Cablevision Systems Corp. has claimed to have increased the speed of its Optimum (News - Alert) WiFi network, delivering up to 15 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and up to 4 Mbps upstream.

The Optimum WiFi spans tens of thousands of outdoor access points and thousands of indoor locations like downtown areas, commuter rail platforms, parking lots and parks across the New York metropolitan area.

The company claims that the speed of Optimum WiFi (News - Alert) now matches the downstream speed of its flagship wired high-speed Internet service, and far exceeds the network's previous speeds of up to 3 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream.

“Optimum WiFi is dramatically faster than cellular data over 3G and 4G networks, and more than three times as fast as the nation's average residential wired broadband service,” the company stated in a press release.

It is a significant development because, with this increase, Optimum WiFi not only blows away 3G and 4G cellular data speeds, it becomes three times faster than the average wired residential broadband service across the country.

"This new higher speed Optimum WiFi is like 4G on steroids," commented Berge Ayvazian (News - Alert), senior analyst at Heavy Reading. "It offers a better mobile Internet experience to consumers and mobile professionals virtually anywhere in Cablevision's market who have become increasingly dependent on and enabled by wireless broadband to access their media content, multi-player gaming and business applications in the cloud."

Additionally, in partnership with Optimum Business, Cablevision says it has activated WiFi access points inside more than 7,000 businesses that subscribe to the company's high-speed Internet and phone services as a free value-added enhancement benefiting both the businesses and their customers.The company has submitted formal proposals to both the MTA and NJ Transit in response to requests for extending Optimum WiFi access to commuter trains.