Long Island Continues To Be The Place To Be For Broadband

from the amazing dept

Wed, Apr 29th 2009 5:33pm — Mike Masnick

I left Long Island for Silicon Valley years ago, partly on the assumption that the cooler things were happening here. Yet, when it comes to broadband, that doesn't seem to be the case. I have had rather notorious problems getting broadband at home here over the years, despite living in the heart of Silicon Valley. Where I used to live (until a year and a half ago) I had one single broadband provider who provided absolutely terrible service. Where I am now, I do have two choices, but neither choice is compelling, and my speeds top out about about 1 Mbps. So... consider me a bit jealous of my parents back on Long Island who now have the opportunity to be among the first US homes to have 100 Mbps connections with no caps or meters.

A few years back, we noted how the battle between Cablevision and Verizon on Long Island had turned nasty, involving all sorts of underhanded tricks on both sides, but noted that the end result might actually be good for competitors, as it was one of the rare situations where the two competitors were actually investing in technology to top each other. So, while Verizon is offering FiOS connections, Cablevision is now rolling out those 100 Mbps using DOCSIS 3.0. The fight is still a bit nasty, with Verizon calling Cablevision's announcement nothing more than a parlor trick, but that's misleading itself. Cablevision has, no matter how you look at it, significantly increased the bandwidth available to home users.

Unfortunately, in most other areas (such as right here in the heart of Silicon Valley) it seems the focus is on seeing who can avoid being the "least worst" provider, rather than on pushing the boundaries forward. In a normal market, this would be a huge opportunity for a third provider to come into the market and offer much better service, but thanks to the structure of the broadband market, and quite a bit of regulatory capture, most folks are limited to just two choices. If only they'd start competing on quality like the two choices on Long Island...

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Filed Under: broadband, competition, long island
Companies: cablevision, verizon

10 Comments

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Matt T., 29 Apr 2009 @ 5:53pm

Correction
the focus is on seeing who can avoid being the "least worst" provider
I assume that sould read, "Focus on being the least worst" or "focus on avoiding being the worst".

On a side note, I would still respect you if you moved in with your parents for their broadband speed.
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AZ, 29 Apr 2009 @ 5:58pm

Japan vs US
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AZ, 29 Apr 2009 @ 6:07pm

Re: Japan vs US
Hit the submit by mistake. My original comment -

Monopolies don't have to try hard. I can only get Comcast where I live and they could give a rip about me or any of my friends and neighbors.
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scott, 29 Apr 2009 @ 7:02pm

Re: Re: Japan vs US
I hear you. I got a call from Qwest today actually trying to see if they could help me out with my internet bill. However, they have a monopoly and "after further review" they couldn't lower my price or up my speed. Someday being the best will come back into favor with companies.
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Bill w, 29 Apr 2009 @ 7:36pm

Competitors?
In "end result might actually be good for competitors" don't you really mean to say "customers?"
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Brian, 29 Apr 2009 @ 8:23pm

Cablevision
Cablevision is also in Connecticut. My brother will be getting the plan. I live in the internet hell of DC, where we are even lucky to get service.
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Lucretious, 29 Apr 2009 @ 8:56pm

100mbps.....I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like....
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2009 @ 5:28am

Up to 100mbps.

I currently have the Cablevision plan that is up to 15mbps.

I test my speed on Cablevision's own site every once in a while. It has never tested above 8mbps. Ever.
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another mike, 30 Apr 2009 @ 1:38pm

Re:
You need to get a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. I did that with Cox Cable's internet service and I hit 12mbps that they offer here, up from maxing out at 8. I also dropped about 100ms latency.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 May 2009 @ 10:46pm

1Mb/s? In the heart of Silicon Valley? I hope you're joking. I have quite a bit more than that here in Podunk, er I mean Pembroke, Ontario. Population 15,000 and 150km from the nearest major city. (And THAT has less than a million folk. And this is on phone company DSL, not cable let alone from a non-telco-or-media company.)
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