AT&T vs. Spectrum: Which Is the Better Home Internet Provider?

AT&T vs. Spectrum: Which is better for your home?

AT&T and Spectrum are two of the nation's largest home internet providers, but which is better? If fiber services are available at your location, CNET recommends AT&T as a top pick due to its wide range of speed tiers, and it features a flat rate for its fiber plans. You won't have to worry about your monthly price increase after a year. However, Spectrum's cable internet offers more availability in the country, so your address will likely be serviceable under Spectrum.

Each provider offers service to more than a third of the US population, and coverage from the two companies overlaps throughout much of the South, Midwest and East as well as in parts of Texas and California. 

This means you might be faced with choosing between AT&T and Spectrum for your home's internet connection. If that's you, read on for a full breakdown of each provider's coverage, plans, prices, terms, additional fees and customer service track records.

AT&T

Fiber service is tough to beat

Our take - If they're available in your area, AT&T's fiber plans are top-notch and hard to beat, especially when compared to a cable connection from Spectrum. AT&T Internet is available in 22 states, but only a portion of its customers have access to its fiber plans. Moreover, 8.8 million customers can access AT&T Fiber. They feature symmetrical speeds, no equipment rental fee, and no contracts or data caps. The average cost per megabit per second is about 10 cents across all tiers — and is impressively even cheaper for the multigig plans (if they're available in your area). AT&T no longer offers new customers its slower and outdated DSL network. However, some existing AT&T customers may still be able to access it.

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Spectrum

Consistent cable connection and wide availability

Our take - If AT&T Fiber is unavailable at your address, Spectrum will likely offer better availability and value, too. Spectrum reaches over 57 million homes in 41 states but offers fewer plan options than AT&T. Spectrum offers only two plans: 500Mbps downloads and 20Mbps uploads for $50 monthly and 1,000Mbps downloads and 35Mbps uploads for $70. Unlimited data and a modem are already included in that monthly price. Customers of the 500Mbps plan may choose to lease a router with Spectrum for an additional $10 a month, but this is optional. The cost of the router is included for customers of the 1-gig plan. Spectrum is notorious for price increases of $30 after one year of service, so be on the lookout for that increase to your monthly bill. AT&T, however, keeps a fixed rate for its fiber internet services so you'll never have to anticipate a price increase.

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AT&T vs. Spectrum: Availability compared

Though they aren't available everywhere -- well-established satellite providers like Starlink, Viasat and Hughesnet are the only ISPs that can make that claim -- both AT&T and Spectrum offer coverage in multiple regions throughout the US. 

On AT&T's end, the map stretches through 22 states, with service splattered across the Gulf Coast and up through the Great Lakes, as well as much of California. With Spectrum's sprawling cable empire, you'll find service available in 41 states. Moreover, you can get service in parts of Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, to name a few. Hawaii is also part of that list, Spectrum does, in fact, provide internet service to the Aloha State.

AT&T vs. Spectrum: Plans, speeds and monthly costs

Now, let's dive further into important details you need to know. Both AT&T and Spectrum offer multiple plans throughout their respective coverage areas. However, AT&T may have a wider plan selection than Spectrum. On the bright side, Spectrum's service terms are pretty straightforward.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

As you can see, you'll find only two plans to pick from with Spectrum, with download speeds of 500Mbps or 1,000Mbps. Note that the upload speeds are much slower -- that's a quirk of cable internet, which doesn't offer matching, concurrent upload and download speeds like a fiber connection will.

Spectrum plans don't require any contracts, but your monthly price will go up by $30 after the first year. On the plus side, Spectrum's internet plans don't come with many additional fees, save for the $10 equipment rental fee, which you can skip altogether if you're using your own router or if you're a customer of the 1-gig plan.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

The list of AT&T plans is a lot longer because AT&T uses a mix of technologies to deliver different plans in different parts of its coverage map. According to the latest data from the FCC, AT&T's high-speed fiber connection only provides over 12% of unit coverage in the US. An AT&T spokesperson told CNET that the company's fiber footprint has grown since then but didn't provide a more up-to-date figure. 

Some existing AT&T customers may have access to the slower DSL hybrid service called ADSL that augments the traditional phone-line approach with copper cabling for regions where fiber is unavailable. It's important to note that this DSL service is no longer being offered to new customers. On the bright side, you may find better service with AT&T's 5G home internet service, AT&T Internet Air, which is available in over 100 markets across 48 states.

That methodological mix means that AT&T's speeds, plans and prices will vary wildly depending on your location. If AT&T Fiber is available in your area, you could sign up for symmetrical upload and download speeds of 300Mbps for $55 per month, which is less than you'd pay for AT&T's fixed wireless plan, which offers download speeds that top out at 10Mbps and uploads that only hit 1Mbps.

Like Spectrum, AT&T internet plans don't require contracts -- but with AT&T, the price goes up after 12 months with the DSL plans. Even then, the jump is less severe than you'll see with Spectrum. Another point for AT&T Fiber plans: There's no automatic price hike after the first year.

Service terms for AT&T and Spectrum

Spectrum plans come with a free modem, but you'll need to pay an extra $10 per month to rent a router if you're a customer of the 500Mbps plan. You can skip the fee if you swap in a router of your own or upgrade to the 1-gig plan. Meanwhile, AT&T skips the equipment rental charges completely.

Beyond that, here's a quick run-through on the rest of the fine print.

One-time installation and activation fees

Spectrum suspended in-home professional installation due to the pandemic, but it is once again an option for customers. Standard installation will cost you $65. However, the self-installation router is cheaper, as customers can order a self-installation kit for $30. Spectrum also charges an additional $10 for the Wi-Fi activation fee for most customers.

AT&T charges $99 for professional installation, though it often waives this fee as part of its online promotions. In some cases, AT&T offers to wave that installation fee for fiber plans and the Internet Air plan. Be on the lookout to see if your address is eligible for these deals.

Data caps

Spectrum doesn't enforce data caps on any of its plans, so you can surf, stream and download to your heart's content without fear of incurring a fee or seeing your speeds throttled. Give Spectrum a gold star for that -- especially since data caps are definitely a thing with other cable internet providers, namely Xfinity and Cox.

As for AT&T, the company boasts unlimited data with its fiber plans, which is great -- but DSL and fixed wireless customers aren't so lucky. With those plans, AT&T enforces a data cap of 350GB or 1.5 terabytes (1,500GB). Once you use more data than that in a given month, you'll incur charges of $10 for every 50GB of excess, up to a maximum penalty of $100.

The good news is that there are ways to dodge this data cap. Your first option is to pay an extra $30 per month to upgrade your plan with unlimited data. The second (and for most customers, better) option is to get unlimited data at no extra charge by opting for AT&T's home internet and TV bundle. To avoid paying fees, read our guide to learn how to manage your monthly data cap.

How do AT&T and Spectrum's customer satisfaction marks compare?

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which runs yearly surveys across various product and service categories to gauge -- you guessed it -- customer satisfaction, the ISP category is having a hard time. Still, it saw a 4% increase from 2023 to now. On the whole, customer satisfaction with their internet provider came in at 71 out of 100 for 2024, which is just a point above last year's 75 out of 100.

So how did our two providers of note finish? AT&T earned a score of 80, which put them first amongst other fiber providers, like Verizon Fios and Frontier Fiber. Other providers were at least a three point difference from AT&T, and the average score for fiber providers was four points less than AT&T's score.

Spectrum, meanwhile, met the industry average for non-fiber ISPs with a score of 68 out of 100. Spectrum falls a point behind in comparison to AT&T's DSL network. However, it did beat Xfinity and Optimum, which might indicate some positive momentum.

Separate customer satisfaction data from the J.D. Power survey seems to back that up. In the company's 2024 study of ISP satisfaction, Spectrum finished with a below-average score in all regions, except the South. Meanwhile, AT&T finished with the top score among all ISPs surveyed in the West and North-Central. Spectrum's best finish was in the South, earning a score of 561, beating the regional average of 559.

Summing it all up

AT&T and Spectrum both offer home internet service to a significant percentage of the US population, and their footprints overlap in several regions. If you're choosing between the two, be sure to check whether or not AT&T offers fiber connections at your address. Those will provide you with the best upload and download speeds at the best price. If not, you'll likely be better off with Spectrum, as AT&T's DSL and fixed wireless plans aren't a great value and come with a monthly data cap to boot.

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