Cablevision Increasing Broadband Prices by $5 Per Month

Cablevision today announced that it will increase the price of its high-speed Internet service by $5 per month in 2013.

The price hike is the company's first in a decade, Cablevision said. It will result in a bill that is 3.2 percent higher than what Optimum Online customers are currently charged.

Cable television and phone service prices will not increase. Customers who currently have promotional packages will also not see the $5 increase until that deal expires.

Cablevision did not give a specific reason for the change, but noted that it recently invested $140 million in a "network augmentation" project and deployed 50,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in its service area. It also pointed out that customers are not subject to bandwidth caps or usage-based charges.

"Optimum Online is the gold standard of high-speed Internet service, offering customers blazing fast speeds, free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi network and unsurpassed reliability and value," Gemma Toner, Cablevision's senior vice president of broadband product management, said in a statement. "Over the last 10 years, we have made significant investments in our broadband product, recently affirmed by the FCC to deliver in excess of 100 percent of the speeds we advertise, along with advanced security, no usage caps, local news and information and other key features."

Cablevision said customers used Optimum Wi-Fi to connect to the Web more than 50 million times in November. The company said its service provides up to 15 Mbps downstream and 4 Mbps upstream.

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