Spectrum Internet^® Review

Spectrum Internet: Our favorite plan

Spectrum keeps your choices simple

Overall, there’s no scrolling through a long list to find the ideal plan. There’s also no contract to sign, so customers can cancel or downgrade at any time.

The Premier and Gig plans offer discounted pricing for 12 months. After that, prices increase by $20 and $30 per month, respectively. You can get a cheaper discount for 24 or 36 months, but only if you pair internet with TV and/or mobile services.

Finally, Spectrum provides the Assist and Advantage plans for low-income households in select areas. Spectrum lists the requirements needed to qualify for these services on its online application.

Spectrum’s four plans offer a range of speeds that should meet the needs of most homes. The Internet Gig plan is probably overkill for most, but it’s ideal if you work from home and frequently download large files.

The Internet Premier plan is good for households of around four, although you may feel a speed pinch if others download large files (game updates, etc.) while you stream content from Spectrum TV or some other service.

Spectrum Internet reliability: Hands-on testing

Reliability seems to be a big issue when you see comments about Spectrum on Facebook, Nextdoor, and Reddit. I personally don’t experience reliability issues, so all the talk about bad speeds had me curious.

I built a Raspberry Pi kit and programmed it to run wired speed tests every 30 minutes for 30 days. Running wired tests gives you the most accurate results, as Wi-Fi is too unreliable to benchmark any internet connection given range, interference, and Wi-Fi type can thwart your results.

The smaller dips in the screenshot above indicate that tests were run during heavy use on my home network—namely at night when the gamers in the house were in full force, myself included. There’s really no way to test a pure connection without kicking every user and device off the network or getting a secondary, dedicated line (which ain’t happening in my house).

As shown above, the only real issue the kit recorded was on August 13. Even when Tropical Storm Debby blew through town, I didn’t see any showstopping slowdowns except for that particular day after the storm.

The 123Mbps dip was surprising when I finally viewed the 30-day results, but the instance happened when I was sound asleep, so the only people who may have noticed were my two resident night owls. For all I know, my Xbox was using most of the bandwidth to download a mega-huge game update when the kit ran its test. The huge dip wasn’t a constant, either—my connection tested at its normal speeds 30 minutes later.

The key takeaway here is that, at least for me, Spectrum is normally reliable. My Spectrum Internet Ultra speeds range between 550Mbps and 610Mbps, depending on when the tests are run. If you’re jumping on social media to complain about Spectrum’s speeds, I suggest running a wired speed test to rule out any home networking shenanigans.

Spectrum Internet: Data caps and overage fees

Spectrum doesn’t enforce a data cap and doesn’t charge a fee for unlimited data, as seen with Xfinity—at least, for now.

In 2016, the FCC set a seven-year data cap ban as part of its approval of Charter’s merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Spectrum can’t enforce a data cap or usage-based pricing until Charter’s agreement with the FCC expires on May 18, 2023.

However, in June 2020, Charter petitioned to enforce a data cap two years early but withdrew the petition in January 2021. Charter’s letter to the FCC in August 2020 suggests that some consumers who don’t use lots of data or those who want a cheaper plan may benefit from usage-based pricing and data caps.

That said, Spectrum may discontinue its unlimited data in less than a year, taking cues from AT&T, Xfinity, and Cox. We provide a list of internet providers with data caps for more information.

Spectrum Internet: Notable fees

As a customer, the one fee that’s a real eyesore each month is Spectrum’s WiFi charge. At first glance, it appears to be a monthly lease for its standalone routers. After all, customers don’t lease Spectrum’s modems or gateways.

But no, that fee also applies to its wireless gateways. Customers essentially lease the convenience of WiFi. Plus, if you want to use its WiFi Pod mesh system, you must pay an additional $3 for each unit every month. That can add up if you need whole-home coverage.

We go into more detail in the Why does Spectrum charge a WiFi fee section.

Another eyesore not listed above is the modem rental fee for customers on legacy plans, which persists even though Spectrum advertises free modems. Yes, new customers won’t see the monthly lease—at least for another few years. However, if you were a Time Warner Cable or Bright House Networks customer and never manually switched to an official Spectrum plan, you will continue to pay $10 or $4 per month, respectively, until you do so.

For more information about this fee, jump to the Why do I still see a modem fee on my bill section.

Spectrum Internet: Installation, equipment, and contracts

Spectrum gives you options to self-install internet (if possible) or have a technician come out to get you set up. But you definitely need a pro install if you don’t have existing cable TV lines in your home or building.

Spectrum Internet installation and equipment

Spectrum encourages new customers to opt for self-install over a pro install. You can pick up the equipment from a local Spectrum store or have Spectrum ship the devices to your address. After that, you can find instructions online on how to activate the modem.

But don’t worry—Spectrum’s pro install is still available for new installations for $59.99. Spectrum normally provides a separate modem and router, although it has supplied gateways to customers in the past.

Spectrum charges $49.99 per hour for any additional labor and another $49.99 to make a special trip.

Spectrum Internet contracts

Spectrum doesn’t enforce contracts. Instead, it provides discounted pricing for the first 12 months for internet alone and up to 36 months when you bundle internet with TV and mobile. You must keep the service for at least one month to get the discounted price.

Spectrum Internet: Customer satisfaction

Our latest customer satisfaction survey shows Spectrum ranking seventh out of 15 internet providers for overall satisfaction, falling behind heavy hitters like Verizon, Xfinity, AT&T, and Cox. New to our list is T-Mobile’s 5G internet, which takes the top spot in three out of five categories in our most recent survey.

Speed satisfaction is Spectrum’s best ranking, indicating that most customers are fine with the speeds they get for the money. However, Spectrum’s weakest link is in price satisfaction, as it just can’t compete with the other internet providers in our survey that don’t raise prices after 12 months.

To be fair, Spectrum’s price increase is $25 at the most, which is far better than the eye-opening hikes you can get from Astound Broadband, Mediacom, and Optimum.

Final call: Is Spectrum Internet right for you?

Spectrum is a good cable internet alternative if you don’t have access to fiber internet. It’s definitely a better choice than DSL.

Depending on your monthly download needs, your best bet is the 500Mbps plan. The 1,000Mbps plan is a decent choice, too, although you may find cheaper options elsewhere. The average user probably doesn’t need gigabit speeds anyway, but at least Spectrum’s Internet Gig service is now a more affordable option if you want all the speed you can get from Spectrum.

Unfortunately, Spectrum’s home fiber internet service is far less available than its cable service. It’s installed in “green” areas other fiber internet providers haven’t claimed, like in new neighborhoods and business districts—Spectrum doesn’t install fiber where it already has cable. The Internet Gig plan is still working on achieving symmetrical speeds, as you’ll see 500Mbps uploads in some areas and 1,000Mbps uploads elsewhere. Obviously, go with Spectrum’s fiber internet over its cable if you can get it.

Finally, we have to address the elephant in the room: Spectrum’s price hikes. The standard prices kick in after 12 to 36 months, depending on the bundle. They’re nowhere near as eye-opening as Optimum and Astound Broadband, but they’re still an eyesore when you compare Spectrum to AT&T, Verizon, Google Fiber, and even Frontier. Just keep your long-term cost in mind when you select any internet provider where you live.

Methodology

Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.