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Cablevision To Offer 101 Mbps Down, No Caps
nandemoari alerts us to news over at DSLReports that Cablevision will be offering subscribers 101-Mbps download service, a new US record. That's fast enough to download an HD movie in less than 10 minutes. The package, known as "Ultra," will launch on May 11 and will cost $99.95 a month. Upload speed is 15 Mbps and there are no monthly limits. Cablevision is also doubling the speed of its Wi-Fi service, which is available free to subscribers using hotspots across the Northeast. "...the company will be launching a new 'Ultra' tier on May 11. The new tier features speeds of 101Mbps downstream and 15Mbps upstream for $99.95 a month. That's an unprecedented amount of speed at an unprecedented price, suggesting that Cablevision just took the gloves off in their fight against Verizon FiOS. ... Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella confirmed for me that the $99.95 price is unbundled, and the new tier does not come with any kind of a usage cap or overage fees."
OK, so they double-bond cable modems, giving you twice the usual speed to your desktop. Then you get on the same clogged, shared network as the rest of your neighborhood, and hope they have enough bandwidth upstream to handle the potential doubling of clients (from double-bonding). In a dense residential area (urban apartment buildings for example), I have never seen a cable company actually be able to back up their claims of speed, upload or download.
To me, this sounds as bogus as the dual-bond 56K modems where you had to buy two phone-lines just for data, and then you would want one for voice, and heck maybe even a fourth for FAX.
What's next, a seven-bladed razor?
Now all we need is for Cablevision to drop the price by one order of magnitude. Then we can be competitive with South Korea!
Oh, and for all of you in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, I hate you. I hate you from the depths of the Charter service area, in the midwest. Bastards.