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Cablevision To Offer 101 Mbps Down, No Caps
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:38 PM
from the like-a-drug dept.
from the like-a-drug dept.
nandemoari alerts us to news over at DSLReports that Cablevision will be offering subscribers 101-Mbps download service, a new US record. That's fast enough to download an HD movie in less than 10 minutes. The package, known as "Ultra," will launch on May 11 and will cost $99.95 a month. Upload speed is 15 Mbps and there are no monthly limits. Cablevision is also doubling the speed of its Wi-Fi service, which is available free to subscribers using hotspots across the Northeast. "...the company will be launching a new 'Ultra' tier on May 11. The new tier features speeds of 101Mbps downstream and 15Mbps upstream for $99.95 a month. That's an unprecedented amount of speed at an unprecedented price, suggesting that Cablevision just took the gloves off in their fight against Verizon FiOS. ... Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella confirmed for me that the $99.95 price is unbundled, and the new tier does not come with any kind of a usage cap or overage fees."
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Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Funny)
Now I need to find a town with Cablevision service to move to...
Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Informative)
I had my card in hand, looking for the local number to switch here in Dallas, but the story doesn't point out that they're only located in the Tri-State (NJ-NY-CT) area. Bummer. Cablevision, do you hear me?
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Tri-state (Score:4, Funny)
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
...and it's AK-HI-FL!
[I'm not shouting, but I am quoting someone who's shouting. Someone please tell the lameness filter.]
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:4, Informative)
I live in central jersey and I pay an extra $10 a month for their 30/5 plan right now. I can tell you that anytime I run a speed test I come in right around 27-30/5 regardless of when I run it. Cablevision's normal plan is 15/2 and most of the people who's houses I have been to can always hit that speed regardless when it is.
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Informative)
I live in Cablevision territory, and will explain just how good the service is. Now, I am out on the east end of Long Island, NY in a fairly normal residential neighborhood. What I see here is around 12 megabit down, 384k up. This is with the theoretical maximum of 15 megabit down on the normal Optimum Online service.
From what I have gathered by talking to Cablevision techs, the "Boost" package basically doubles the speeds, so you get a 30 megabit down with no caps, not sure on the upload speed. They also run the Boost service on a different frequency, so if you have a lot of people in the neighborhood with the regular service and they are sucking up the bandwidth, Boost customers will not get slowed down. Cablevision, at least out here, has plenty of bandwidth to handle providing the bandwidth. In addition to this, Cablevision has also been offering fiber optic connections up closer to New York City called Lightpath. While it is a business class offering, the fact that they have the bandwidth to offer it shows they can handle the data demand.
A big part of a new offering like this is the number of customers in an area that they expect will be using the service, but also if they are doing equipment upgrades. Fiber cables are fiber cables(for the most part), but the equipment used to push the data through those fiber cables is the limiting factor. If they upgrade that equipment, they could in theory have a jump in the bandwidth for a fairly low amount of labor.
Things in different areas COULD be different, but for the entire eastern half of Suffolk County, I have NEVER seen customers getting less than 8 megabit down with their Optimum Online service, except when there is a wiring issue in the house or neighborhood(which repair service can often fix in a few days).
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:4, Insightful)
To add to that, I live in southern Nassau county (between Suffolk and Queens, for you non-Long Islanders), and the downstream bandwidth I see hovers around 8 megabits on a "15" megabit plan, although I've seen it jump significantly higher on occasion. It's hard to tell when the limiting factor is the last mile or the remote server capping me.
I don't torrent but I've heard a lot of complaints from a friend who's been hit by bandwidth caps in the past. They do wildcard DNS ad serving by default but you can opt out. I can't remember the last time service has gone down, although I don't live at home anymore (I'm at college in Suffolk).
Verizon's hanging around the area, trying to spread FIOS as much as possible. Compared with the basic Optimum Online plan, my feeling is that FIOS is probably technically superior, but Cablevison does a better job of rewarding (or at least not pissing off) their customers than a company like Verizon.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
GP is most likely talking about a community that has all of its infrastructure (schools, commercial centers, utilities, police/fire, etc.) designed and constructed at roughly the same time, instead of the more traditional organic growth model that characterizes most areas.
One example of a planned community that I used to live near is Ashburn Village [wikipedia.org], in Virginia.
Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Funny)
I was going to moderate your post, but realized there is no '-1 Smug Bastard' rating...
Isn't it time slashdot gave us a few more choices to moderate with? I'm nominating that one...
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:4, Informative)
Troll does not mean unfunny.
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Re:Starting to pack my things... (Score:5, Funny)
I have had 100Mbps for years now... That single megabit won't make any difference.
Nigel: Well, it's one faster, innit? It's not 100. You see, most blokes, you know, will be downloading at 100. You're on 100 here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on 100 on your laptop. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty: I don't know.
Nigel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty: Put it up to 101.
Nigel: 101. Exactly. One faster.
Marty: Why don't you just make 100 faster and make 100 be the top number and make that a little faster?
Nigel: These go to 101.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a marketing thing, I think.
The explicitly avoided topic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah. Cablevision is notorious for some shady "stealth capping" policies, or at least was back in 2003-2004.
If you used too much of your upload bandwith (with "too much" being undocumented to the customer), you would have your upstream cap lowered to 150 kilobits/sec (from something like 1.5 Mbits) without any notice.
Re:The explicitly avoided topic... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:The explicitly avoided topic... (Score:4, Insightful)
Comcast's approach (bogus RST injection) was even nastier in some ways, since it would outright kill a connection instead of slowing it down. If you were using a protocol that didn't resume partial uploads (like Lotus Notes) you were completely screwed.
At least with CV's approach, you could still upload stuff, it just took forever because it was so slow.
In both cases, the companies never acknowledged that they engaged in such practices, at least not until quite a while after the public outcry.
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Re: (Score:2)
Yes, BUT! (Score:4, Funny)
They still don't offer NFL Network so, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What self respecting nerd/geek watches the NFL? Are you a spy for the jocks?
If it's for the stats (Score:3, Insightful)
Then you want Baseball.
Re:Yes, BUT! (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Yes, BUT! (Score:4, Funny)
They still don't offer NFL Network
Yet another reason to sign up with them.
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Two choices (Score:3, Insightful)
Either they're really going to regret promising that, or they're hiding some dirty little secret...
DOCSIS 3.0 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DOCSIS 3.0 (Score:5, Informative)
Not likely. In areas where there is no competition for broadband (like RTP for example), the cable companies have no incentive to increase bandwidth, and have shown over the last 10+ years that they will keep bandwidth at a minimum. Time Warner is really the only option here in Raleigh, NC. There are a few pockets that can get DSL, but there is no FTTH. The fastest DSL here, if you can get it, is 6Mbps, so Time Warner offers 7Mbps down/384 up for $50 a month. I don't see that increasing until there's some competition. Time Warner is currently trying to push a bill through in NC that makes it so cities can't even provide their own broadband to compete with them.
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Re: (Score:3)
I would like to see Comcast or TW offer 50Mbit Up/Down for traffic inside their own networks. Basically, enhanced speeds for all users inside the same WAN (local ISP). They own the network right? I'm willing to bet businesses with local branch offices would flock to the service.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, but are they rolling full IPv6 support, too? I couldn't care less about 100mbit speeds if I'm so NATted that most applications where I could make use of it don't work
Correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
(As always...) there you go, fixed that for you.
Great for botnets (Score:5, Insightful)
The last Cablevision subscriber I saw was a friend who had a Windows machine plugged in directly into the small cable modem, with a world-routable IP address. The machine was idle and the modem was blinking constantly during the whole time I was there, without any one logged it. Needless to say, my friend complained his machine was "starting to get slow". Translation: the machine was pwnd.
I shudder at the thought of having botnets take hold of vulneratble machines sitting on 100 Mbit/s pipes.
Unpossible (Score:3, Funny)
We've already had this discussion. A company improving their service or product offerings by impetus of competition is a fiction. If the government doesn't force them, subsidize it or directly provide it, it won't happen. Period, the end.
You may now commence sticking your fingers in your ears and going "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA" until Congress or some other branch of government takes credit for this.
Dubious speed claims (Score:5, Interesting)
OK, so they double-bond cable modems, giving you twice the usual speed to your desktop. Then you get on the same clogged, shared network as the rest of your neighborhood, and hope they have enough bandwidth upstream to handle the potential doubling of clients (from double-bonding). In a dense residential area (urban apartment buildings for example), I have never seen a cable company actually be able to back up their claims of speed, upload or download.
To me, this sounds as bogus as the dual-bond 56K modems where you had to buy two phone-lines just for data, and then you would want one for voice, and heck maybe even a fourth for FAX.
What's next, a seven-bladed razor?
Yay for Cablevision (Score:5, Interesting)
Now all we need is for Cablevision to drop the price by one order of magnitude. Then we can be competitive with South Korea!
Oh, and for all of you in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, I hate you. I hate you from the depths of the Charter service area, in the midwest. Bastards.
100 bucks!?!?!? (Score:5, Funny)
A hundred bucks a month for internet service is insane. For that kind of money a customer service rep should come over every other week and give me a blow job.
Re:100 bucks!?!?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Your friendly Cablevision rep.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do people complain about the cost of premium services? That's like complaining about the price of a Cadillac or Viper. If you don't value 100Mbit home service, buy something cheaper.
Why people complain about it. (Score:4, Informative)
We complain about it because people in other countries are getting far higher internet speeds for the money we currently pay for much lower internet speeds.
It's like complaining about the price of a Cadillac or Viper, and then finding out in Europe they can buy them for the price of a Honda.
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Cablevision "expresslink" ISP caching (Score:3, Interesting)
Cablevision also appears to have installed an ISP caching system they market as "expresslink":
http://www.optimum.com/online/expresslink.jsp [optimum.com]
So far, I have not noticed any ill effects of this, but it doesn't appear to be something you can opt-out of. So, even though you have a 100 mbps pipe, you may not be pulling content directly from the originating web site.
Something to keep in mind when deciding to become a Cablevision customer.
-ted
Re:Cablevision "expresslink" ISP caching (Score:5, Insightful)
They'd be smart to install intelligent caching boxes at local routing points to save themselves bandwidth. Proxy caches are a good thing for the Internet, and websites that don't work with them are both rare and broken.
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Now if... (Score:3, Insightful)
Now if they offered this in the SF Bay area and had static IPs I'd get it.
NYC (Score:3, Insightful)
No change for NYC (At lease where you'd want to live...)
You're still stuck with Time Warner for cable.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/images/charts/franchise_territories.jpg [nyc.gov]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Time Warner has no influence over Cablevision, other than being "buddy buddy" with them.
Each has their own monopoly over their given geographic area. In fact, the big boys (and CV is DEFINATELY one of them, not a "little guy" by ANY means!) have their own effective cartel with CableLabs.
Re:Funny how behind the US is (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect this offer from Cablevision won't last long, and $99 is ridiculously overpriced for something that ought to be nearly free like air and water.
Water isn't free. You pay for clean water via your taxes and/or water bill. Or you buy it bottled.
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Re:Funny how behind the US is (Score:5, Funny)
Water isn't free. You pay for clean water via your taxes and/or water bill. Or you buy it bottled.
Isn't it amazing how some people act like water falls free from the sky.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I did read about an irrigation authority that was suing a farmer because he installed too efficient of a rain water catching system on his land. They said that the rain water should be flowing to the irrigation system or the water table and the farmer should then get his allocation from the authority. This was in central Washington IIRC. In central WA, all politics are water.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Water isn't free. You pay for clean water via your taxes and/or water bill. Or you buy it bottled.
Isn't it amazing how some people act like water falls free from the sky.
I know that was said as a joke, but in many communities around the country a normal property owner may not have rights to the surface water on their land (including rainfall).
Re:Funny how behind the US is (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
"UP TO" means that they're advertising that speed, but their TOS will say that they don't guarantee that you'll actually get that. I have found with the various ISPs I've had that download is usually 75-90% what they advertise and upload is 40-60%, which is pretty galling, considering I would much more prefer a faster upload than download.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I routinely get above my rated line speed from my ISP for down/up. Sadly since I am at the threshold for their DSL service it's 1024/512, but still, that I routinely pull 1060, I'll not bitch about it. They also have stunning customer support, no caps that I need worry about at my speed, and no overage charges even if you do exceed a cap.
Per the CSR:
At your speed you will never hit the cap, even 24/7. If you move to where you can get 10/5 then you could hit the cap. If you did, the first time you would get a note on your bill informing you that the next time you exceed the cap you will be throttled to 5/2.5, then 2/1, then 1/.512 where you will stay till the next cycle. This throttling is in 1 gig blocks.
Basically this means if you exceed the cap of ~100 GB, then your connection will slow down. If you notice it and pause your torrents then the rest of your mo
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
considering I would much more prefer a faster upload than download.
I'm reporting you to the RIAA, you filthy scene pirate!
Re:101mpbs impossible. (Score:4, Informative)
The cable modem they're using has a gigabit port.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8675/ps8676/ps8678/product_data_sheet0900aecd8072a168.pdf [cisco.com]
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