When looking for internet service for your house, it’s difficult to be picky. If you live in any of the region where internet service providers are available, you’ll have to choose from those that do so. Frontier Communications and Charter Spectrum, two of the country’s largest Internet service providers (ISPs), have overlapping service areas in various parts of the country.
Those are not insignificant footprints. Since late 2020, Frontier and Charter Spectrum were two of just nine internet providers that could claim to cover more than 10% of Americans, according to the FCC data. We’re here if you need help deciding between them for your home’s internet needs. You must check how the two companies compare in terms of technology, speed, coverage, and customer happiness by continuing to read.
Why is it so hard to compare Frontier with Spectrum?
Internet service providers can employ various technologies to link people’s homes to the internet. For the most part, fiber is the fastest choice, but it’s limited to areas that have been outfitted with ground-laying fiber-optic cable, which is a lengthy process.
According to the FCC, Frontier offers fiber internet in sections of California, Texas, Florida, and Indiana, which covers approximately one-third of Frontier’s subscribers. The majority of Frontier’s customers use a phone-line-based DSL connection to get online.
Less than 1% of Charter’s customers have access to Spectrum fiber, and no DSL service is available. Instead, coaxial cable is used to link 99 percent of Spectrum consumers to the internet. As a matter of fact, Charter Spectrum is the second-largest cable company in the country. Its 2016 acquisition of Time Warner Cable’s infrastructure plays a significant part in this.
Frontier vs. Spectrum on internet plans and pricing
Download speeds go as high as 2 gigabits per second with Frontier if you’re eligible for fiber connection, with equal or near-matching upload speeds, too. Download speeds with Frontier DSL are normally in the double digits, with a maximum of 115Mbps available.
Using Spectrum, you can get cable internet speeds starting at 200Mbps and going all the way up to 940Mbps, which is just shy of the speed of a gigabit. Spectrum is no exception to the rule that upload speeds are constrained on cable internet. Even if you sign up for the company’s most expensive plan, you’ll only be able to upload 35Mbps.
As for prices, monthly costs for Frontier DSL service run from $33-$50 per month, while the company’s fiber contracts range from $50-$150 per month. With Spectrum’s cable options, charges normally run from $50 to $90 per month. However, the business often includes fewer additional fees than competitors.
Both providers provide discounted internet plans to qualifying low-income consumers. There are no commitments or data caps with Spectrum Internet Assist, which offers 30Mbps download speeds and 4Mbps upload speeds. The government’s Affordable Connectivity Program, on the other hand, offers a discount on Frontier or Spectrum internet service to qualified customers.
If you currently reside in any one of the 46 states where spectrum is available, you can call telephone de Spectrum and find out if the services are available in your specific area.
Frontier and Spectrum are compared in terms of coverage and accessibility.
In 46 states, including Hawaii, Charter Spectrum is one of the largest internet service providers in the country. Even though Frontier has a decreased market share, it’s still a large operator, serving 25 states. Several regions, including parts of New York, Texas, southern California, and the Midwest, overlap with both services.
In 2020, the FCC predicted that Spectrum home internet would be available to more than 100 million Americans. At the same time, Frontier had 30 million customers.
Customers’ happiness with Frontier and Spectrum are compared.
In terms of customer satisfaction, how satisfied are Spectrum and Frontier’s customers? The answer, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, is that there is definitely space for improvement in a wide number of categories, including internet service providers.
Customers polled by ASCI for its 2021 report gave Spectrum a higher overall satisfaction score of 63 out of 100, making it the better option out of the two. But that’s still a notch behind AT&T (71), which ranked first among all carriers, and well behind Verizon Fios (70). Spectrum’s score in 2021 is four points better than it was in 2019, indicating that the company may be on the rise.
Frontier has been in a customer satisfaction rut for several years compared to its competitors, including its fiber-optic TV service. Frontier was the second-to-last internet service provider in the ACSI poll when it came to customer satisfaction, just ahead of last-place finisher Suddenlink. However, Frontier hasn’t scored higher than 60 since it gained a 61 in 2015 when it improved two points from its 2020 rating to a 57 in 2021.
