Days after Cablevision introduced a new 101Mbps Internet connection, Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe fired back against the company's announcement.
"Verizon first demonstrated the ability to deliver 100 Mbps to the home over our FiOS system nearly two years ago," Rabe said in a blog post. "With today's technology, you don’t have to break much of a sweat to deliver 100 Mbps to a few customers."
The new Cablevision Optimum Online Ultra Internet connection with 101Mbps download speed will officially roll out on May 11, and will cost just $99.95 per month.
However, Rabe also believes "inherent limits of the cable platform" will keep the Cablevision service from really picking up. Most notably, it's also a "parlor trick" because there is "little evidence of market demand" for the 101Mbps speed for regular Internet users.
Rabe brings up the idea that reliable 50Mbps service has been available for a year, and speeds up to 400Mbps can be offered to a single home over the FiOS network.
Since many services, such as Microsoft's Xbox Live, have built-in bottlenecks, an Internet connection with 101Mbps speed likely won't do any good for many Internet subscribers.
"Today's Internet runs at speeds far slower than 100Mbps, on some segments speeds as slow as 10Mbps. So if you have a 100Mbps link to the Internet connection point, but a 40Mbps connection from there to the distant server, the effective speed of your transaction over that link will be 40 not 100Mbps."
Regardless of who is right -- or if both companies are wrong -- I think it's refreshing to see companies willing to compete against one another. Since Verizon has been one of the few major providers of ultra-high-speed Internet, it's not really surprising they're speaking out against the Cablevision Internet service.
It should be interesting to see what response, if any, is offered by other major ISPs in the United States.
