Cablevision: Free Wi-Fi in Long Island

Cablevision has finished the first phase of a $300 million wireless Internet network, reports Bloomberg. The service is free if you subscribe to Cablevision’s cable modem service.

Cablevision’s free Wi-Fi service will extend throughout commercial areas of Long Island’s Nassau County, parts of adjoining Suffolk County and at all commuter train stops on Long Island. The new Cablevision Wi-Fi network is already the largest WiFi network in the country, according to one analyst at the Yankee Group.

Cablevision says with their Optimum WiFi you can:

• Check e-mail from the train platform
• Surf the Internet from a restaurant
• Shop online while relaxing in a park

The company is deploying BelAir 100S nodes that can be mounted on cable strands. It supports both DOCSIS 2.0 and Euro-DOCSIS 2.0 interfaces and can be plant-powered at 40 to 90 V AC, the cable operator’s voltage of choice. Cablevision also utilizes Cisco Aironet 1500 Series mesh access points (right) mounted on utility poles.

Cablevision’s Wi-Fi service is expected to reduces customer defections and convince existing TV customers to add Internet service, spokesman Jim Maiella said. The company has 70 percent to 80 percent of the high-speed Internet customers in its service areas, he said, the highest penetration in the cable industry.

Cablevision’s Wi-Fi service is available only to customers of Optimum Online, their cable modem service. The Wi-Fi network is expected to extend to the rest of Cablevision’s territory by 2010. The cable operator has more than 2.4 million Internet subscribers, more than half of the homes passed by its cable systems.

According to the NCTA, the Top 25 Multiple System Operators in the United States — by basic video subscriptions include:

1. Comcast Cable — 24,691,000 subs
2. Time Warner Cable — 13,306,000 subs
3. Cox Communications — 5,420,000 subs
4. Charter Communications — 5,208,000 subs
5. Cablevision Systems — 3,125,000 subs
6. Bright House Networks — 2,339,741 subs

Comcast, which serves a total of 24.2 million cable customers, 14.7 million digital cable customers, and 12.9 million high-speed internet customers, is the largest cable television company in the United States and the second largest Internet service provider.

Comcast is also now the fourth largest phone company with 5.6 million customers. Cable carriers own nearly 85% of the residential VoIP market. Comcast says roughly two-thirds of their new broadband customers switched from DSL, and about one-fifth of their customers are now signing up for triple play bundles.

Comcast’s quarterly earnings report indicate the company added 555,000 Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) customers during the second quarter — with penetration around 12.5% of homes passed or 5.6 million customers. Phone revenue increased 50% from $425 million to $640 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Their broadband additions (278,000 broadband customers added in the quarter), better than the broadband line additions posted by both AT&T (46,000) and Verizon (54,000) this quarter.

Comcast is putting up $1.05 billion as part of the huge Mobile WiMAX deal with Sprint, Clearwire, Google and Intel, with Time Warner Cable fronting another $550 million and Bright House $100 million. The $14.5 billion venture, which will be called Clearwire, includes Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, Google and Bright House Networks. Cablevision did not join this party.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The new Clearwire will give Comcast a wireless alternative to AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The new company expects to cover 100 million U.S. citizens by the end of 2010 and reach 200 million potential users by 2015.