Cablevision, Verizon settle ad dispute

Cablevision and Verizon said Monday they have settled a false advertising suit filed by Cablevision against its rival over the speeds of their respective Internet services.

“Cablevision and Verizon have reached an agreement to resolve the dispute without further need for litigation,” the companies said in a statement. They gave no details of the agreement. The ads in question stopped running Saturday.

Cablevision, the Bethpage-based cable, telephone and Internet provider, which owns Newsday, had alleged in the suit filed Dec. 6 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn that a multimedia Verizon campaign claiming Cablevision's Internet speeds are slower than promised was not true.

Verizon, in the ad campaign that began in September promoting its FiOS fiber-optic service, cited a Federal Communications Commission study finding that Cablevision provided 59 percent of promised Internet speeds during peak hours.

Cablevision said in the suit it has upgraded its system since that study and that newer examinations by the FCC conducted in September and October "show that Cablevision delivers Internet speeds that are very close to, and often above, the speeds that Cablevision advertises.”