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

Compare AT&T and Cox head to head

AT&T fiber plans give you fast speeds and unlimited data at a decent price, making this provider the ideal pick for most people. AT&T’s 300Mbps plan costs just $55 per month, but you can pay more for obscenely fast multigigabit speeds. Like AT&T, Cox also offers 1 gig speeds, but its cable connection doesn’t have the impressive upload speeds of AT&T fiber. Cox also has steep price hikes that kick in after 12 months. Still, Cox budget packages are solid if you don’t need the fastest speeds (and most people don’t).

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 5Gbps—that’s the fastest possible speed you can get from any major internet provider anywhere in the United States. Do you need 5Gbps speeds? Honestly, probably not.

You can’t do much better than $55 per month for the 300Mbps plan. That’s a generous 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 has an array of cable plans that let you choose between saving money or getting faster speeds. None of the plans quite compare to AT&T’s fiber offerings—for example, Internet Essential 100 costs $5 less per month, but is 200Mbps slower than AT&T’s basic fiber plan. Also, each of these plans comes with a fairly steep price hike after one year.

Still, Cox gets you fast speeds and reliable service. And you’re more likely to find a cable plan through Cox than you would a a fiber plan from AT&T. So Cox is going to be the fast option for most netizens.

Extra fees: AT&T vs. Cox

AT&T and Cox both charge for professional installation, but you can opt for a self-install option to cut extra fees off your bill.

As for equipment, for a monthly fee your provider gives 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. But you can buy your own equipment to save money.

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 doesn’t charge for a router and modem on fiber plans, 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

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 (100–1,000Mbps) 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 5Gbps 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 1,000Mbps 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 350GB data cap.

Cox gives all of its customers a 1.25TB 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 2/15/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

AT&T and Cox both charge 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 $99 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.

Final call: AT&T vs. Cox

We think AT&T is the best bet of these two providers—just make sure you can get a fiber-optic plan. AT&T’s fiber packages give 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, and AT&T’s DSL offerings really aren’t worth the price. If fiber isn’t available where you live, stick with a Cox cable internet plan, even if it costs a bit more than DSL.

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