Cablevision To Offer Customers Free Wi-FiWill cost about $100 per customer, take two years to finish... 06:13PM Thursday May 08 2008 by Karl Bodetags: competition · business · wireless · bandwidth · cable · CablevisionTipped by TK Junk Mail  Cablevision added a new wrinkle in their competitive fight against FiOS today. While discussing their first quarter earnings in a conference call this morning, the company announced they intend to offer free Wi-Fi to all of their customers within two years. Non-customers will be able to access the network for an as-yet-undisclosed fee. Cablevision COO Thomas Rutledge had this to say about the new network: This network is being built using our existing infrastructure overlaying a wireless mesh network. When completed, any Optimum Online customer will essentially have service anytime, anywhere within our footprint at speeds up to 1.5 megabits, using any of their portable devices which are WiFi enabled. Rutledge went on to say the network will cost about $100 per customer (Cablevision has 3.1 million cable customers). "I would say customer retention and growth are dual objectives" of the Wi-Fi launch, Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella tells me. You might recall that Verizon once offered free Wi-Fi in Manhattan, but scrapped the project back in 2005 because they feared it cannibalized the sale of their (then) $80 EVDO service. Given that Time Warner Cable and Comcast are preparing to resell WiMax, and I'm seeing hints that Cox may build out its own LTE network, I asked Maiella if they had any more ambitious plans, but the company wasn't prepared to comment beyond what they announced today. I'm torn between thinking that this is a good move to offer value added services to consumers, and wondering if free Wi-Fi won't be largely irrelevant in the NY metro market within two years, given NYC & Long Island will certainly be a major launch markets for any WiMax or LTE deployments. More information can be found via the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press.
Related:- Cable Has Prime Cellular Backhaul Opportunity
- Cablevision: “Let’s Take This Outside”
- Free Cablevision Wi-Fi Install Coming Along
- DSL Takes A Beating
- Cablevision Holds Up To FiOS Competition
- Cablevision Rolling Out DOCSIS 3.0
- Telcos Lost Both Voice and Broadband To Cable in Q2
- U-Verse Hitting Jacksonville This Week?
|
 |  | 
Lowtarget
15Mbps Roadrash
Premium
join:2003-12-22
Alger, OH
clubs: | Re: WiFi, Wimax, LTE - looks like NYC the chosen land After the free wifi is up and running. I can see everyone talking about how laggy it is. Even though they are getting the service for free.  | |
| | | 
lg75
join:2003-01-31
Bronx, NY
 ·Optimum Online
edit:
May 8th, @06:42PM
| Re: WiFi, Wimax, LTE - looks like NYC the chosen land It might be slow, but little things like this is what would make me stay with them once FiOS is available in my area. Right now I haven't made up my mind yet, but if I'm able to use my WiFi enabled mobile phone anywhere, then I wouldn't need an unlimited data plan from my wireless provider. | |
| | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| said by TK Junk Mail :All this competition should be good for people in the NYC area. Lot's of choices and good coverage whether at home or on the move. This isn't going to be real competition, although morbidly this sounds like the failed/dead/killed LI muni wifi project. This isn't real competition since Cablevision doesn't serve Manhattan, Queens, 1/2 of Bronx, Staten Island, and also most of NJ closest to Manhattan.
Also anyone considering deploying a wifi network is retarded. They are offering 1.5 mbit speed! The next revision/generation of cellphone internet (whatever it is) will slaughter this project. 1.5mbit is competitive with EVDO and old UTMS. HSDPA is equivelent in speed, and LTE and WiMAX, or any kind of upgrade really will be death. Who wants wifi when cell coverage will always be bigger and more reliable? Also what about dead spots, Suffolk county has alot of farms........ | |
| | | 
RickNY
Premium
join:2000-11-02
New York
·Optimum Online
| Re: WiFi, Wimax, LTE - looks like NYC the chosen land said by patcat88 :Who wants wifi when cell coverage will always be bigger and more reliable? Who wants to pay extra for paying for data on cell coverage when existing customers of OOL can use this for free? This is a perk to retain OOL customers and give them an edge against their competitors.
said by patcat88 :Also what about dead spots, Suffolk county has alot of farms........ Yeah, especially since we've all been sitting out in the middle of the cornfields out here wondering why we have no internet coverage. | |
| 
bcronin
Premium
join:2004-03-27
Hyde Park, NY
| CV does not just cover NYC metro Please remember not everyone with CableVision is in the NYC area. I am in the mid-Hudson Valley (north of Poughkeepsie) and to me, this sounds GREAT (as long as they make good on their promise to make it available across their *entire* footprint). Nobody else will offer anything like this in this area for many years to come, I don't think ... | |
| | shadowgod
join:2001-12-08
Torrington, CT | Re: CV does not just cover NYC metro Yes does this include everybody? What about us here in NW CT will we be getting this? | |
| majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY
| Already up for atleast a year Cablevision has already had this up. HEre in huntington village, at the ferry terminal in port jeff and in merrik i think.
They will just expanbd it to more parts of their area. The ssid is optimumwifi.
When you connect you have to sign in with your optonline username and password . | |
| | 
HardwareGeek
join:2003-11-15
Brooklyn, NY | Re: Already up for atleast a year Also remember not all of NYC is covered by Cablevision, only the bronx and parts of Brooklyn are covered by cablevision.
The other half of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island get service from Time Warner. | |
| | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY | Re: Already up for atleast a year I wish I had Cablevision at my home in Queens, more channels, and 30/5 internet, unfathomable on TWC. | |
| sunny8294
Shqipe
join:2001-03-15
Localhost ;) | Nice Now, this is some initiative that deserves credit. Though the speed could be around 3 mbps but 1.5 is a very good start.
--
.:: Sunny ::. | |
| | | 
Jmartz
join:2000-07-20
Tenafly, NJ
| Re: Nice! A cablevision technician the other day during an installation told me that Cablevision is trying to go wireless for all their services. Internet, Phone and he even said they are trying to figure out how to have a box at each customer that takes the video and streams it to the cable boxes as opposed to having to use coax to each box for TV service. It sounds far fetched, but I guess if the technology is out there or being developed, it could be a good thing. This sounds like Cablevision is experimenting with this stuff already. If they can get OOL and OV working over this wireless system, then having a wireless device in each customers house to transmit digital video to cable boxes I guess is possible. | |
| | | 
Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| Re: Nice! said by Jmartz :A cablevision technician the other day during an installation told me that Cablevision is trying to go wireless for all their services. Internet, Phone and he even said they are trying to figure out how to have a box at each customer that takes the video and streams it to the cable boxes as opposed to having to use coax to each box for TV service. It sounds far fetched, but I guess if the technology is out there or being developed, it could be a good thing. This sounds like Cablevision is experimenting with this stuff already. If they can get OOL and OV working over this wireless system, then having a wireless device in each customers house to transmit digital video to cable boxes I guess is possible. That is pretty cool! As much as I hate Cablevision due to my many problems I had while I was a OOL customer for 5-7 years, I have to admit that they always seem to be the first to come out with cool new technologies... FIOS is awesome and all, but I don't see them doing this anytime soon... CV still is small enough to be able to think up these things and implement them relatively cheaply and easily compared to the mega corporations that span the entire country like Verizon or Comcast.
-Tzale
--
Neoconservatives (G.W.B) are not true conservatives. A conservative believes in defending the Constitution. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - RON PAUL & MURRAY SABRIN (NJ GOP FRONT RUNNER for SENATE) 2008
| |
| | | majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY | A cablevision tech also told me that their network is kinda maxed out at the moment. So iguess they are looking into wirelesss since its probably cheaper then upgraded the network other ways. | |
| | | |
Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| Re: Nice! said by majortom1029 :A cablevision tech also told me that their network is kinda maxed out at the moment. So iguess they are looking into wirelesss since its probably cheaper then upgraded the network other ways. I think he was referring to wireless as a replacement for the in house use of coax for delivery of their services. The existing hybrid coax system would still be used. I think eventually CV will be forced to extend the fiber to the home, but they can probably get another decade or so out of their current HFC system.
-Tzale
--
Neoconservatives (G.W.B) are not true conservatives. A conservative believes in defending the Constitution. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - RON PAUL & MURRAY SABRIN (NJ GOP FRONT RUNNER for SENATE) 2008
| |
| | | | 
GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ | Will you stop talking to CV (or Verizon) techs. The only people that know less then us about their current projects and future plans are the techs and phone reps for these companies. | |
| | 
Jeffrey
Bye George, 1937-2008
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Edgartown, MA
clubs: | I'm sticking with Fios too, but if CV offers this wireless at an interesting price-point for non-CV subscribers, I'd take a look at it for general wireless access around the area. | |
| NY Tel
Premium
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY | Price Point This should definitely be interesting.... | |
| | | |
|
|
WiFi, Wimax, LTE - looks like NYC the chosen land
Nice!