There's some serious hostility brewing in our Optimum On-line forum among users who say their connections are being throttled. Users report their downloads start out in respectable territory, but roughly ten-minutes later are throttled back to a little more than a third of their available bandwidth.

User forum commentary indicates the company has implemented new timed traffic shaping techniques that alternate users between full and a third of their available bandwidth for the duration of heavy downloads.

Our users have been updating their reviews here in droves to voice their displeasure.

Many of the reviewers note they've called Optimum On-line for an explanation and have been given the runaround; some even having tech visits scheduled. These same reviewers note that some time ago, the company began capping and/or threatening account termination for users who utilized excessive upstream bandwidth.

Like with many ISP's, digging into Cablevision's Acceptable Use Policy, you find the following:

"Cablevision reserves the right to protect the integrity of its network and resources by any means it deems appropriate. This includes but is not limited to: port blocking, e-mail virus scanning, denying e-mail from certain domains, and putting limits on bandwidth and e-mail."

While it's certainly within the company's right to control bandwidth allocation as they see fit, it's also each user's right to migrate to ISPs that don't employ these policies (or are at least more forthcoming in their implementation).

Several years ago Optimum On-line was considered the very best (and fastest) American broadband option available. Increasingly restrictive policies seem to indicate company management may be more interested in mediocrity.

Repeated requests to both Cablevision and Optimum On-line for comment on the details of this new network policy have yet to be returned.