Cablevision Systems on Thursday debuted what it calls the "nation's largest and most advanced consumer Wi-Fi network" across a wide swathe of New York's Long Island.

The service covers high-traffic community zones in Nassau County and in some areas of Suffolk County, as well as on commuter rail platforms and parking lots across Long Island. The Wi-Fi service is available without additional charge to Cablevision's Optimum broadband customers.

The Long Island deployment is the vanguard of Cablevision's $310 million project to provide Wi-Fi service to its 2.4 million Internet customers in its New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tristate service area.

"Just a few months into our Optimum Wi-Fi deployment, we have already built and activated the nation's largest and most advanced consumer Wi-Fi network, which will continue to grow and expand," said Tom Rutledge, Cablevision's chief operating officer, in a statement.

In settling on a large Wi-Fi network, Cablevision went against the grain set by municipal Wi-Fi network deployments, many of which have failed completely or are barely useful. The network is also Cablevision's answer to WiMax, which is struggling to gain traction by its chief sponsors, Sprint and Clearwire. The Optimum network, which offers symmetrical access speeds of 1.5 Mbps, also will compete with some smartphone networks.

Cablevision noted that laptop users can utilize the network along with users of Apple iPhones and iPods and other Wi-Fi-equipped devices. Users log on to the Optimum Wi-Fi network via a simple sign-on screen.

Already Cablevision claims the highest penetration of any U.S. Internet service -- more than 51% of the homes passed by its fiber optic network have the Optimum service. A consumer Web site has been established to walk users through the sign-up process.

The network's infrastructure was provided by Cisco and BelAir Networks.