New York Attorney General Letitia James alleged that T-Mobile violated the state’s Affordable Broadband Act by applying a 50GB monthly data cap to its $15 low-income home Internet plan. Once a customer hit that limit, the plan’s maximum internet speed dropped from 25 Mbps to approximately 600–650 Kbps, according to the settlement document. The AG’s office found that a typical household could exhaust the 50GB allotment in about four days.
New York’s Affordable Broadband Act requires qualifying providers to offer eligible households either a $15 plan with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps, or a $20 plan at a minimum of 200 Mbps. The state’s position, as paraphrased from the settlement materials, is that T-Mobile’s post-cap throttling made the plan functionally non-compliant regardless of its advertised headline speed. The settlement document states: “After the data cap is reached, the customer’s maximum download speed is reduced from 25 Mbps to 600 Kbps.”
What T-Mobile Must Now Do
The settlement combines direct service changes with expanded access and new transparency requirements.
Under the settlement, T-Mobile must remove the data cap from its ABA home Internet plan entirely. Within 120 days of the settlement’s effective date, the company must also stop intentionally reducing enrolled customers’ download speeds below the ABA’s required minimum. Temporary speed reductions caused solely by network congestion are excluded from that prohibition.
The settlement requires T-Mobile to expand ABA plan availability to every address where it already provides residential fixed-wireless Internet service in New York. This closes a gap where the discounted plan had not previously been offered alongside the standard product. The company must also improve ABA plan visibility online so the relevant page appears in standard search results.
T-Mobile must submit compliance data to the AG’s office, including enrollment numbers and average download speeds for ABA customers. According to the AG’s office, “T-Mobile will end data caps that slowed the internet speeds of customers on ABA internet plans, offer ABA plans to more areas throughout the state and make it easier for eligible New Yorkers to find and sign up for affordable internet plans.”
What Eligible Customers Should Know
The settlement expands access but does not change who qualifies or how to apply.
The settlement does not automatically enroll anyone, and eligibility rules remain unchanged. Qualifying households are those participating in Medicaid, SNAP, HEAP, school-lunch assistance, or SCRIE/DRIE, as well as those meeting applicable income thresholds. Customers still need to verify eligibility and apply through T-Mobile’s ABA enrollment process , and may also want to consider whether they are paying too much for other services.
The congestion carve-out is worth understanding clearly. Temporary speed drops caused by network congestion remain permitted under the settlement terms; the prohibition covers only intentional throttling below the statutory floor. T-Mobile’s plan page had previously disclosed the reduced post-cap speed, so the state’s action centered on compliance with the ABA’s service requirements rather than on undisclosed terms.
This settlement addresses T-Mobile’s fixed-wireless home broadband offering under New York law. The action concerns that specific residential product and does not extend to the company’s standard mobile phone plans.
What Comes Next
The 120-day implementation window is the next concrete milestone, with open questions remaining about real-world performance.
The compliance deadline, running 120 days from the settlement’s effective date of November 9, 2026, is the nearest benchmark to watch. Compliance reporting submitted to the AG’s office could help clarify whether enrolled customers are receiving speeds that meet the statutory minimum in practice. How T-Mobile manages congestion and network prioritization after the cap is removed remains an open question that the official materials do not resolve.
