AT&T vs. Cox Internet: Which One Is Worth Your Money?

AT&T mostly offers fiber-optic internet but also has DSL and fixed wireless internet in some areas. The fiber packages start at $55 a month and give you speeds ranging up to 5,000Mbps. You don't have to worry about contracts or data caps with its fiber plans. AT&T also has a wireless plan called AT&T Internet Air, which costs $60 per month and offers 225Mbps download speeds. It’s not widely available yet, and most should go for fiber anyway.

Cox is a cable internet provider with plans that start at $50 a month and download speeds up to 2,000Mbps. Its plans don't come with annual contracts, but you do have a 1,280GB monthly data cap.

Cox also offers the affordable Connect2Compete package, which costs $9.95 per month and is designed for low-income households with students.

Plans with 1,000Mbps speeds and higher get a $10 promotional discount that ends after 24 months.

AT&T customers generally quite like AT&T. We talked to four AT&T customers, and three of them had almost nothing bad to say about the service. That’s uncommon when it comes to internet service providers.

Jane Collins, a retired healthcare administrator in Detroit, says that AT&T is the best of three services that she’s tried. “I would say their internet is reliable. It’s been relatively trouble free,” she says. “The pricing has been stable.”

Danny Flanagan, an AT&T user in Ohio, was very enthusiastic about his experience with the provider, noting that everything about the service has been “fantastic” for him. AT&T Internet impressed him so much that he says that he’s “looking forward to moving over to the mobile side in the next few months.”

Of course, not every single person is completely happy with AT&T service—which is to be expected. Hayden, in Illinois, prefers AT&T to Xfinity, which was his last provider. But in his opinion, it’s not head and shoulders above the competition. For example, Hayden notes that his Wi-Fi extender frequently stops working properly. “I wouldn’t say it’s a good deal, but it’s comparable to the other ISPs I’ve used,” he says, calling it “better than the alternative in this town.”

Cox customers aren’t quite as sweet on their provider as AT&T customers are on AT&T. Isaac Chandler, the manager of an esports lounge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, says the price for his Cox plan is too high for the kinds of speeds he gets. He’s experienced outages and feels that the cable connection isn’t super reliable. Still, he gets by with his Cox internet.

"It's pretty easy to set up and doesn’t require any weird cabling,” he says, adding that he’s had positive experiences with Cox customer service. “They solve my problems pretty quickly.”

Other customers also felt that they’re paying too much for their Cox packages. "But I still do it because I get everything I need with a minimum of fuss and bother," shrugged M.J. Stevens, a Cox bundler in San Diego.

While some customers find customer service to be easy to deal with, others have had different experiences. Lindsey Scotney owns a hospitality staffing company in Tulsa, and recently had to call customer service after becoming suspicious that her speeds were being throttled despite her unlimited data plan. Scotney says that the rep kept interrupting her as she was trying to find out information.

“He hung up on me intentionally after telling me I was being abusive,” Scotney recalls. “I literally did not raise my voice at all and in a very calm voice just asked him to please let me finish what I was saying.”

AT&T is the standout option when it comes to these two providers, offering generally faster plans, better customer service, and better reliability. Cox isn’t terrible, but given the choice between the two, you should go for AT&T. Of course, you might not always have the choice—AT&T’s reliable services aren’t available everywhere, and in fact, AT&T fiber is available in only 21 states. That’s more than Cox, which is in 19 states, however you still might find that only Cox is available in your area.