Some Cablevision Systems Corp. cable modem customers in Long Island are reporting they have been invited to try out a super-speedy 20 Mbps down/2 Mbps up tier. Cablevision’s present tier is capped at 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up.
According to a letter sent to customers, Cablevision’s Optimum Online unit will operate a beta test of the service through October 1, 2005. Customers who participate are expected to provide Cablevision with periodic feedback.
According to the letter, participating customers will be given the opportunity to upgrade to a new tier of service. No pricing was disclosed. Cablevision was not immediately available for further comment.
Last month, Cablevision announced the offering of a 50 Mbps service (easily expandable to 100 Mbps) for commercial customers in Oyster Bay, N.Y., based on out-of-band technology from Narad Networks. Cablevision has not disclosed any plans to use the Narad platform to support residential data subscribers.
Although cable operators have been downplaying competition with Verizon, some have increased speeds in markets targeted by the telco’s FiOS fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) platform.
