Cable companies partner to extend customers' Wi-Fi access

Cable subscribers on Long Island and in New York City now have access to additional high-speed Internet networks beyond their own company's coverage area.

In a novel arrangement, Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp., New York City-based Time Warner Cable and Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. announced that, as of Thursday, customers of the other cable companies can use their Wi-Fi networks in the metro area for free.

John Bickham, Cablevision's president of cable and communications, said in a statement that allowing customers to "roam freely across networks is an extremely meaningful and transformative development."

Cablevision, which owns Newsday, has 3 million metropolitan area subscribers. Cablevision is in the middle of a $300-million project, launched in September 2008, to install Wi-Fi in its service areas.

Time Warner has 1.4 million customers in the metropolitan area, including in four New York City boroughs. The company last month announced Wi-Fi zones free for subscribers at several parks in Manhattan, Queens and on Long Island Rail Road train platforms (through a partnership with Cablevision).

Karl Bode, editor of New York-based Broadband Reports.com, said having Wi-Fi hot spots included with cable service was a good alternative to costly mobile broadband data plans.

Of the cable operators, he said, "They're figuring if they work as a team, that gives them a little more leverage against Verizon," which competes with cable operators in their territories by offering fiber-optic FiOS service.

In July, New York-based Verizon began offering certain broadband customers free access to thousands of Wi-Fi connections nationwide. John Bonomo, a spokesman for Verizon, said, "We offer free Wi-Fi as well at thousands of locations."