Cablevision is going renegade. Unlike many other operators, the company has come out against bandwidth caps. And now to add to that rebel stance, Cablevision is introducing a new speed tier at $99.95 per month with 101 Mbps downstream. That’s higher than anything else offered in the US, and marks the first time we’ve seen someone break the 100 Mbps barrier on this continent. It’s remarkable that only 18 months ago we were looking at 20 Mbps as a record speed tier. It’s a wonder what competition (and DOCSIS 3.0 technology) will do.
Cablevision has also made headlines by offering free Wi-Fi access to subscribers at certain hotspots in its footprint. As many have pointed out, the MSO is going all out to counteract Verizon, which has come on strong in the NYC area. What’s interesting is how innovative Cablevision is willing to be. Remember, Cablevision is also the cable company fighting for Network DVR. It may not be one of the largest players on the scene, but Cablevision continues to do interesting things.
Full press release after the jump.
CABLEVISION BREAKS THE CENTURY MARK – INTRODUCES NATION’S FIRST 101 MEGABITS-PER-SECOND HIGH-SPEED INTERNET
SERVICE, OPTIMUM ONLINE ULTRA
New Level Of Service Solidifies Optimum As Fastest Internet Product,
Whether Wired Or Wireless Through Optimum WiFi,
Leverages Potential Of DOCSIS 3.0
Optimum Online Ultra Available Across Cablevision’s Service Area
On May 11 For $99.95 Per Month
Company Also Announces It Is Doubling Optimum WiFi Downstream
Speeds, To Up To 3.0 Megabits-Per-Second
BETHPAGE, NY, April 28, 2009 – Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced the launch of Optimum Online Ultra, a new high-speed Internet product that will deliver the nation’s fastest downstream broadband connections, up to 101 megabits-per-second (Mbps), over Cablevision’s fiber optic network that passes approximately five million homes and businesses in the New York metropolitan area. The service, which delivers upstream speeds of up to 15 Mbps, will be offered across the company’s entire service area starting May 11.
Cablevision also announced that it was doubling the downstream speed of its Optimum WiFi wireless Internet service, to up to 3.0 Mbps – significantly faster than expensive cell phone data plans. Earlier this month, the company announced that its Optimum Online customers had already used Optimum WiFi to access the Internet wirelessly more than a million times.
Optimum Online Ultra, which leverages the potential of DOCSIS 3.0 and far exceeds the speeds available from any other cable or telco provider – at a significantly lower cost – builds upon the enormous success and market credibility established by Optimum Online over more than a decade. Optimum Online has achieved a broadband market share in Cablevision’s service area of more than 75 percent, and is the most highly-penetrated high-speed Internet service in the country, used by more than 52 percent of the homes passed by Cablevision’s fiber optic network.
“Optimum Online Ultra firmly solidifies Optimum as the fastest Internet service in the home, at work and through the air over Optimum WiFi,” said Tom Rutledge, Cablevision’s chief operating officer. “This is a perfect complement to our existing high-speed data products, which
are fast, reliable and far superior to anything available from our competitors. There is a reason Optimum Online is the most popular and highly-penetrated broadband service in the nation, and Optimum Online Ultra continues this proud tradition and our longstanding commitment to speed, performance and value.”
The new level of Internet service will be available for $99.95 per month, and includes the advanced features and configurations that are offered as part of the Optimum Online Boost premium tier, which delivers speeds of up to 30 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream.
These features include:
• Up to 15 e-mail addresses, with 1 gigabyte of storage per address, for a total of 15 gigabytes of storage, and the ability to send extremely large attachments in excess of 20 megabytes.
• Web hosting capabilities, with easy-to-use sitebuilder tools that enable customers to create and maintain their own personal or commercial Web sites, and 12 gigabytes of hosted space.
• Advanced configurations including DDNS, Port 25 and Port 80.
The basic level of Optimum Online continues to be the fastest entry-level high-speed Internet service offered by any cable or phone company in the country, delivering speeds of up to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream.
Last fall, Optimum Online was named the top high-speed Internet service provider in the East Region in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Internet Service Provider (ISP) Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM. The study, which ranked ISPs based on customer satisfaction across a range of key product attributes including performance and reliability, cost, customer service and billing, scored Optimum Online higher than all other broadband providers and phone companies in Cablevision’s region. Optimum Online has also received the top ranking of any cable broadband service for four out of the last five years in PC Magazine’s Annual Readers’ Survey.
Cablevision is currently deploying Optimum WiFi wireless Internet access in commercial and high-traffic locations across its service area as a free value-added benefit to Optimum Online customers. Optimum WiFi has been activated across the company’s Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester service areas, and in areas of New Jersey, and is the nation’s largest and most advanced WiFi network, delivering speeds of up to 3.0 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream, faster than expensive cell phone data plans that can cost upwards of $100 per month or more. Optimum WiFi has already been used to connect to the Internet more than 1 million times, with thousands of new customers discovering the service every week. For more information and detailed coverage maps, visit http://www.optimumwifi.com
About Cablevision
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) is one of the nation’s leading media and entertainment companies. Its cable television operations serve more than 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area. The company’s advanced telecommunications offerings include its iO TV® digital television, Optimum Online® high-speed Internet, Optimum Voice® digital
voice-over-cable, and its Optimum Lightpath integrated business communications services. Cablevision operates several successful programming businesses, including AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv, through Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, and serves the New York area as publisher of Newsday and other niche publications through Newsday Media Group. In addition to these businesses, Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. The company also operates New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre, and the Chicago Theatre, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.
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All praise to Cablevision! :)
Good – This is awesome!!!
Bad – The wife will never let me have it.
Yeah, Comcast and Time Warner-Stop being “Sucktastic”.
with everything they own you’ll think they’ll give you a price break with cable prices, they raking billions out of sports costumers. And the suckers don’t realize that.
I want to move back to NYC!
I think that’s awesome, I will get it as soon as it comes out. I pay $50 for 15 Mps. I think it’s a good deal.
Due to inherent limitations of cable technology, I wonder what’s the true speed going to be though. 50 Mbps during peak hours?
Great services looking for great connectivity
Ivan Y- I’d take 50 Mbps in peak hours. But you’re right, it’s about peak delivery to individual modems. DOCSIS 3 by itself doesn’t do anything to increase overall capacity.
Ivan, about the 50Mbps on peak hours… if one pays for 100Mbps that has to be the connection speed at all times or CV could expect a class action suit, from deceiving advertisement to fraud… that’s unless the fine print to which a user agrees upon subscription states that speeds are not guaranteed and can fall below XMbps. So a piece od advice to everyone: do not sign up blinded by the luring huge speed. Read the Terms of Service thoroughly to avoid nasty surprises.
Realistically it’s probably not going to be that fast but even if you shave off a 20% loss of speed due to high traffic or such you’ll still have plenty for an affordable price! Most importantly (at this time) you’re already lucky if you live in an area that can get that service!
Cablevision will not work for me because in “the land of the free” if an area “belongs” to a cable company, it can’t be served by another… I thought that the concept of splitting the city areas by “families” only applied to the Mafia! Apparently not!
In my area not only there is no FIOS availability, plus doesn’t belong to Cablevision… so I am out of luck! BTW FIOS is a Joke they haven’t deployed squat in NYC or Brooklyn, nor they will tell you when it’s planned for your area to get FIOS service.
Congrats to those who can get the new service… when you do start blogging on its quality!
I am current have cablevision (norwalk, ct office) and the service has been quite stable the last few years. when they where first signing up lots of people they had problems of low bandwidth but i get a solid 10/1 now.
Also the wifi is nice and seems to be anywhere they have done a business install.
don’t count on it. i recently (this year) dropped cablevision for fios, what a difference. cablevision was consistently slow, the only times i got top speeds were very late (read: 12am-7am). with fios i max my connection everyday all day. fios plans to roll out 100Mb+ and is already testing those speeds with employee’s. i live in new york, westchester county and we’ll be getting the 100Mbit cablevision, but i’m not switching back for anything. this is a marketing ploy and i doubt anyone will ever see those speeds in real life situations from cablevision.
oh, and btw, cablevision throttles. i ran many tests to prove it and also got a csr to admit it to me.
i’ll take stability and freedom of download over random bursts of speed, my fios is 20down/20up.
Big deal.
http://policyblog.verizon.com/PolicyBlog/Blogs/policyblog/EricRabe9/614/SomeThoughtsonCablevisions101MbpsSpeed.aspx
I left Cablevision a long time ago for FiOS and have never looked back. The speeds are consistent, the TV picture is better, I have more channels, and I have not ever noticed a problem with the phone.
Where was Cablevision 5 years ago when FiOS wasn’t around. How come my cable bill alone was over $200 yet all of a sudden they can offer a Triple Play for less than $100? They raped us all and now we are supposed to believe anything they say.
Screw the Dolans!