New Yorkers: Use This Tool to Catch Your ISP Advertising False Speeds

If you're a New Yorker, now's your chance to get revenge on your crappy Internet service provider—by contributing data for an investigation by the state Attorney General that just might set a national precedent.

In the U.S., there are a handful of Internet service providers who run the show, and the lack of much competition means dominant ISPs can get away with murder. According to a recent reportby UK agency Ofcom, Americans are already charged far more than other countries for similar services—and they're not even getting what they've been promised for the price.

Back in June, the FCC put ISPs on blast for regularly failing to deliver the broadband speeds their customers were paying for. And in October, the New York State Attorney General's office announced that they were launching a formal investigation into three major ISPs: Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision.

As Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said then, "Families pay a huge cost already for internet access in New York, so I will not tolerate a situation in which they aren't getting what they have been promised."

And he wasn't bluffing. Schneiderman's office just launched an online tool to help New Yorkers catch unreliable ISPs in the act. Simply run a test at internethealthtest.org, screenshot your results, and send the screenshot in here along with some additional information.

Schneiderman has made several bold choices during his time in office, successfully going after Donald Trump for his unlicensed "Trump University," and successfully penalizing companies for "astroturfing," or writing false reviews of their own businesses. Most recently, he's taken on DraftKings and FanDuel, alleging that the fantasy sports sites are simply clever workarounds of anti-gambling legislation. If Schneiderman is victorious against the ISPs, he may well set a national precedent for ISPs to either provide more, or charge less.