Cablevision Introduces New Optimum Online Speeds for the Next Generation of High-Speed Internet Products

Cablevision Introduces New Optimum Online Speeds for the Next Generation of High-Speed Internet Products

Optimum Online(R) to Launch Two New Premium Tiers for Residential and Business Customers with Downstream Speeds of 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps

Optimum Online Accelerates Downstream Speed from 10 to 15 Mbps for All Customers at No Additional Cost

Services Delivered Through Cablevision's High Capacity Fiber Network Passing 4.5 Million Homes and Hundreds of Thousands of Businesses in the New York Metropolitan Area

BETHPAGE, N.Y., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE:CVC) today announced that it is leveraging the enormous capacity of its fiber network to introduce the nation's fastest and most technologically advanced suite of Internet products for home and business. The company is introducing two new Optimum Online premium tiers that will increase the speed of its Internet products to up to 50 Mbps. Cablevision is also substantially increasing the speed of its Optimum Online service to all customers, from its current speeds of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps up at no additional cost.

The launch of this new Optimum Online suite builds upon Cablevision's core strategy of expanding the limits of the Internet and television with high- capacity services built to host higher-bandwidth applications -- such as high definition television and data sharing -- that are being demanded by early adopters and also generating wide market acceptance.

"Because we have a superior network, we are able to deliver the fastest and most advanced video, data and voice products in the market," said Tom Rutledge, Cablevision's chief operating officer. "Our two new high-end data services, as well as a very significant speed increase for all customers at no additional charge, are direct results of Cablevision's investment in this high-capacity platform."

Cablevision's high-speed Internet product suite now includes services specifically designed for all levels of residential and commercial use. In addition to Optimum Online, the most successful home Internet service in the nation, Cablevision will offer Optimum Online Boost, offering speeds of up to 30 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream, and Optimum Online Ultra, offering symmetrical data connections of up to 50 Mbps upstream and downstream.

The introduction of these new speed tiers completes the continuum between Cablevision's cornerstone Optimum Online consumer service and the Metro Ethernet services offered to large businesses by the company's Optimum Lightpath division, allowing Cablevision to offer a full range of data and Internet services that meet any possible level of need in the home or at work.

Cablevision will begin to deploy the new speeds and service levels immediately, with the accelerated Optimum Online service and Optimum Online Boost available across the company's entire service area by the middle of 2006. Optimum Online Ultra is already available across the company's entire service area. Customers will be updated directly regarding availability in their specific areas.

Optimum Online

With more than 1.5 million customers as of June 30, more than one third of the homes passed by Cablevision's network subscribe to Optimum Online, and more than half of all Internet-connected homes in the company's service area access the Internet through Optimum Online.

Optimum Online is the most successful high-speed Internet service in the nation. Over the last three years, the Optimum Online customer base has grown nearly 150 percent, from 610,505 to 1,519,864 as of June 30, and penetration of homes-passed has nearly doubled, from 18.8 percent to 34 percent over this same period. Quarterly revenues associated with Cablevision's Optimum Online service have more than tripled, from $59 million in the second quarter of 2002 to $190 million in the second quarter of this year.

As part of its new high-speed Internet product suite, Cablevision is dramatically increasing the speed of its core Optimum Online service at no additional cost, to up to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream.

Optimum Online Boost

Optimum Online Boost is a new level of high-speed Internet service designed to appeal to residential customers and small and medium-sized businesses using higher-bandwidth applications.

Available for an additional $14.95 per month, $9.95 per month for customers who also subscribe to Cablevision's VoIP voice service, Optimum Voice, Optimum Online Boost will offer downstream speeds of up to 30 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps upstream -- 39 times faster than the DSL service currently being broadly marketed by phone companies.

In addition to the speed, Optimum Online Boost includes a host of new features and benefits designed for high use residential and business customers, including:

* Up to 15 e-mail addresses with 1 gigabyte of storage per address, or a
total of 15 gigabytes of storage, and the ability to send extremely
large e-mail attachments in excess of 20 Megabytes.
* Web hosting capabilities, allowing customers to build and maintain their
own Web sites.
* Advanced configurations that include DDNS, Port 25 and Port 80.

Optimum Online Boost will travel on its own dedicated portion of Cablevision's completed fiber-rich network, to ensure an extremely high level of service regardless of its penetration or the propensity of Optimum Online Boost customers to use bandwidth-heavy applications.

Optimum Online Ultra

The third and fastest service included in Cablevision's suite of data products is Optimum Online Ultra, which offers customers a dedicated 50 Mbps symmetrical downstream and upstream data service.

First offered through a targeted deployment last spring, Optimum Online Ultra delivers this extremely high rate of speed over Cablevision's existing network facilities, leveraging the spectrum above that which is traditionally used to provide video, voice and data services to create new, QoS-managed bandwidth.

Optimum Online Ultra is available across Cablevision's entire service area immediately and is the fastest residential service ubiquitously deployed in the nation.

About Cablevision

Cablevision Systems Corporation is one of the nation's leading entertainment and telecommunications companies. Its cable television operations serve 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area. The company's advanced telecommunications offerings include its iO: Interactive Optimum digital television, Optimum Online high-speed Internet, Optimum Voice digital voice-over-cable, and its Optimum Lightpath integrated business communications services. Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings LLC operates several successful programming businesses, including AMC, IFC, WE and other national and regional networks. In addition to its telecommunications and programming businesses, Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. The company also operates New York's famed Radio City Music Hall, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.

Source: Cablevision Systems Corp.

CONTACT: Jim Maiella of Cablevision Systems Corp., +1-516-803-3947

Web site: http://www.cablevision.com/

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