I now have Cablevision’s Optimum Online Ultra (OOLU), the fastest Internet service in the United States of America. Cablevision, which is a cable company that primarily serves the suburbs of New York City (I’m about an hour north of the city), rates the service at 101 megabits/s down, and 15 megabits/s up—plenty fast, to be sure. The purpose of this here post is to brag a little, yes, but also to explain my experience thus far. Does OOLU live up to the hype, is it worth $100 per month? Big, broad strokes and sweeping generalizations. All this and more, today on CrunchGear!
It would be helpful to start at the beginning: who can get OOLU? Let’s make this clear: if you’re currently an Optimum Online subscriber you can get OOLU. You simply call up Cablevision—this commercial was actually helpful!—and inquire about Ultra. They then check your address and schedule an appointment. I called last Thursday and had the appointment set up for Tuesday, May 19. That’s still today, last I checked.
The familiar Cablevision van pulled up to Deleon HQ mid-morning on Tuesday. The technicians (there were two guys, one a supervisor and one who my brother described as “the muscle,” that is, the guy running around with the tool belt) then swapped out my old modem for a shiny, new one. It’s a Cisco DPC300, for the record. Yes, that’s it up there.
We ran into a bit of a snafu when the supervisor said, “Yeah, the wire you have going from your basement to your modem is too old for Internet service. How your old modem worked at all is beyond me.” So they had to replace the wire, which took quite a while. All told, installation, including the wire replacement, took just over two hours.
Now the fun!
Here’s the first speed test. It’s a Windows PC (with gigabit Ethernet) plugged into a D-Link DIR-825, our new router of choice:
Now my old, pre-unibody MacBook (with a plain ol’ megabit Ethernet), plugged into the same router:
This is plenty fast, thank you.
My opinion, after having used OOLU for one day? Well, I’m a heavy downloader, so the 101 megabits/s down is terrific; OOLU makes seeding my innumerable torrents a lot easier, too. So, speaking as a “power user,” or whatever you want to call me, I’d say yeah, OOLU is fantastic. Now, I don’t see why the average person would need speeds like that right now, so there’s probably no need to spring for OOLU if all you do it Twitter all day long. But, for those of you who would benefit from that type of speed—you know who you are—then yeah, OOLU is really, really good.
Any questions y’all might have, leave a comment. Or not! Your call. And I’ll do more posts as the days go on, after I properly configure Vuze and/or uTorrent, etc.
This is how fast the Internet is now:
About 5 years ago I was living in Austin Texas, and there was a regional cable provider there who offered fiber optic to the house with 100Mb speeds. It was quite impressive, and I have missed it ever since. I haven’t found anything comparable here in LA.
What was actually much nicer than the raw speed, which was pretty damned nice, was the amazingly low latency. It made for fantastic online gaming.
Hi Lee,
I just saw your post from last month. I live in Austin, Texas. Can you please tell me what is the name of the “regional cable provider here who offered fiber optic to the house with 100Mb speeds”? I would love to get that kind of service.
Thanks!
*jealous* :(
Looks like the kinda thing that you could stream Crisis over.
Wanna be Azuereus pals?
If you could see me right now at&t dsl, you’d see me squinting my eyes and shaking my fist at you.
These speed tests do make the whole Verizon Rebuttal about how the internet cannot really be that fast a bit more silly now:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/30/verizon-calls-out-cablevision-over-%E2%80%98fastest-broadband-in-america%E2%80%99-claim/
Too funny… Where are yah in that hour north of NYC?
I work in Somers, we should have lunch :)
I’m in the process of moving and just saw the commercial. I couldnt believe my eyes and ears. First boost now Ultra and still no contract? hahaha Take that verizon. I’ll get it as soon as i move. We get it all i think atleast, here in brooklyn. They had to do it sooner or later because the Video phone is really taking off. Turns out people really wana see each other while talking. We’re definitely gona need the bandwidth for that. Thanks for the detailed info. I just gotta ask; was that $100 you mentioned the actual cost?
Four guys to install a wire and a modem!? Must be a Union thing.
Two guys: a man with a tool belt and a supervisor.
So how fast can you download the Black Album? And will it actually cause Lars’ hair (what’s left of it) to catch on fire?
Did they also charge you the $349 installation fee? Yowza!!
Yeah, I guess that’ll show up on the next bill.
Rumor has it that the installation fee is so high to offset the low price ($100) of the monthly service. Apparently Cablevision was initially thinking of charging $250 a month for Ultra. Then they realized no one was going to pay that much. So, they jack up the one-time installation cost.
Well ever since it came out, my optimum online speed has been decreasing. why? maybe because cablevision is not fiber optic, they are just doing this to beat the “phone company” speeds. well, I am still moving to verizon because the infrastructure of cablevision is awful and disgusting.
Anthony,
Id suggest making sure your cable connection is physically ok. The guys that came to my place spent an hour tweaking connections to bring it to about -4(good) from -9(bad) on the test equipment. Its just blazing fast. I had Ultra installed today.
Cablevision is Fiberoptic. I know this because i am a prior employee. There… Verified. They dont push fiber all the way up to the house or individual apartment, atleast not as yet. I think its the overhead cost to actually teach the techs to splice fiber and replace all those taps they have out there for Coaxial connections vs just maxing out on the bandwidth the coax can handle. For the techies out there wondering how can they do this speed with coax. Well What most of us learned about coax cables is that it maxes out @ 100Mb. Cablevision uses RG6 inside the apartment/house and an even thicker grade from the pole to the house, thats if its a house you’re in. Again, i know because i was once that guy with the toolbelt. For the Net+ and CCNA guys out there… We all know Cablevision has switches laying around all over the city with fiber speed throughputs. What is it to provision a switch port to operate at Gbps or Mbps? Just make sure the user has a gbit nic card installed and then configure the switchport and voila. Speed can still be limited from other commands for bandwidth control. Verizon’s got some chief engineer scratching his head. They dont have the loot to upgrade their system to where Cablevision is. What can i say… Its cheaper to make a commercial. lols
I have Ultra as well, and it’s a neat service, but is not a panacea for Cable’s usual “up to” claims.
First a short rundown to how things work. 6mhz is the width of a usual cable downstream channel. 6mhz utilizing QAM256 using DOCSIS 2.0 equates to roughtly 38mbit after overhead per a 6mhz channel.
Standard OOL (15/2 mbps ) uses 603mhz & uses Docsis 1.1
OOL BOOST (30/5 mbps ) uses 609mhz & uses DOCSIS 2.0
OOL ULTRA uses one of the first DOCSIS 3.0 modems. As equipment is yet unavailable to bind the upstream channels, the upstream only uses a single 6mhz channel which is shared among other users on the node. The Cisco (Scientific Atlanta) DPC-3000 is used at the current time as CPE.
OOL ULTRA’s has some inherent problem areas. First, if you visit your modem’s status screens @ http://192.168.100.1 , you will see that it binds only THREE channels, one of which is shared with BOOST users – while it and the equipment ISP side can use FOUR channels.
Channels 609mhz, 615mhz and 621mhz are currently used, while 22.5mhz is used for upstream.
Another problem is the router provided by OOL to customers who wish a STATIC IP slows the service down to some 60-75mbps downstream by virtue of the fact it doesn’t have 1ghz wan/lan ports. This is admitted by OOL, and they usually tell you up front if you order a static IP.
My OOL ULTRA has slowed somewhat with time. I of course attribute that to more ULTRA users. The problem is Cablevision does not consider 60mbit/10mbit dynamic IP a problem, and prime time slowdowns aren’t addressed.
Personally, I’m disappointed with Ultra, but there is room to grow which is good. I among others feel all four channels should have been utilized and sharing a channel with BOOST users should’ve been avoided.
There is also a $300 dollar “account activation fee”, along with a small installation fee. The installation fee is perfectly reasonable, however the account activation fee ($300 bucks) is only to make sure that people don’t go and try it for a few months, then cancel.
The $300 dollar fee is non-refundable, even if you do not have the speeds which were advertised.
Cablevision ought to start either pushing the fiber further into last mile, or deliver the needed bandwidth.
Take a look at the OOL forum on DSLREPORTS.COM – Prime time speed problems are the bane of having OOL.
With respect, and hopefully I haven’t been too negative – I love Cablevision, except when things don’t work as advertised. :)
–
George & Elizabeth Parker
Bklyn, NY customers of OOL Ultra
You stink! I am so F*CKING JEOLOUS!
I am tethering with 3mbps DSL… just when I thought FIOS will make sense…. OOL brings again UBER Fast internet again for the masses
lol….
I have 15down and 1.5up, you would think thats great, and it is for downloads but in gaming I ping 80ms to servers in LA. I live 40 miles north of LA.
TWC FTL.
*cries* Verizon is in town but I don’t live in a FIOS coverage area and there is no ETA…
I hate it here…
As a consumer who has sunk $349 dollars into OOL Ultra, let me be the first to give everyone the COMPLETE score on this recent “hype” from CableBandits!
Realize this, Ultra is only “Boost” doubled, what I mean is, CV does not change your drops(lines) that have been in the Hot-Cold weathers for years.. they only “swap out” modems!! (Motorola SB6120) Ultra is run thru the same cable and “turned on” at the CV office!
This is all you get for a $349 price tag…
Second, if you run a wireless/wired Router or have a VOIP service, there are going to be connectivity/compatability issues that CV will discourage you from running (unless you use their services), and practically EVERY little THING will interrupt your service on their precious and highly-sensitive systems (running a line to your TV, etc)…
I have had 2 service calls out to my apartment..in 4days of having Ultra
Average “speedtested” speeds are between 50-80Mps in NYC (not advertised 100+)..when you download anything, it drops to 20-30Mps!!
So much for the hype..you have been warned!