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Feel like your Internet is too slow? The Attorney General is investigating that

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Does your Internet speed feel like a throwback to the dial-up era? Or are you paying for extra broadband, without feeling like the results are necessarily any better?

The state attorney general is encouraging New Yorkers to test their online data speed they’re receiving at home as part of an investigation on whether Internet providers, including Cablevision, are providing service as advertised.

“New Yorkers should get the Internet speeds they pay for,” attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman said in a statement last week. “Too many of us may be paying for one thing and getting another.”

In October, Mr. Schneiderman sent letters to Time Warner Cable, Verizon and Cablevision asking for documents related to whether the Internet speeds they advertise are actually what households are receiving.

Anyone can log in to the website for instructions on how to test their Internet speed. The first step provides a link to a separate website that runs the test to determine the current broadband speed at that moment.

The next step is to take a screen shot of the results and then upload it to the attorney general’s website in addition to filling out information on the Internet provider and service.

Cablevision customers can purchase upgraded plans that offer download speeds of up to 50 megabytes/per second for Ultra 50 all the way up to 101 mbps for Ultra 101. Its basic package offers download speeds up to 25 mbps.

Mr. Schneiderman’s letters to the Internet providers asked for companies to provide documents related to the number of customers receiving different levels of Internet services, disclosures made to actual or potential broadband customers concerning actual or expected Internet speeds and other documents related to Internet speeds, according to a press release.

“As Consumer Reports has pointed out, Internet speeds can vary considerably, and consumers do not always get the ‘blazingly fast’ Internet speeds they are paying for,” said Chuck Bell of Consumers Union, a nonprofit that previously published Consumer Reports magazine.

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