AfterDawn: News

Cablevision now offering fastest cable Internet in the US, by far

New York-based ISP Cablevision has announced today that they will be offering all 3 million of their subscribers the option to upgrade to much speedier new DOCSIS 3.0 cable Internet, offering incredibly fast speeds of 101Mbps downstream and 15Mbps upstream for only $99.95 per month.

In comparison, competitor Verizon offers their FiOS fiber optic service for $140 USD per month with upload and download speeds of only 50Mbps.



The new "Ultra" tier makes Cablevision the clear winner in the market, with other cable companies such as Comcast and Charter offering only up to 50Mbps speeds, and at higher prices.

Even more notably perhaps, is the fact that Cablevision is a staunch opponent of metered billing and bandwidth caps, and the new tier will not have an usage caps or overage fees.

Cablevision added they are spending $300 million, (about $75 per user), to deliver the faster DOCSIS 3.0 connectivity.

The tier will be made available in two weeks, and I know I myself for one will be upgrading as soon as it does.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Apr 2009 1:01

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• 26 comments

• nonoitall

  Wow! An ISP that actually uses the money they get to maintain and upgrade their equipment, rather than line their pockets while their network sinks into the dark ages! Hopefully this will inspire some competition. The fastest we get here is 3 Mbps, but you have to pay a hefty price for such "fast" speeds, so we are stuck with 1.5 Mbps.

  28.4.2009 01:20 #1

• ROMaster2

  When I look around for internet providers in my area, I'll keep this one in mind.

  28.4.2009 01:23 #2

• KillerBug

  I can't wait for them to come to florida...my upstream is only 1.5mbps even though I have the best service available with 30mbps downstram.

  28.4.2009 02:36 #3

• ville30

  Had that in Finland for a while. 100megs upstream too. Only costs like 45 euroes. No bandwith caps ftw. None of the Finnish isps have caps.

  28.4.2009 06:58 #4

• bhetrick

  This sounds great. While other providers have that "the customer needs us" attitude, Cablevision is listening to the outcry and they're responding.

  28.4.2009 09:48 #5

• korgoth3

  our cable is supposedly 10mbps download but its throttled to about 1mbps during peak hours, leaving the only option dsl with att which is 5mbps.
  
  having 100 mbps would be nice, but its not going to happen for me.

  28.4.2009 11:02 #6

• emugamer

  Originally posted by korgoth3: our cable is supposedly 10mbps download but its throttled to about 1mbps during peak hours, leaving the only option dsl with att which is 5mbps.
  
  having 100 mbps would be nice, but its not going to happen for me.You're probably being throttled because you are not a Boost customer. Standard tier is 15Mbps (maybe you are at 10Mbps because you've been locked into it for a while?) Boost is an extra $9.99/month (for Optimum Voice customers). If you get Boost, you most likely will not be throttled since you are paying for a higher bandwidth. Trust me on that one. I've had Optimum Online for 6 months now and have probably downloaded about 500GB/month and uploaded half that. They don't care, as long as you pay. Cool thing is I got Boost free for a year when I signed up. But I'm definitely paying the extra $10/month when that promotion runs out.

  28.4.2009 12:16 #7

• LissenUp

  It's funny to see you all get so giddy about nothing. What a waste!!!! None of you will EVER EVER EVER EVER use that bandwidth..............EVER!!!!!!!!
  
  If you are then you are connecting to dozens and dozens and dozens of different websites and/or peers and pirating to an extent that SHOULD land you in jail because of the leeching.
  
  Example: Connect to Microsoft.com, ATI.com and Creative.com; establish 2 connections each (some have that limit) @ 600Kbps = 1.2Mbps per site X 3 sites = 3.6Mbps download rate.
  
  Example #2; Connect to 20 peers via BitTorrent (indicative of rampant piracy) @ MAYBE 300Kbps (as most users throttle their uploads like I do) = 6MMbps download speeds. Go get excited about something else people!

  28.4.2009 12:55 #8

• emugamer

  Originally posted by LissenUp: It's funny to see you all get so giddy about nothing. What a waste!!!! None of you will EVER EVER EVER EVER use that bandwidth..............EVER!!!!!!!!
  
  If you are then you are connecting to dozens and dozens and dozens of different websites and/or peers and pirating to an extent that SHOULD land you in jail because of the leeching.
  
  Example: Connect to Microsoft.com, ATI.com and Creative.com; establish 2 connections each (some have that limit) @ 600Kbps = 1.2Mbps per site X 3 sites = 3.6Mbps download rate.
  
  Example #2; Connect to 20 peers via BitTorrent (indicative of rampant piracy) @ MAYBE 300Kbps (as most users throttle their uploads like I do) = 6MMbps download speeds. Go get excited about something else people!Example #3; connect to a couple of servers at once and download at their max allowable speed.

  28.4.2009 13:02 #9

• LissenUp

  What's your point??
  
  Clarify your point, scenario, situation, what's being downloaded, who doing the downloading, etc., etc., etc.
  
  Max upload is contingent on the bandwidth of the provider. Most companies don't even allow unlimited and those with even mack daddy circuits like a T3 or an OC3 don't push up no 100Megs

  28.4.2009 13:40 #10

• malcdogg

  Well shoot. Wish I could get that where I stay. Who cares if I ever use all the bandwidth? I want it anyway! 'Cause I'm greedy like that, I want all of it, err'thang! And as the customer it pleases me to see companies actually remembering what customer service is and giving its clients what they want, faster internet for reasonable prices.
  
  The sad part is that we have to congratulate this company for doing what all these companies are supposed to do ANYWAY, improve their services for their customers.

  28.4.2009 15:00 #11

• emugamer

  Originally posted by LissenUp: What's your point??
  
  Clarify your point, scenario, situation, what's being downloaded, who doing the downloading, etc., etc., etc.
  
  Max upload is contingent on the bandwidth of the provider. Most companies don't even allow unlimited and those with even mack daddy circuits like a T3 or an OC3 don't push up no 100MegsI am allotted 30Mbps down with my plan and I use it at full speed every evening. I am allotted 5Mbps up and I use the full speed. And I can guarantee that if my max speed upped to 101Mbps, I'd be using every bit allowable. What I do is none of your business. Assume piracy if you want.

  28.4.2009 15:21 #12

• b18bek9

  sounds like Lissenup is either jealous he doesnt have it and knocking it for personal reasons one has to do with piracy and get over it please it cant be stopped and we all know it, or he doesnt like to see companies start to update their infrastructure since alot of companies are lacking that and adding caps and throttling ppl. If u pay for a service you should get to use the service to its max potential like most isp's state in the contract of 30mbs down or 16 down and so on an so forth what u do is ur own personal business but being a gamer and loving online play i think it would be great figuring theres not to many dedicated servers for xbox/ps3 games so with that a reliable/fast connection would help but how good is cablevisions connection consistency and drop out rates.

  28.4.2009 16:40 #13

• rayman72

  Originally posted by b18bek9: sounds like Lissenup is either jealous he doesnt have it and knocking it for personal reasons one has to do with piracy and get over it please it cant be stopped and we all know it, or he doesnt like to see companies start to update their infrastructure since alot of companies are lacking that and adding caps and throttling ppl. If u pay for a service you should get to use the service to its max potential like most isp's state in the contract of 30mbs down or 16 down and so on an so forth what u do is ur own personal business but being a gamer and loving online play i think it would be great figuring theres not to many dedicated servers for xbox/ps3 games so with that a reliable/fast connection would help but how good is cablevisions connection consistency and drop out rates.I have Cablevision. Most reliable ISP have used. Only reason it ever goes down is when we have a really bad storms and the line goes down in the area due to trees. Otherwise it's hardly ever down. HD looks great too on the TV.

  28.4.2009 17:55 #14

• DarkJello

  I switched to FiOS about a year ago because of endless problems with Cablevision, plus a few things out of their control. Their routers and cable boxes constantly needed replacing, which they made as easy as they could, but it's still a pain in the arse to be driving to Cabelvision hour round trip for something that shouldn't be breaking. Another is my house was on the end of the branch off of the main feed, and the picture quality on the TV would noticeably degrade when more people were watching TV, you could see it when kids were coming home from school and during prime time.
  
  FiOS doesn't offer that speed yet, but I've been much happier with the service so far, haven't had any equipment failure, and the internet always works. The only downside [a major one for me] is that I can't see the Ranger games in HD because Cablevision won't give out the rights, which they boast about in their commercials all the time.
  
  But regardless of me not using their service, or going back to it for at least some time, they are taking a step in the right direction, and hopefully setting a good example in the industry.

  28.4.2009 18:56 #15

• kubapolak

  The rest of the world has high speed internet, it's about time America catches up!

  28.4.2009 18:57 #16

• DarkJello

  Originally posted by kubapolak: The rest of the world has high speed internet, it's about time America catches up!The answer isn't landlines, it will [hopefully] be the spectrum that the FCC is opening up with the switch from analog to digital over air signal. That's the only way we will see a significant improvement in access to high speed internet. 3G just isn't going to cut it.

  28.4.2009 19:01 #17

• Pop_Smith

  This is good, it would be nice to see this spread in less than 10 years to a nationwide thing but that is probably a bit of a big wish.
  
  Personally I would like to see something in the order of a symmetrical 80Mbps connection.
  
  Also, when translated to MBps (bytes instead of bits) it's ~12.63MBps down and 1.875 up.
  
  I agree with what others have said, it is very exciting to me to see them upgrading their network, especially considering it is only costing them about a month-and-a-half of payments from each customer to upgrade them all to a very high speed connection that is cap-free.
  
  Now if only I can convince my city to lay fiber...

  28.4.2009 22:21 #18

• DarkJello

  Originally posted by Pop_Smith: ...
  Personally I would like to see something in the order of a symmetrical 80Mbps connection....
  
  Also, when translated to MBps (bytes instead of bits) it's ~12.63MBps down and 1.875 up.
  
  Now if only I can convince my city to lay fiber...Thanks for those numbers, easier to consume that way. I doubt any city will be installing fiberoptic when companies like Verizon are already doing it privately.
  
  I think symmetrical bandwidth has a good chance of showing up in the future as ISP's become better prepared for the two way exchange of information.

  28.4.2009 22:27 #19

• djgizmo

  Originally posted by LissenUp: It's funny to see you all get so giddy about nothing. What a waste!!!! None of you will EVER EVER EVER EVER use that bandwidth..............EVER!!!!!!!!
  Says you. and its not always about CONSUMER bandwidth. Some of us run businesses from our homes and need the bandwidth for uploading/downloading files to/from dedicated servers in data centers, having lan/wan parties, streaming digital content, watching hulu, and downloading from some sites that don't have caps. I know of plenty that don't cap in order to get the person off their server quicker.
  
  On top of it all, torrents/newsgroups would have OVERALL faster speeds vs 20mb connection.
  
  Better yet, if 2 people are are the same ISP with that connection, direct transfers would actually be useful again (Pro Tools sessions)

  28.4.2009 23:57 #20

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by DarkJello: Thanks for those numbers, easier to consume that way. I doubt any city will be installing fiberoptic when companies like Verizon are already doing it privately.
  
  I think symmetrical bandwidth has a good chance of showing up in the future as ISP's become better prepared for the two way exchange of information.No problem, I wanted the numbers and figured others would as well so I did the math (x = Mbps, x/8 = y, y = MBps).
  
  Thanks for letting me know Verizon was laying their fiber themselves, I didn't know that and it's good to know. Hopefully more companies will follow suit.

  29.4.2009 00:08 #21

• mIcKeLz

  Cool! That is a damn good offer.
  
  Just to share: here is Singapore one of the main 2 ISP has maximum
  10Mbps on offer for 48 S$, that would make 100Mbps a price of nominal 321 US$!!!

  29.4.2009 00:30 #22

• kapo13

  Hi
  
  Is this fibre optic thats being offered ?
  
  Its already in small towns all around me
  
  I ve had the pleasure of using it for a few months
  
  until I had to move , sob :( new town doesnt have fibre optic
  
  Im not good with numbers , but I can tell you I could do
  
  4+ gigs in 20 minutes , 14+ Gigs , I think in about 2+ hours
  
  How does that compare to this cablevision offer ?
  
  Im just curious , it came with phone and all services for
  
  about 70 dollars a month ( Canadian )
  
  I wish id never moved

  30.4.2009 19:05 #23

• pmshah

  Honestly, the only place you can have such fast real life transfers is RS who have internet connectivity in hundreds of GBPS and not MBPS.
  
  Other possibility is to be downloading something and watching HD streaming media simultaneously.

  30.4.2009 23:13 #24

• andypryce

  Quote:"In comparison, competitor Verizon offers their FiOS fiber optic service for $140 USD per month with upload and download speeds of only 50Mbps. "That sounds very expensive! Virgin Media in the UK offer 50Mb download for $74 per month and we think that's expensive.

  1.5.2009 02:57 #25

• DarkJello

  There is no upfront installation fee [for laying the fiber optic straight to your door] so I think the price is justified. I'm not sure how Cablevision plans to accommodate these speeds with their current infrastructure, or if there will be an additional fee to get hooked up with it in the first place.

  1.5.2009 10:42 #26