T-Mobile settles with New York after throttling low-income home internet plans

T-Mobile has agreed to settle with New York state after an investigation found the carrier violated the Affordable Broadband Act. State officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, alleged that the company improperly restricted wireless home internet service meant for low-income households. Under the state law, eligible customers can buy broadband tiers offering at least 25 Mbps for $15 a month or 200 Mbps for $20 a month without extra equipment fees or taxes. [1][2]

Investigators discovered that T-Mobile imposed a 50GB monthly data limit on these plans. Once reached—which could take roughly four days of typical household use—the provider throttled speeds to less than a megabit per second, reaching as low as 650 kilobits per second. State officials also found T-Mobile restricted the plans only to regions with 5G deployment and blocked search engines from indexing plan details on its website. [1][2]

Under the terms of the settlement, T-Mobile must scrap the data caps and speed throttling, expand access to all areas of the state where it offers home internet, and let search engines index the plan pages. The agreement gives T-Mobile 120 days to eliminate the limits and widen availability. [1][2]