AT&T vs. Cox: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Compare AT&T and Cox head to head

AT&T is ideal for customers who want fast speeds and a decent deal. Its best plan gives you 300 Mbps speeds for $55 per month, but you can pay a lot more for obscenely fast multigigabit speeds. Like AT&T, Cox also offers 1 gig speeds, but where it really shines is with its lower-priced plans. Cox budget packages are great if you don’t need the fastest speeds (and most people don’t). Just watch out for the price hikes that kick in after 12 months.

Pros and cons: AT&T vs. Cox

Jump to: Plans and pricing | Extra fees | Customer ratings | Bundles | Internet connection types | Data caps | Contracts | Installation | Availability

Jump to:

• Plans and pricing
• Extra fees
• Customer ratings
• Bundles
• Internet connection types
• Data caps
• Contracts
• Installation
• Availability

Plans and pricing: AT&T vs. Cox

AT&T plans and pricing

AT&T has a bunch of fiber internet plans, with speeds going up to a startling 5 Gbps—that’s the fastest possible speed you can get from any major internet provider anywhere in the United States. Do you need 5 Gbps speeds? Honestly, probably not.

You can’t do much better than $55 per month for the 300 Mbps plan. That’s an incredibly fast speed, ideal for a household of several people, and it’s not too shabby of a price either. Plus, you can always cancel your plan without facing early termination fees (ETFs).

If you live in a rural area, you can get AT&T’s Fixed Wireless Internet, which is designed for internet users living in places where few internet options are available.

Cox plans and pricing

Cox’s cable packages all come with fairly steep price hikes after one year of service. That said, if you don’t need superfast internet speeds, Cox can still give you a good deal. Also, you’ll likely have an easier time getting a cable plan through Cox than getting a fiber plan from AT&T, making the fastest speeds more accessible.

Extra fees: AT&T vs. Cox

Data as of 10/25/21. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

AT&T and Cox both charge hefty fees for a professional installation, but you can opt for a self-install option to help ease the bill.

As for equipment, for a monthly fee your provider will give you everything you need to get online after you sign up. This includes a modem, a router, and a cable box or DVR if you get TV service.

The nice thing about included equipment is it’s guaranteed to work with your service, and if you run into trouble, it’ll be covered by your provider. AT&T charges $10 per month for a router and modem, while Cox has a $12 per month rental fee for its Panoramic Wifi Gateway (a modem/router combo).

Customer ratings: AT&T vs. Cox

Rankings from HighSpeedInternet.com’s annual customer satisfaction survey.

AT&T and Cox ranked second and fourth respectively in our annual customer satisfaction report. Customers scored them similarly in reliability and speed, but Cox customers are slightly more satisfied with their customer service than AT&T customers. Both AT&T and Cox received their lowest scores in the price category, but AT&T edged out Cox with a 3.5 satisfaction score compared to Cox’s 3.3.

It’s worth noting that AT&T’s fiber internet customers gave higher ratings in every category compared to the ISP’s DSL customers, especially in the speed and customer service categories. Overall, AT&T fiber customers rated it 3.8, but it’s DSL score is 3.6. So customers actually rated AT&T fiber first, then Cox, and finally AT&T DSL.

Neither ISP has glaring faults—both ranked in the top half of 12 in every category. You’ll probably get satisfactory service from either one. But numbers-wise, AT&T has happier customers.

Best TV and internet bundles

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It makes a lot of sense to bundle your internet and TV with one provider. Not only will you get a simpler bill, but also you’ll usually get a better deal.

Cox offers bundles with its own cable TV service, Cox Contour . Contour is a solid all-around TV service with a good channel selection. There are cheaper bundling options available with Cox Counter Stream Player, which gives you streaming TV service instead of wired cable TV. If you want to bundle a Cox internet plan with cable TV, you can pair any of the Cox internet plans (100-1,000 Mbps) with any Cox TV plan (75-250 channels).

But you won’t be able to get a bundle package from AT&T. You used to be able to bundle AT&T internet with DIRECTV and AT&T TV, but those offers are no longer available.

Internet connection types: AT&T vs. Cox

AT&T primarily offers fiber-optic internet, but it also has fixed-wireless connections for rural customers. Cox’s network is built on cable lines. In terms of speed and reliability, fiber is by far the best—AT&T can get you up to 5 Gbps speeds for downloads and uploads. That’s the fastest internet plan ever from a major provider.

Cable is also fast and reliable. But while Cox can get you 1,000 Mbps download speeds, your upload speeds will generally be much slower. Keep that in mind if you plan to do upload-intensive tasks like uploading content to social media, hosting livestreams, or attending Zoom meetings.

AT&T vs. Cox: Data caps

AT&T has no data caps for customers on its fiber internet plans. AT&T’s fixed wireless package has a relatively small 350 GB data cap.

Cox gives all of its customers a 1.25 TB data cap. That’s going to be plenty for most users, though heavy streamers may run into some trouble.

AT&T vs. Cox: Contracts

You won’t need to worry about an annual contract if you sign up with AT&T—all of its internet plans go month to month, so you can cancel any time without worrying about an early termination fee.

Cox gives you the option between signing up for a one-year contract or paying $10 a month extra for a month-to-month option. The early termination fee on the annual contract is $10 for each month you have left on your bill. So, you’ll save a little money by signing a contract, but you might have to pay up in the end if you cancel before it’s over.

AT&T vs. Cox: Installation

Data as of 11/16/2021. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

AT&T and Cox both charge hefty fees for a professional installation, but there are a few tricks to help ease the bill. AT&T offers a free self-install kit, so you don’t have to pay $49 for professional installation.

Cox charges $100 for professional installation of its internet service, but you can get a self-installation kit at no extra charge.

AT&T vs. Cox: Availability

AT&T and Cox both offer service in a similar number of states: twenty-one states for AT&T and eighteen for Cox. AT&T tends to have more coverage overall, with wider availability in each state.

To find out if you can get either of these providers, type in your zip code below to see if they’re available in your area.

Final call: AT&T vs. Cox

We think AT&T’s fiber service is the best bet out of what you get from these two providers. It gives you faster speeds and a more reliable connection type compared to Cox’s plans.

The catch? AT&T Fiber is a lot harder to come by than Cox’s cable internet. If you want cheap internet, then a lower-tier Cox plan may be just what you need.

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.

Additional resources

• Your Guide to AT&T Internet Installation
• AT&T vs. CenturyLink
• Cox vs. Frontier

Disclaimer

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