CenturyLink fiber gives you faster, more reliable internet—but Spectrum works great if fiber isn't available
Spectrum vs. CenturyLink: Why Fiber Is Your Best Bet
Best cable provider
Overall Quality ⁃ 3.7/5
3.8/5 - Speed and reliability
3.2/5 - Dollar value
4.0/5 - Customer experience
Best for fiber only
Overall Quality ⁃ 3.7/5
3.5/5 - Speed and reliability
3.8/5 - Dollar value
3.5/5 - Customer experience 
7 min readAt first glance, Spectrum and CenturyLink don't have much in common—they specialize in totally different internet types. But both offer affordable and competitive internet and some fiber service in certain locales.
While CenturyLink gets decent ratings for its DSL internet, between it and Spectrum, we’re Spectrum all the way. Excellent cable service is speedier and more cost-efficient than DSL, even great DSL like CenturyLink.
The exception is any area where you can get CenturyLink fiber—then you should definitely go with CenturyLink. The provider’s fiber internet packages give you incredibly fast upload and download speeds at a lower price than what you get from Spectrum.
“They’re very affordable, and if I’m having an issue, they’re very good about troubleshooting,” says Spectrum customer Sakia Anwar in Queens, New York
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Want to know if Spectrum or CenturyLink are available where you live? Run a search with your zip code below to find out.
CenturyLink Fiber is becoming Quantum Fiber
Thinking of enrolling in CenturyLink fiber? You should know that parent company Lumen is gradually migrating its fiber customers to its other brand, Quantum Fiber.
“We are migrating CenturyLink areas on a rolling basis, with no specific end date timeframe,” says Lumen spokesperson Courtney Morton. Eventually, all CenturyLink fiber customers will become part of Quantum Fiber, leaving only the DSL customers under the CenturyLink brand, Morton says.
But don’t worry! You can still sign up for CenturyLink fiber, no problem, and still keep your plan when you move to Quantum. The only material change is the brand swap.
Customers can either contact Quantum to start the transition process or wait to receive an email with more information.
Spectrum vs. CenturyLink: Plans, pricing, and speed
| Provider | | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per month |
$24.99-$79.99
|
$50-$75
|
| Download speeds | 50-1000 Mbps* | 80-940 Mbps |
| Upload speeds | 4-35 Mbps | 10-940 Mbps |
| Details | View Plans | View Plans |
Data as of 04/05/2023. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.
*
Limited time offer; subject to change; valid to qualified residential customers who have not subscribed to any services within the previous 30 days and who have no outstanding obligation to Charter.
Spectrum is a mostly-cable service with speeds that start at 300Mbps and go up to a gig. You pay anywhere from $50 to $80 for this service (as long as you sign up for Autopay, which nets you a monthly discount). Spectrum has mandatory price increases after 12 or 24 months, at which point your bill jumps up by $20 monthly.
You also pay a $5 equipment rental fee and up to $65 for installation.
Spectrum doesn’t offer transparency into its fiber plans, so we’re not sure how much they cost or even how fast they are. But interestingly, Spectrum’s top cable speed is faster than CenturyLink’s top fiber speed.
CenturyLink offers both DSL and fiber. Its speeds top out at a measly 80 Mbps on the DSL connection but go up to 940Mbps through its fiber service. CenturyLink DSL has a flat rate of $55 per month no matter the speed, while the cost of CenturyLink’s fiber plans range from $50 to $75. The CenturyLink equipment rental fee is $15 a month, and its installation fee can reach up to $150 (although you can get free equipment and installation with a fiber plan).
Neither service has contracts, cancellation fees, or overage fees.
“They are faster, cheaper, and more reliable than my previous cable internet,” says CenturyLink customer Bruce in Hurricane, Utah.
Spectrum vs. CenturyLink: Fees for modem and installation
What makes this review legit?
Our fact-based research process centers on interviews with internet customers across the country, helping us understand how internet services hold up against diverse needs and challenges.
To put together this review, we looked at results from our speed test, pulled data from customer satisfaction surveys, and pored over the fine print to compare prices and speeds between the two providers. To flesh out our analysis, we also interviewed Spectrum and CenturyLink customers to get their first-hand insights. We let their experiences guide our research and shape our conclusions. We also speak with ISP spokespeople and industry experts to get insights into connection types, speed capabilities, and other technical issues related to internet service.
The matchup: How we rate Spectrum vs. CenturyLink
For all our internet reviews, we give a rating based on three main criteria—speed and reliability, dollar value, and customer experience—which we then average to make an overall score.
Here, we compare those ratings face to face. We then offer some analysis and context for important factors to keep in mind.
Want to know more? Read our full-length Spectrum and CenturyLink reviews.
Speed and reliability
Spectrum: 3.8/5.0 | CenturyLink: 3.5/5.0
Spectrum is faster than CenturyLink, though the services are fairly well matched in terms of dependability.
Spectrum offers internet packages that start at 300Mbps and a gigabit plan that tops out at 1,000Mbps. In contrast, CenturyLink’s maximum download speed is 940Mbps through its fiber service. Even with the power of fiber, that max speed is still a bit below Spectrum’s—but you can expect to get roughly the same bandwidth via a Wi-Fi router.
Spectrum and CenturyLink have a similar level of reliability. “We’ve never had an outage,” Anna Harsanyi, a Spectrum customer living in NYC, tells us in our review of the internet provider. As for CenturyLink, multiple customers say their service is dependable—and customer Peter C. in Phoenix, Arizona, calls his DSL service "very reliable."
Spectrum fiber vs. CenturyLink fiber
We're unsure how Spectrum fiber and CenturyLink fiber compare since Spectrum doesn't publicly share its fiber plans.
We can tell you how Spectrum cable and fiber plans match up: CenturyLink’s fiber download speed is slightly slower than Spectrum cable’s maximum, though its fiber upload speed is 200+ times faster than Spectrum cable’s.
But! Both Spectrum and CenturyLink fiber have limited availability, so most of the time, it’s either Spectrum cable or CenturyLink DSL.
Dollar value
Spectrum: 3.2/5.0 | CenturyLink: 3.8/5.0
If you can get CenturyLink’s fiber package, then you’re getting the best deal of all. The fiber service gets you faster speeds at a lower price than what you get from Spectrum. However, Spectrum gives you a better value than CenturyLink DSL. All of Spectrum’s plans offer faster speeds at a lower price than the latter provider’s sluggish DSL plans. With Spectrum, you pay between $50 and $80 a month for 300 to 1,000Mbps for the first 12 to 24 months. After that, you pay $70 to $100 a month. And Spectrum also usually has fewer and lower fees than CenturyLink.
In contrast, with CenturyLink—unless you can snag a fiber plan—you pay a premium for every Mbps that comes through your modem ($55 for 80, 100, or 140Mbps). And let’s not forget the $100+ installation fee or the monthly equipment rental fee, which is three times as much as Spectrum’s. (Unless, again, you manage to enroll in fiber, which doesn’t require equipment or installation fees.)
Customer experience
Spectrum: 4/5.0 | CenturyLink: 3.5/5.0
Spectrum skates by in the customer service realm, while CenturyLink excels.
Spectrum's customer service isn't bad, but some customers hit snags. When she talked to us for our Spectrum internet review, New York City customer Sakia Anwar told us about a particularly awful experience she had. Her internet had gone out, and she contacted customer support to get her service back online for a work meeting—only to have a customer rep annoyingly try to sell her Spectrum cable TV.
Likewise, customer Robyn Straw in St. Cloud, Minnesota, has had enough run-ins to leave her completely jaded. "It's not very customer friendly," she says of her Spectrum service.
CenturyLink customers seem to run into fewer bumps. "I love that I've never had an issue with service," says Reddit user FearthePack, a CenturyLink fiber customer in Minnesota.
"It's hard to beat the price I have, and service is generally really good," says Cai Crawford. He had one less-than-good experience when his family lost internet access for an evening while CenturyLink repaired a fiber line its installers had accidentally cut. But like most CenturyLink customers who spoke to Reviews.org, Crawford mainly speaks positively about the service.
Overall quality: Which internet provider should you pick?
Spectrum: 3.7/5.0 | CenturyLink: 3.7/5.0 (average of previous scores)
In most cases, you’re better off getting Spectrum over CenturyLink—unless you're choosing between Spectrum cable and CenturyLink fiber. In that case, definitely get CenturyLink fiber.
Spectrum is a bit cagey about where its fiber service is available, and CenturyLink is slowly getting rid of its fiber, so we're not sure if or where you'd run into those two options in one place. But here at Reviews.org, we have a fiber-first philosophy, so between Spectrum cable and CenturyLink fiber, you'd be better off with CenturyLink.
You should go with Spectrum cable in a showdown between Spectrum cable and CenturyLink DSL. And between Spectrum fiber and CenturyLink fiber—well, that depends on the plan prices and speeds of Spectrum’s fiber offering, which aren’t public information right now.
Spectrum add-ons and perks
Sign up for a minimum of 300 Mbps internet
Sign up for Autopay
CenturyLink add-ons and perks
Ask a representative
Ask a representative
Spectrum vs. CenturyLink: What do customers think?
Most Spectrum customers are fairly happy with their service.
“They seem to respond quickly and take care of problems pretty fast,” Conrad Burnham, a Spectrum customer in Los Angeles, tells us in our review of the provider.
“It’s totally fine. It’s fast and we’ve never had an outage.” -Anna Harsanyi, Spectrum customer in New York City
But as we found as we were researching our Spectrum review, some customers aren’t totally thrilled about their experience with Spectrum. Some, like Sakia Anwar and Robin St. Cloud, who shared their experiences earlier in this article, have had bad experiences that left a bitter taste in their mouths. Others are frustrated because they don’t have many internet options in their locations, and they wish they could have a fiber internet plan instead of Spectrum cable—or another ISP altogether.
“Spectrum was the only service provider that offered anything faster than 100Mbps download,” recalls Sean Huntley, a Spectrum customer and documentary producer living in Glendale, California.
Huntley notes that his Spectrum service performs just fine. “It’s been competent—and compulsory,” he jokes. Still, he’d prefer fiber.
CenturyLink internet service is quite the crowd-pleaser. Reviews.org spoke with several customers who enthused over how much they like their experience with the provider.
“CenturyLink has been reliable and affordable and offers enough speed for the average household,” says CenturyLink customer Cai Crawford.
“It’s an extremely good deal for very high speed,” -Bruce, CenturyLink customer in Hurricane, Utah.
However, CenturyLink fiber customers seem more satisfied than CenturyLink DSL customers. In fact, one of the biggest gripes with CenturyLink service is that its fiber plans aren't widely available.
“I wish they upgraded to fiber someday,” sighs DSL customer Peter C. in Phoenix, Arizona, where CenturyLink fiber isn’t currently available.
CenturyLink’s parent company, Lumen, is expanding CenturyLink fiber options. Well, sort of. Lumen’s focus is eventually moving all of CenturyLink’s fiber networks over to its other brand, Quantum Fiber.
Quantum Fiber mostly offers the same plans at the same prices, so the switch shouldn’t make a huge service difference to most customers, although some may be eligible for faster speeds. But either way, more fiber—yay.
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