Cablevision added the New York counties of Rockland and Orange to its growing list of free Wi-Fi hotspots.

The service, which Cablevision calls Optimum WiFi, is free for Optimum Online data subscribers. The newly activated areas cover municipalities such as: Nanuet, New City, Nyack, Pearl River, Spring Valley, Suffern, Central Valley, Greenwood Lake, Harriman, Monroe, Tuxedo, Warwick and Woodbury.

The service, which costs an estimated $300 million, is also available at New Jersey Transit train station platforms and parking lots, including: Harriman, Nanuet, Pearl River, Sloatsburg, Spring Valley, Suffern and Tuxedo.

"Unlike many expensive cell phone data plans that can cost upwards of $100 per month, Optimum WiFi is free and more than twice as fast as many cellular networks," said Kevin Curran, Cablevision's senior vice president of wireless product development. "Now, Optimum Online customers in Rockland and Orange counties have unfettered access to the nation's largest and most advanced Wi-Fi network in downtown areas, near parks and at train stations."

Optimum WiFi spans thousands of access points and offers wireless Internet capability across the company's New York, New Jersey and Connecticut service areas. In addition to Rockland and Orange counties, Optimum WiFi is available in Westchester, Bergen and Passaic counties and on hundreds of commuter rail platforms and station parking lots across New Jersey Transit, Metro North and the Long Island Railroad.

Since its launch in September, Optimum Online subscribers have logged onto the Internet more than 3 million times using the company’s Wi-Fi service. The Wi-Fi users are averaging more than 1 million minutes online per day. The service has download speeds of up to 3 Mbps.