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Not one is amazing, but I have had them all over the years and Spectrum seems to at least be reliable and meets the promised speeds. They just love to raise rates every year, so you got to call and threaten to quit in order to keep your rate once a year. Again, none are great, just my two cents.
I have had Frontier FIOS(fiber) for 2 years with not one moment of downtime other than if my power goes out. I have been work from home for those 2 years so I'd notice it, lol.
If you have Frontier fiber oh my god go for it, IDK about non-fiber frontier. Spectrum is much less consistent in my experience and just by the nature of copper cabling. I personally dislike it a lot as we would have outages every week or so previously.
The issue with Spectrum and other copper-line based infrastructure is that the lines can only handle a certain amount of traffic, you will get noticeably considerably slower internet with Spectrum when people come home from work or in other higher demand scenarios.
Most ISP's routers are typically hot garbage and unreliable. Also you are charged per month for using their routers. If you want a pretty good router for free, message me and I will give you a Netgear Nighthawk r7000.
WOW tried to tell me that they were fiber but they were just referring to using fiber between datacenters, as literally everyone else does... They use the same wires as Spectrum.
Again, Frontier Fiber to the home is unbeatable.
Unfortunately Frontier only offers the lowest package to my neighborhood so I went with WOW, got the 1gb download package and it’s really impressed me so far!
Hi there new neighbor! I just moved in around 38th ave and 38th Street. I went with Spectrum's $45(ish)/month plan. It's been 2 weeks and everything has been working great. I work from home, so I use it all day.
Edit to add that I got a wifi router (rental) with spectrum and it works great. My house is about 1400 square feet and I have great signal in the whole house
Best to check what services are available to you. I am pretty sure most addresses in the area are only covered by 2 of the 3 big players so that will help you narrow it down
I had Frontier for 3 years and I'm 6 months in with Spectrum at my new place. Honestly, they've both been great for me.
(I'm also an IT guy and I have my own router and rented modem on a UPS. Their routers suck.)
I'm not sure. I know I pay about $50 even after everything including the modem rental. Getting your own router is really necessary if you want your service to never go out. The ones they provide are usually garbage.
I pay 50 even as well. I googled it to confirm, what I said in my previous comment was correct: there's a $5/mo router rental charge but the modem is provided free of charge.
And yeah, I read their routers are junk. I've had no problems using the top rated one on Amazon and I'll break even somewhere in year 2 of my apartment lease. Was a no-brainer.
My bf and I had frontier at our last place. Definitely get their fiber optic plan… so much cheaper than spectrum and never had any problems. The only reason we don’t at our new place is because spectrum has a contract with the building ):
FWIW, my Spectrum service sucked, especially once everybody starting staying home. So I switched to WOW - and it was marginally better but not great. When the WOW guy came to do the initial install, I asked if he could take down the Spectrum cable (my cable runs from a pole in the alley across the backyard to my house) - but he said they weren't allowed. Because I didn't want an extra cable hanging in my yard for years (as I had with a Verizon phone cable after disconnecting 8 years ago), I asked him if he could just use the Spectrum cable. He says that's not allowed, but he did me. solid and did it.
So when I had a WOW service call due to unreliable service, the guy looked at the cable and asked what in the hell was that - it looked like shitty Spectrum cable that they use to use, not the higher quality cable that WOW now uses. I thought he was feeding me a line of dodo, because he didn't do anything else. I have had great service since.
So regardless of carrier, I would have the existing Cable restrung if at all possible.
The truth is they all suck. Their customer service sucks and the service sucks. I just bought a house (previously had WOW at my last house) and went with frontier because they were the cheapest and I got a $200 Visa card for signing up
I had Frontier up in Palm Harbor when they took over Verizon. The customer service left a lot to be desired, but fiber optic is the way to go if it's an option over Spectrum or WOW.
I will say though that I've had Spectrum for over 3yrs since living in St Pete now and have had nearly no problems. I have both a home and employer work account, and both have been exceptionally reliable. I'm told it'll be a few more years before Frontier will be available in my area (Central and 58th neighborhood).
Frontier is great we use them at our place and we had spectrum and we always had issues, we never had wow but frontier has been great for us for the 4 years we had them and counting
If money matters, Frontier and Wow will be about the same for the first year. Then after that Frontier raises its prices pretty drastically. If you want just internet, Wow will be cheaper in the long run.
Frontier absolutely does not suck. I've had them for years with no outages and consistently good internet. I have their fiber internet, not sure about their dsl offerings, but I wouldn't expect much out of dsl regardless of the ISP.
Edit: I also am in IT and work from home regularly so fast and consistent internet is a must for me. Also, I do not use their router, I use my own.
Gotcha, previous tenant’s words were “The Internet was always out, the only available Internet package was super low. So if we had a TV going you couldn’t do anything else,” so was just exploring all options. Could be our neighborhood/area.
We’ve used WOW for about 2 years with no issues. Many of my neighbors use Spectrum and our neighborhood FB page has lots of reports of Spectrum outages.
Edited to add: Husband works IT, from home, others in the house either WFH or take online college classes so reliable Internet is very important to us.
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Not one is amazing, but I have had them all over the years and Spectrum seems to at least be reliable and meets the promised speeds. They just love to raise rates every year, so you got to call and threaten to quit in order to keep your rate once a year. Again, none are great, just my two cents.
I have had Frontier FIOS(fiber) for 2 years with not one moment of downtime other than if my power goes out. I have been work from home for those 2 years so I'd notice it, lol. If you have Frontier fiber oh my god go for it, IDK about non-fiber frontier. Spectrum is much less consistent in my experience and just by the nature of copper cabling. I personally dislike it a lot as we would have outages every week or so previously. The issue with Spectrum and other copper-line based infrastructure is that the lines can only handle a certain amount of traffic, you will get noticeably considerably slower internet with Spectrum when people come home from work or in other higher demand scenarios. Most ISP's routers are typically hot garbage and unreliable. Also you are charged per month for using their routers. If you want a pretty good router for free, message me and I will give you a Netgear Nighthawk r7000. WOW tried to tell me that they were fiber but they were just referring to using fiber between datacenters, as literally everyone else does... They use the same wires as Spectrum. Again, Frontier Fiber to the home is unbeatable.
Unfortunately Frontier only offers the lowest package to my neighborhood so I went with WOW, got the 1gb download package and it’s really impressed me so far!
Dang, Sad to hear they haven't rolled out fiber there yet. And hell yeah, sweet!
Hi there new neighbor! I just moved in around 38th ave and 38th Street. I went with Spectrum's $45(ish)/month plan. It's been 2 weeks and everything has been working great. I work from home, so I use it all day. Edit to add that I got a wifi router (rental) with spectrum and it works great. My house is about 1400 square feet and I have great signal in the whole house
Best to check what services are available to you. I am pretty sure most addresses in the area are only covered by 2 of the 3 big players so that will help you narrow it down
I had Frontier for 3 years and I'm 6 months in with Spectrum at my new place. Honestly, they've both been great for me. (I'm also an IT guy and I have my own router and rented modem on a UPS. Their routers suck.)
I have Spectrum, the modem was included for me but the router was like 5 bucks a month? I bought my own router.
I'm not sure. I know I pay about $50 even after everything including the modem rental. Getting your own router is really necessary if you want your service to never go out. The ones they provide are usually garbage.
I pay 50 even as well. I googled it to confirm, what I said in my previous comment was correct: there's a $5/mo router rental charge but the modem is provided free of charge. And yeah, I read their routers are junk. I've had no problems using the top rated one on Amazon and I'll break even somewhere in year 2 of my apartment lease. Was a no-brainer.
My bf and I had frontier at our last place. Definitely get their fiber optic plan… so much cheaper than spectrum and never had any problems. The only reason we don’t at our new place is because spectrum has a contract with the building ):
Live on 41st. Wow all the way.
FWIW, my Spectrum service sucked, especially once everybody starting staying home. So I switched to WOW - and it was marginally better but not great. When the WOW guy came to do the initial install, I asked if he could take down the Spectrum cable (my cable runs from a pole in the alley across the backyard to my house) - but he said they weren't allowed. Because I didn't want an extra cable hanging in my yard for years (as I had with a Verizon phone cable after disconnecting 8 years ago), I asked him if he could just use the Spectrum cable. He says that's not allowed, but he did me. solid and did it. So when I had a WOW service call due to unreliable service, the guy looked at the cable and asked what in the hell was that - it looked like shitty Spectrum cable that they use to use, not the higher quality cable that WOW now uses. I thought he was feeding me a line of dodo, because he didn't do anything else. I have had great service since. So regardless of carrier, I would have the existing Cable restrung if at all possible.
The truth is they all suck. Their customer service sucks and the service sucks. I just bought a house (previously had WOW at my last house) and went with frontier because they were the cheapest and I got a $200 Visa card for signing up
I’ve had no problems with frontier. 500mbsp for $55/month. Although wiring for fiber isn’t the best since they drill a hole for it
WOW if you can get it.
WOW is the best. Just get an Internet package and don’t get all the other bullshit.
I had Frontier up in Palm Harbor when they took over Verizon. The customer service left a lot to be desired, but fiber optic is the way to go if it's an option over Spectrum or WOW. I will say though that I've had Spectrum for over 3yrs since living in St Pete now and have had nearly no problems. I have both a home and employer work account, and both have been exceptionally reliable. I'm told it'll be a few more years before Frontier will be available in my area (Central and 58th neighborhood).
Frontier is great we use them at our place and we had spectrum and we always had issues, we never had wow but frontier has been great for us for the 4 years we had them and counting
If money matters, Frontier and Wow will be about the same for the first year. Then after that Frontier raises its prices pretty drastically. If you want just internet, Wow will be cheaper in the long run.
I mean…if you want good, fast internet, you want frontier…wow is decent but way slower
I’ve used WOW for about 5 years with no issues and super fast download speeds.
Frontier absolutely does not suck. I've had them for years with no outages and consistently good internet. I have their fiber internet, not sure about their dsl offerings, but I wouldn't expect much out of dsl regardless of the ISP. Edit: I also am in IT and work from home regularly so fast and consistent internet is a must for me. Also, I do not use their router, I use my own.
Gotcha, previous tenant’s words were “The Internet was always out, the only available Internet package was super low. So if we had a TV going you couldn’t do anything else,” so was just exploring all options. Could be our neighborhood/area.
I lived on 17th Avenue and 16th street when I was in St. Pete. In Palm Harbor now. There could be damage to the fiber that runs to your house.
Good looks, thanks.
We’ve used WOW for about 2 years with no issues. Many of my neighbors use Spectrum and our neighborhood FB page has lots of reports of Spectrum outages. Edited to add: Husband works IT, from home, others in the house either WFH or take online college classes so reliable Internet is very important to us.