Long Island is seeing a bit of competition already over Wi-Fi: The ambitious and almost certain-to-fail plan set by the counties of Suffolk and Nassau to have a private firm blanket the two municipalities with Wi-Fi has a very early phase ready to go in December, which is impressive. The first pilot covers 2.5 miles of Route 110, and will be free. The network will be up for 45 to 60 days. Among other purposes, I would imagine that the network will be designed to sniff how many Wi-Fi devices are querying it, as well as to see how well they can provide service.
Meanwhile, Cablevision has quietly started to build out Wi-Fi hotspots and hotzones for its subscribers in useful locations all over its coverage area, including Long Island. Notably, they're offering service at Bridgeport and Port Jefferson's ferry docks. Very smart. Very interesting.