Christina Spicer  |  July 23, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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CablevisionLast week, a class action lawsuit was filed against Cablevision alleging that the company uses its customers’ wireless routers to provide a hotspot service in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Lead plaintiff Paul Jensen accuses the company of turning residential customers into Wi-Fi hotspots as a cheap work around to building its own infrastructure to compete with cellular providers’ Wi-Fi service. According to the Cablevision class action lawsuit, use of their customers’ wireless routers constitutes unlawful trespass and unjust enrichment.

According to the Cablevision class action lawsuit, cellular providers such as AT&T and Verizon provide consumers with Wi-Fi service via their infrastructure of cellular towers across the country. Cablevision decided to develop a public wireless network called Optimum Wi-Fi Hotspot. The class action lawsuit alleges that the company harmed its consumers when used the wireless networks its customers have in their homes to develop this network.

Jensen alleges that Cablevision does not ask for permission to use its customers’ wireless routers to provide this secondary network. He points out that Cablevision’s customer contract never mentions the existence of the secondary network they are providing to the public in their lease.

The class action lawsuit also alleges that Cablevision consumers now have “outsiders” using their home Wi-Fi networks and that this slows down internet speeds for consumers, uses up more electricity, and puts them at greater security risk.

“Engineers at Speedify, a technology company offering services to increase customers’ Internet connection speeds, have run tests on routers supplied to residential customers, which broadcast secondary Wi-Fi networks – exactly like those Cablevision supplies to its customers to establish its Optimum Wi-Fi Hotspots,” the plaintiff alleges in the Cablevision class action lawsuit.

“The purpose of the tests was to determine whether such equipment used more electricity than comparable equipment that was not emitting a second Wi-Fi network,” he continues. “The test established that such devices do use more electricity than routers that only emit one Wi-Fi network, even if no one ever connects to the second Wi-Fi network, and thus the engineers concluded that companies engaging in such practices externalize millions of dollars in costs onto their unsuspecting customers in order to establish these Wi-Fi networks,” the Cablevision class action lawsuit concludes.

The plaintiff also alleges that when he called Cablevision to request that they remedy the situation, he was told that the wireless router he paid Cablevision to use could not have the Optimum Wi-Fi Hotspot feature turned off.

“Cablevision configures the routers it leases to consumers so that the Optimum Wi-Fi Hotspot cannot be disabled. Thus, consumers wishing to opt out of broadcasting a secondary Wi-Fi network from their homes are left with no recourse other than to buy an entirely new wireless router, costing anywhere from $50 to $200,” contends the plaintiff in the Cablevision class action lawsuit.

According to the class action lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks restitution, unspecified compensatory and statutory damages, and injunctive relief on claims of a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trespass to chattels, unjust enrichment, state law claims.

Jensen is represented by Hank Bates, of Carney, Bates & Pulliam LLC in Little Rock Ark., Brian Ku of Ku & Mussman PA, of Miami Lakes, Fla., and Gillian Wade, of Milstein Adelman LLP, of Santa Monica, Calif.

The Cablevision Wi-Fi Hotspot Class Action Lawsuit is Jensen v. Cablevision Systems Corporation, Case No. 1:15-cv-04188, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New York.

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2 thoughts onClass Action Accuses Cablevision of Illegally Using Wireless Routers

  1. Genevieve Ross says:

    My husband and I have recently realized the over the course of a year that the internet complications we’ve experienced maybe due to the illegal act of Optimum involuntarily creating a homespot through our Wi-Fi router. Thus voilating our legal right to choose to share our Wi-Fi network and exposing us to harmful internet traffic which had slowed our speed significantly and negatively affected our Dell desktop. Complications with our network includes exposure to addware, spyware, malware, etc. Dell has been extremely helpful in providing a solution to our home desktop’s exposure to harmful viruses over 3 times. In addition we purchased McAfee products to aid against constant internet issues. All of these issues are unresolved as we believe it is largely due to Optimum’s illegal acts. Please tell me how I may join this class action suit and share my experience.

    1. Mike says:

      Genevieve, you have to be one of the dumbest person ever. In now way does WiFi work like you stated. Yes what Optimum did was stupid but in no way did it ever make you WiFi network less secure. You are getting viruses on your computer because you are going to websites that are giving you viruses. People like you are making the world dumber by talking without knowing what you are talking about.

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