Cablevision Systems’ OMGfast-branded fixed wireless broadband and voice service is officially kaput.
“Effective September 1, 2013, we have discontinued service in all of our service areas. Thank you for the opportunity to have served you,” the company said in a recorded message on the OMGfast service line.
As of Tuesday afternoon, however, the OMGfast web site was still operational, making no mention of the shutdown.
Cablevision confirmed in July that OMGfast would wind down in phases. During its brief life, OMGfast delivered Internet speeds up to 50 Mbps in Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach counties using Multichannel Video and Data Distribution (MVDDS) spectrum. To highlight its over-the-top video streaming capabilities, OMGfast also leased Apple TV and Roku boxes to customers for $5 per month.
OMGfast competed in the market with Comcast and AT&T and recruited NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath and his daughter, Jessica, to help pitch the product. OMGfast had about 3,000 customers as of February 2013.
In July, OMGfast invited customers affected by the pending shutdown to participate in a ”new Internet technology trial,” but has so far declined to comment on the nature of that pilot program.
Cablevision’s shuttering of the OMGfast service comes more than ten months after the operator agreed to sell its 500MHz of MVDDS licensed covering 150 million people in 45 metro U.S. areas, including New York, Los Angeles and Boston, to Dish Network for $80 million as part of a $700 million settlement of a legal spat linked to the defunct Voom HD service.
