Cablevision's Optimum Online and Optimum Voice have been named the top high-speed Internet and VoIP services in the nation by the readers of PC Magazine in the publication's 18th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and VoIP Digital Voice Service Providers, available on newsstands this month.

For the second year in a row, Optimum Online received the highest overall rating among all high-speed Internet providers in the nation, with top ratings in the categories of speed and reliability as well. Optimum Voice received the highest overall rating in the nation, as well as top scores in the categories of sound quality and connection reliability. As part of the survey, Optimum Online and Optimum Voice were also awarded PC Magazine 2005 Readers' Choice Awards -- the second year in a row Optimum Online received this coveted distinction.



"It is extremely gratifying to have the strong consumer acceptance of Optimum Online and Optimum Voice supported by these top marks from the readers of PC Magazine," said Patricia Gottesman, Cablevision's executive vice president of product management and marketing. "All of our digital services are delivered over our superior high-capacity fiber network, which allows us to encourage our customers to embrace bandwidth-intensive applications and offer more than enough capacity to ensure the highest levels of service, as reflected in these tremendous results."

This year's Reader Satisfaction Study collected feedback from thousands of PC Magazine readers on satisfaction with their current Internet and/or VoIP providers. Each ISP was rated on overall satisfaction as well as a number of key individual categories, including connection speed, connection reliability and the likelihood a user would recommend the service to others. Survey respondents gave Optimum Online the highest overall rating, (8.3 vs. a cable average of 7.7 and a DSL average of 7.6), and also top scores in the categories of "connection speed" (8.6 vs. a cable average of 8.1 and DSL average of 7.4) and "connection reliability," (8.2 vs. a cable average of 7.6 and DSL average of 7.8). Optimum Online customers also indicated they would be likely to recommend the service. The study also found that broadband users are more satisfied overall with their cable-powered Internet experience than by connecting via DSL.

The VoIP service study, PC Magazine's first survey of VoIP providers, compared customer responses to five companies' services, including broadband providers and independent offerings. All VoIP providers surveyed were rated on overall satisfaction as well as five key attributes: ease of setup, sound quality, connection reliability, customer service and technical support. Survey respondents gave Optimum Voice the highest overall rating, (7.9 vs. an overall average of 7.8) as well as top scores in the categories "sound quality" (8.3 vs. an overall average of 7.9) and "connection reliability" (8.3 vs. an overall average of 7.8). Overall, broadband provider VoIP services scored better than the services of Internet telephony providers.

More than 1.6 million broadband customers in Cablevision's service area choose Optimum Online, and more than half of all Internet-connected homes in the company's service area access the Internet through Optimum Online. Last week, Cablevision announced that it was increasing the maximum downstream speeds of Optimum Online to 15 Mbps, 2 Mbps upstream, and introduced two new speed tiers -- 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. Cablevision has begun to deploy the new speeds and service levels, with the accelerated Optimum Online service speed and Optimum Online Boost to become available across the company's entire service area by the middle of 2006.

With more than 600,000 customers as of September 30, Optimum Voice is the most highly penetrated VoIP service in the nation. Optimum Voice provides fully-functional E911 service to every customer, unlimited calling to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as a comprehensive suite of advanced features such as enhanced voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, caller ID blocking (*67), call return (*69), three-way calling and call forwarding, directory assistance (411) and more all at no additional cost. Optimum Voice service is carried over Cablevision's world-class broadband network, not the public Internet, and offers customers a highly reliable voice service with superior value.