# Cablevision Goes for U.S. Broadband Speed Record



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

From today's New York Times:

By SAUL HANSELL

_"While it may not match the very best broadband deals in other countries, Cablevision will start offering the fastest home Internet service in the United States next month.

The new service will offer download speeds of 101 megabits per second and upload speeds of 15 Mbps for a cost of $99.95 per month. It will be available May 11 to all 5 million of the people in areas served by Cablevision, mainly in the New York City suburbs. [more]"_


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## Mertzen (Dec 8, 2006)

Gah, I wish Time Warner would follow, since I am in one of their areas. Or FIOS open some more areas with 20/20.


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## Fontano (Feb 7, 2008)

What good is 101mb per second, when you are probably capped at 20gb a month?

I guess it is so you can reach your cap level faster, and start having to pay penalties or have your service removed.

NOTE: This is just a comment in general about the whole thing, I don't know if Cablevision is one of the sellers of unlimited but limited service


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

As a home FiOS internet customer myself, I this quote from Verizon's Eric Rabe at the end of the article very interesting:

"_We can go to 400 mbps with the technology we are now deploying -- without giving up TV channel space. We can add higher speeds at the time of our choosing, but no announcement to make today._"


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## njblackberry (Dec 29, 2007)

At this point, Cablevision doesn't cap usage.

I wonder if this work is the reason my service has gone downhill several times in the last few months. And when they come out (on their dime) it is always outside of the house and has to be referred to engineering!


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

More on this story from PC Magazine:

*Verizon: Cablevision's 101 Mbps is 'Parlor Trick'*

04.29.09

By Chloe Albanesius

Verizon is not too happy with Cablevision's plans to offer 101-megabits-per-second of unlimited Internet access.

Cablevision's promises are nothing but a "parlor trick," Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe wrote in a Thursday blog post.

"With today's technology, you don't have to break much of a sweat to deliver 100 Mbps to a few customers," Rabe wrote. "But given the inherent limits of the cable platform, a cluster of bandwidth junkies living near each other could be a real problem. *One estimate is that a single 101 Mbps customer would use some 60 percent of the capacity in a neighborhood. Other users? Outta luck.*"

Cablevision's Optimum Online Ultra will provided 101 megabits to its entire service area starting May 11 for $99.95 per month.

Verizon has been able to deliver 100 Mbps over its FiOS system for two years, Rabe said. The company's fiber-to-the-home network can deliver 400 Mbps to a single home, and a 50 Mbps service has been up and running for a year, he said.

Rabe acknowledged that "competition is a key innovation driver, so in that sense FiOS along with [Cablevisions'] product and the ultra-high-speed services of others, have the potential to spur the entire industry to breed new ideas at all levels&#8230;applications, content, information as well as transport," he wrote.

"Time will tell whether [Cablevision] and [high-speed] DOCSIS are up to the task," he continued. "For now, [Cablevison's] leap to 101 Mbps is about market positioning and bragging rights rather than delivering a useful service to a mass customer market."


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## dorfd1 (Jul 16, 2008)

I never seen a cable modem that supported giga speed ehternet.

why offer a speed that no one can get.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

dorfd1 said:


> I never seen a cable modem that supported giga speed ehternet.
> 
> why offer a speed that no one can get.


Wouldn't that be 1000 Mbps? This 100 Mbps. Apparently Docsis 3.0 cable modems supports up to 160 Mbps down and 120 Mbps up. /steve


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

I added Optimum WebBoost to my account last month for an extra $9.95/month ($54.90 total), bringing my download speed from a 15Mps cap to 30Mbp and upload speed from 1 Mpbs to 5Mpgs. So it looks like for an extra $45/month I can go to 100Mbps ... 

I really do wonder about that though because as the Verizon blog points out, it's shared bandwidth, not exclusive, so will I really see that speed on an average basis?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> I added Optimum WebBoost to my account last month for an extra $9.95/month ($54.90 total), bringing my download speed from a 15Mps cap to 30Mbp and upload speed from 1 Mpbs to 5Mpgs. So it looks like for an extra $45/month I can go to 100Mbps ...
> 
> I really do wonder about that though because as the Verizon blog points out, it's shared bandwidth, not exclusive, so will I really see that speed on an average basis?


And even if you got a guaranteed 100 Mbps, how will you use it? If you're in a household with lots of simultaneous multimedia users, it might make sense. Otherwise, it does seem like more of a marketing tactic. For those that may not be aware, Cablevision has lost a lot of customers to Verizon in this neck of the woods over the past year or two. /steve


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## dorfd1 (Jul 16, 2008)

Steve said:


> Wouldn't that be 1000 Mbps? This 100 Mbps. Apparently Docsis 3.0 cable modems supports up to 160 Mbps down and 120 Mbps up. /steve


the offered speed is 101 mbps since very few cable modems support giga speed ethernet no one will get 101 mbps


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

dorfd1 said:


> the offered speed is 101 mbps since very few cable modems support giga speed ethernet no one will get 101 mbps


Guess you didn't check out the rest of the article.  Cablevision is going Docsis 3.0 with this. /steve


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## xmguy (Mar 27, 2008)

Steve said:


> More on this story from PC Magazine:
> 
> *Verizon: Cablevision's 101 Mbps is 'Parlor Trick'*
> 
> ...


I agree. I have Charter Comm 10/1 and they just started a 100GB cap. That seems like alot until you add online video streaming sites like Hulu into the mix. It's about 1GB per 1 hour of Hulu at HQ. I'm planning to switch to my local DSL provider for the same speed but with no caps and no plans for one in the future. But 100Mb is crazy.
With cable internet the network is shared. DSL is a direct connection back to the backend.


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## xmguy (Mar 27, 2008)

Drew2k said:


> I added Optimum WebBoost to my account last month for an extra $9.95/month ($54.90 total), bringing my download speed from a 15Mps cap to 30Mbp and upload speed from 1 Mpbs to 5Mpgs. So it looks like for an extra $45/month I can go to 100Mbps ...
> 
> I really do wonder about that though because as the Verizon blog points out, it's shared bandwidth, not exclusive, so will I really see that speed on an average basis?


Wow both Charter Cable internet for 10 MB down and 1Mb up is $65 and DSL is $70 for 10 Mb down 768Kb up in my area.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

The biggest issue is most people will never max this out even with multiple streams. This is one of those things where people will go find stuff to download just to see if they can hit it. It's not really practical at this point. Now once Blue Ray downloads start to become the normal download from places it might start to make more sense but right now it's just going to be bragging rights as they have said and p2p lovers.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

You're right. "Most" people won't. 

I, however, would. Right now it takes about 20 minutes to download a "1-hour" show in HD at my fiber speeds.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

With 100Mbs down and folks who will take advantage of that speed for lots of large downloads (Netflix, MSDN, VOD, etc.), how soon before Cablevision starts metering downloads and charging by the Mb over a certain limit? I wouldn't put it past them ...


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Drew2k said:


> With 100Mbs down and folks who will take advantage of that speed for lots of large downloads (Netflix, MSDN, VOD, etc.), how soon before Cablevision starts metering downloads and charging by the Mb over a certain limit? I wouldn't put it past them ...


That's assuming that Netflix or whoever is doing the hosting doesn't throttle their side.

Metered bandwidth is not the solution but it is much much cheaper then the real solution.

We're way behind on our infrastructure for the internet and we could always take Sweden's approach to help reduce volume.


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