Reduced Upload Speeds for Optimum Internet Customers

As of June 2021, Altice has reduced its upload speeds for its Optimum internet products. Instead of 35 Mbps upload speeds, the 300 and 500 Mbps Optimum plans will now be reduced to 20 Mbps upload speeds. Additionally the Gigabit plan’s upload speeds will be reduced from 50 Mbps to 35 Mbps. Plans will still cost the same amount, however.

This speed decrease will only apply to new customers. Customers already on one of Optimum’s internet plans will receive their original upload speeds but if they upgrade or downgrade plans, they will then have to drop to the slower upload speeds.

Altice reported their decision to reduce speeds was to bring them “in line with other ISPs and aligned with the industry.” They did not need to decrease upload speeds in order to manage the network and it seems they have only made this change because they didn’t want to provide faster speeds than they had to.

This decrease in performance for no real reason is why many consumers are so frustrated with the lack of competition among ISPs. Most ISPs are able to raise prices and decrease performance because over a quarter of Americans only have one ISP available to them in their area.

Without real competition, ISPs never have to worry about losing their customers for poor performance or exorbitant prices. Internet access is too essential for households to give up.

This is why it is so important that there are more rules and regulations around how ISPs conduct their business, especially when it comes to internet pricing, data caps and speed throttling.

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Written by:

Ari Howard

Associate Writer, Broadband & Wireless Content

Ari Howard is a staff writer Healthline and spent two years as a writer on the Allconnect team. She specialized in broadband news and studies, particularly relating to internet access, digital safety, broadband-… Read more

Edited by:

Robin Layton

Editor, Broadband Content

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