New York state officials have reached a formal settlement with T-Mobile following an extensive investigation that concluded the telecommunications giant failed to comply with the state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). The investigation, led by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) and supported by Governor Kathy Hochul, revealed that T-Mobile had been systematically undermining the intent of the law by placing restrictive data caps and speed throttling measures on home Internet plans explicitly designed for low-income households.
Under the terms of the legally binding settlement, T-Mobile is required to eliminate these performance-limiting restrictions, expand the availability of its low-income offerings to include areas previously restricted to 4G connectivity, and improve the digital accessibility of these plans. The company has been granted a 120-day window to achieve full compliance with these mandates.
The Scope of the Affordable Broadband Act
The New York Affordable Broadband Act serves as a critical regulatory framework aimed at bridging the digital divide for the state’s most vulnerable populations. The law mandates that any home Internet service provider (ISP) operating within New York with a customer base exceeding 20,000 subscribers must offer high-speed broadband options at regulated price points. Specifically, the statute requires plans to be priced at $15 per month for speeds of at least 25 Mbps, or $20 per month for speeds of at least 200 Mbps for income-eligible residents.
For many families, these plans represent a vital lifeline for education, employment, and access to essential government services. By imposing a 50 GB monthly data cap, T-Mobile effectively rendered these plans insufficient for the modern digital household. Once the cap was exceeded, the company would throttle connection speeds to a mere 600 Kbps—a rate essentially unusable for video conferencing, remote learning, or high-definition streaming. State records suggest that a typical household utilizing these services for daily tasks would reach the 50 GB threshold within as little as four days.
Chronology of the Regulatory Dispute
The legal friction between the State of New York and the telecommunications industry is not a recent development. The path to the current settlement began years ago, characterized by aggressive lobbying and judicial challenges.
- 2021–2024: Industry trade groups, including CTIA—the wireless industry association representing major carriers like T-Mobile—initiated a multi-year legal battle to strike down the Affordable Broadband Act, arguing that the state lacked the authority to impose such price regulations.
- December 2024: The Supreme Court of the United States effectively ended the industry’s challenge by declining to hear the case, clearing the way for the law to be fully enforced.
- January 2025: New York state officially began active enforcement of the Affordable Broadband Act.
- June 2025: The New York Department of Public Service identified concerning irregularities in T-Mobile’s compliance and referred the matter to the Office of the Attorney General for a formal investigation.
- November 2026: The OAG and Governor Hochul announced the settlement, formalizing the requirements for T-Mobile to rectify its service offerings.
Investigatory Findings: Obfuscation and Exclusion
The investigation into T-Mobile’s practices revealed that the company was not merely failing to provide adequate service, but was also actively preventing eligible customers from discovering or enrolling in the mandated programs.
Investigators discovered that T-Mobile had restricted the availability of the ABA-compliant plans exclusively to regions where it had already deployed 5G infrastructure. This policy systematically excluded residents in rural or underserved areas where T-Mobile offered 4G LTE service—even though the company’s standard, full-price plans were readily available in those same locations.
Furthermore, the state uncovered evidence of "digital redlining" through technical obfuscation. T-Mobile had reportedly implemented a "noindex" tag on its ABA-specific landing page, a piece of code that instructs search engines like Google and Bing to ignore the page in their search results. By intentionally making the plan invisible to web searches, the company significantly hindered the ability of low-income New Yorkers to find and sign up for the legally required low-cost broadband service.
T-Mobile’s Response and Position
While the settlement outlines specific findings regarding T-Mobile’s non-compliance, the company has neither admitted to nor denied the allegations contained in the agreement. In an official statement, T-Mobile emphasized its ongoing commitment to connectivity, noting that it has a "long history" of helping New York customers.
"We’re updating our plan to meet the state’s requirements while maintaining the same low price," a T-Mobile spokesperson stated. The company framed the settlement as an opportunity to provide "greater clarity" and expand the reach of its offerings. However, when pressed by media outlets regarding the initial decision to implement data caps and search engine restrictions, the company offered no specific explanation for the restrictive policies.
Broader Implications for Broadband Policy
The T-Mobile settlement serves as a bellwether for the future of state-level telecommunications regulation. It highlights the tension between private ISP practices and public interest mandates. With the landscape of federal oversight currently in flux—particularly given the Trump administration’s stated opposition to state-level price regulations on ISPs receiving federal BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) funding—New York’s success in this enforcement action sets a significant precedent.
California and other states are currently watching these developments closely, as they prepare to defend their own broadband equity laws against potential federal preemption efforts. The argument from state attorneys general is that access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury but a utility, akin to water or electricity, and that local governments have the inherent right to ensure such services are affordable for their citizens.
A Pattern of Compliance Issues
This settlement arrives shortly after another legal resolution involving T-Mobile and the New York Attorney General’s office. In October 2026, the state secured a deal following an investigation into the company’s "Price Guarantee" marketing. T-Mobile had marketed plans to customers from 2017 to 2019 promising that their rates would "never change." However, in 2024, the company implemented price hikes of approximately $5 per line on these plans.
The resulting agreement provided for roughly $38 million in potential customer benefits and reimbursements, underscoring a period of heightened scrutiny over T-Mobile’s consumer protection practices in New York.
Moving Forward: The 120-Day Compliance Window
The terms of the new settlement are clear: T-Mobile must immediately remove the 50 GB data cap and cease the practice of throttling speeds below the mandated 25 Mbps threshold. The only permitted exceptions for speed reductions are those caused by genuine, temporary network congestion, or in cases where the infrastructure at a specific address is technically incapable of delivering 25 Mbps, in which case the company must offer the best service available at that location.
Additionally, T-Mobile is prohibited from using technical barriers like "noindex" tags on its broadband information pages and is now required to place prominent links to these low-income plans on its primary home Internet marketing pages.
The Attorney General’s office has signaled that it will maintain oversight of the company’s compliance. Failure to adhere to these terms could result in further litigation, with the state retaining the right to seek civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation. For the thousands of New Yorkers who rely on these plans to participate in the modern economy, the settlement represents a necessary enforcement of their rights and a move toward the equitable digital access envisioned by the Affordable Broadband Act.
