Letitia James stated following the announcement. James reiterated her office’s steadfast commitment to ensuring that consumer protection laws achieve their intended purposes, noting that the Affordable Broadband Act was enacted specifically to ensure that individuals and families in financial need are not unfairly denied access to essential home internet connections. She also took the opportunity to encourage all eligible New Yorkers to review the requirements and enroll in a low-cost home internet plan through the state’s program.
In response to the findings and the subsequent agreement, T-Mobile issued a public statement clarifying its position and outlining its compliance efforts. Addressing the outcome, a company spokesperson shared that T-Mobile has a long history of helping customers in New York stay connected through low-cost broadband initiatives. The representative added that the company is actively updating its plan configurations to meet the state’s specific regulatory requirements while keeping the monthly pricing at the same low level. According to the company, the agreement reached with the New York Attorney General builds upon its existing commitments, provides greater clarity around its broadband offerings, and ultimately makes the low-cost plans available to a broader base of eligible customers across the state.
