Cablevision Systems Corp. hit the gas again Monday, announcing a pair of premium data tiers and a speed increase for its flagship Optimum Online cable modem offering.
Among the premium tiers, the operator has introduced Optimum Online Boost, which caps the downstream at 30 Mbps and the upstream at 2 Mbps, and is targeted to residential power users and to small- and medium-sized business customers. Optimum Online Ultra, meanwhile, offers symmetrical rates of up to 50 Mbps.
The MSO has also goosed the speed cap of its base cable modem tier from 10 Mbps/1 Mbps to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps at no additional cost.
“Boost” and the flagship Optimum Online tier use standard DOCSIS technologies. The 50-Meg symmetrical “Ultra” service uses an out-of-band “overlay” platform from Narad Networks. Cablevision’s initial deployment with Narad involved two nodes serving customers in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Cablevision said it will begin to offer the new speeds and service levels right away, with plans to offer the faster Optimum Online service and “Boost” service across its footprint by mid-2006. The “Ultra” tier is already available across Cablevision’s service area.
Cablevision, which happens to be competing in some areas with Verizon’s fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) “FiOS” offering, said the new tiers tap into the potential of its hybrid fiber/coax network. They also complement the company’s Optimum Lightpath division, which offers metro Ethernet services.
“Our two new high-end data services, as well as a very significant speed increase for all customers at no additional charge, are direct results of Cablevision’s investment in this high-capacity platform,” said Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge, in a statement.
On the pricing front, “Boost” will cost an additional $14.95 per month over the traditional Optimum Online tier. Cablevision is cutting $5 off that price if customers bundle in the MSO’s VoIP service.
