Cablevision, Time Warner, Comcast partner on free Wi-Fi in New York metro area
Cablevision, Time Warner and Comcast have announced a deal that will allow subscribers in the New York City metropolitan area to freely roam on any of their Wi-Fi networks.
The service allows you to use a smartphone or laptop to access the Internet. It's available starting today and affects parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Train stations and public parks are among the locations where access can be had.
Some points of note:
- Time Warner Cable has roughly 1 million high-speed customers in the New York region.
- Cablevision has 2.5 million customers in the region.
- Comcast doesn't have many customers in New York, and is fairly new to the area. Still, commuters from New Jersey and Connecticut will be able to use the service.
The move is an unusual win for the (almost) public Wi-Fi movement that's had difficulty sustaining itself in the past.
But for the companies, the business logic is obvious: all three are under fire by telecom giants Verizon and AT&T, which are encroaching on their turf in NYC by offering high-speed Internet and cable television connectivity.