CT Officials Blast ISP's Plan To Throttle Internet Speeds

CONNECTICUT — State officials are blasting Altice, the primary internet provider for many Connecticut communities, for a plan they say will reduce upload speeds without offering a break in the pricing plan.

Altice's Optimum Online currently offers broadband internet upload speeds of 35 Mbps. That speed will be downgraded to speeds ranging from 5 to 20 Mbps on July 12, according to Sen. Bob Duff, Norm Needleman, James Maroney, and Rep. David Arconti. Along with State Broadband Policy Coordinator in the Office of Consumer Counsel Burt Cohen, the state officials ripped into the internet service provider's decision, citing increased need for fast internet service "as life goes increasingly digital," for uploads as well as downloads.

"It's easy to imagine a family where one member is on a video chat with Grandma, another is having a Zoom with work colleagues on an important project and one of the kids is playing video games online with their friends," said Duff, the Senate Majority Leader. "This planned reduction in upload speed could easily leave all three of them unable to access the speed and data, forcing the family to upgrade to a more expensive plan or requiring them to choose who gets to be online at one time. All for a future marketing gimmick."

Altice is the only internet service available in several regions of Connecticut, which makes the new company's plan especially problematic, the officials said in a news release Monday.

"At a time when internet access is critical for families, students, professionals, businesses and even healthcare, Altice's decision to reduce speed, rather than upgrade it, is not a good move," said Arconti, chair of the House Energy & Technology Committee.

The state officials said that because Altice announced the decision was not made due to any trouble with its current service but to bring its speeds "in line with other ISPs," the company plans to reduce service quality rather than tout increased speeds as an advantage over other providers.

"One would think a better marketing plan for Altice would be to advertise that its services are better than the competition, rather than for it to cut its quality of service to trick customers into paying more for worse standards," Maroney said.

The speed reductions will also impact every internet plan offered by Altice, not just its higher tiers.

"Altice states that its 86 percent reduction of upload speed for Optimum Online service when residential consumers are still struggling with the effects of a pandemic is not due to any technical network limitations. If that representation is truthful, Altice appears to be implementing a cynical marketing ploy to force consumers to upgrade to more expensive tiers of Optimum internet service in order to manage working from home, engaging in telehealth appointments, and other essential online services," said Cohen.