Andre Yoskowitz
3 Jun 2010 15:56
Cablevision, one of the largest ISPs in the New York City metropolitan area, has said today that they have submitted a proposal to the MTA in an effort to extend free Optimum Wi-Fi onto Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains within the next year.
The Wi-Fi is currently available at 200 commuter stops, but the new proposal would extend the Wi-Fi onto the actual trains, giving Internet to Cablevision subscribers whilst in transit.
"Access to the Internet on MTA trains will transform the riding experience, and we believe Cablevision is uniquely positioned to deliver this enhancement through the extension of Optimum WiFi – already the nation’s largest and most advanced WiFi network – onto the rails," says John Bickham, Cablevision’s president of cable and communications. "As a New York-based company already providing popular WiFi access at nearly 200 MTA commuter rail stations we propose to deploy wireless Internet access across the entire MTA system within 12 months of selection, at no cost to the Transportation Authority or taxpayers."
If you are not a Cablevision subscriber, then you can pay for access, at a "reasonable" price.
The Optimum Wi-Fi offers download speeds of up to 3 Mbps and upload of 1.5 Mbps.