Cablevision Completes First Phase of Wi-Fi Overlay

Cablevision Systems Thursday activated more swaths of its Optimum Wi-Fi wireless mesh network, which is free to its 2.4 million wired broadband subscribers and completing its “initial phase” of deployment.

The latest zones going into service are high-traffic areas in suburban Nassau and Suffolk counties and commuter-rail platforms and station parking lots in Long Island, N.Y. Cablevision, based in the Long Island suburb of Bethpage, said its Wi-Fi offers wireless broadband symmetrical speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second to its 2.4 million Optimum Online subscribers.

When fully built, the wireless high-speed service will blanket its franchised geography around New York City and give it a leg up on fixed-wire broadband rivals that lack a wireless dimension.

Previously, Cablevision said it activated Wi-Fi in these areas: Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry Line; commercial zones in Sag Harbor, Northport and Huntington on Long Island; Westport and New Canaan, Conn.; Peekskill, Pleasantville and Pelham in Westchester/Hudson Valley, N.Y.; Denville, Ridgewood and Tenafly, N.J.; and Parkchester in the Bronx.

Cablevision provides information on its Wi-Fi on its Web site.

"We believe free and broadly available Wi-Fi access will become an important and popular enhancement for our Optimum Online customers,” Cablevision chief operating offer Tom Rutledge said in a statement. “Just a few months into our Optimum Wi-Fi deployment, we have already built and activated the nation's largest and most advanced consumer Wi-Fi network.”

Cablevision expects to invest $300 million over two years on the Wi-Fi network.