An Honest Spectrum Internet Review, According to Customers

Charter-owned cable internet provider is “fast” and “affordable,” users say, but customer service isn’t always great.

Spectrum
Spectrum
3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9
Starts at$50.00/mo
  • Icon Blank

    4/5 - Speed and reliability
  • Icon Blank

    3.8/5 - Dollar value
  • Icon Blank

    4/5 - Customer experience
Spectrum logo in speech bubble above cartoon man using a laptop
Peter Holslin
Brianne Sandorf
May 30, 2025
Icon Time To Read8 min read

Spectrum Internet is the way to go if you need a reliable home Wi-Fi connection and can’t get fiber internet in your area. While fiber providers are faster, Spectrum is much more widely available and still gets you excellent speeds at a reasonable price.

“I would say it’s standard and reliable,” Sakia Anwar, a Spectrum customer in Queens, New York, told Reviews.org in an interview.

If you’re looking to save money, Spectrum isn’t as affordable as a 5G option like T-Mobile. But its cable connection is far more reliable and consistent than 5G Plus, you can also take advantage of Spectrum’s regular slate of deals and promos—including a mobile phone bundle that gets you an Unlimited Mobile plan free for a year.

“They’re very affordable, and if I’m having an issue, they’re very good about troubleshooting,” Anwar said. “If needed, they’ll send a technician out right away and get it resolved.”

We took a deep dive into Spectrum Internet and spoke with customers and experts to see what it’s all about. Read on for our comprehensive review.

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Deals

Find the latest Spectrum Internet deals here.

Our breakdown of Spectrum Internet features

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. 

Want to know how Spectrum Internet stacks up? See our full take below.

Speed and reliability

internet speed
4.0/5.0

Spectrum customer Sakia Anwar calls Spectrum Internet “standard and reliable,” and the numbers back that up.

Reviews.org’s speed test results show that the average Spectrum customer gets speeds of 140Mbps, making it considerably slower than Frontier Fiber. Spectrum's download speeds range from 500Mbps to 1000Mbps. That’s also slower than fiber competitors like Google Fiber and behind cable competitors like Cox and Astound. But Spectrum's download speeds aren’t slow by any means. Spectrum's speed tests place it among the top five fastest providers in the US.

Spectrum is also far faster and more reliable than a DSL line. Even when DSL is good, cable is just faster and more cost-efficient.

The 300Mbps of the basic Spectrum Internet plan are ideal for a mid-sized household, while Internet Gig is better for a content creator or large family. You don’t get symmetrical speeds either way, but most people don’t need them.

Dollar value

dollar value
3.8/5.0

Spectrum offers two plans, starting at 500Mbps for $50 a month and 940Mbps for $70 a month. The starting prices for both plans are affordable and on par with fiber competitors. However, things get a little trickier down the road.

Spectrum’s pricing structure includes discounted promotional rates for the first year, followed by a $20/mo. price hike on all plans after those first twelve months. Luckily, there’s no annual contract or early cancellation fee on Spectrum plans, so you can switch to a different provider if you don’t feel like paying the regular rate or call customer service and try to haggle it down. Read our guide for more smart tips to lower your Spectrum internet bill.

While Spectrum’s plans cost $50 and $70, respectively, you end up with some unforeseen charges. Typical to a cable provider,  Spectrum  imposes extra fees for things that fiber-optic and 5G home providers don’t charge for—you have to fork over $30 for the self-install kit, for example. And while Spectrum technically doesn’t charge for renting a modem, it does have a $10 monthly fee just to use the Wi-Fi. You don't have to pay the fee when you bring your own modem, though. (Check out our Spectrum Internet Hidden Costs page to learn more about unexpected charges you might encounter.)

Despite the extra fees, you still get a decent deal. You don’t have to worry about data caps or early termination fees when you cancel your service. There are also great Spectrum Internet deals out there. New customers are eligible for a $5 monthly autopay discount and a $100 Visa Rewards Card. And you get a free Unlimited Mobile cellular line from Spectrum Mobile for one year with any internet plan. We talk more about these bargains on our Spectrum deals page below:

Customer experience

customer experience
4.0/5.0

Spectrum gets mostly average ratings in public surveys. The provider ranked right in the middle for overall satisfaction, price, and customer service in HighSpeedInternet.com’s 2023 customer satisfaction survey, and it got a couple points below average in the 2022-2023 ACSI Telecommunications Study.

The customers that Reviews.org spoke with mostly are happy with their service, but some give marks down for technical support. “It’s totally fine. It’s fast and we’ve never had an outage,” said Anna Harsanyi in New York City.

“Just hope you don’t need help from customer service,” said Robyn Straw in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Opinions on Spectrum Internet’s customer service swerve between good and bad—some have positive experience while other customers report dealing with pushy customer service agents and unreliable support on the My Spectrum app.

Overall quality

overall quality
3.9/5.0

Despite the extra fees and limited fiber availability, Spectrum’s robust range of plan options and reliable cable connectivity make it a solid pick for most internet users.

Don’t expect the provider to exceed your expectations, necessarily: You aren’t going to get symmetrical speeds or multi-gig capabilities unless you can get Spectrum’s fiber service in your area, and that’s rare. But you still get a fast, reliable connection with infrequent outages, and the regular deals help counterbalance the $10 Wi-Fi fee (if you rent a modem) and 12-month or 24-month price hike.

Deals

Find the latest Spectrum Internet deals here.

What makes this Spectrum review legit?

Our fact-based research process centers around interviews with internet customers from across the country, helping us understand how internet services hold up against diverse needs and challenges.

To put together this review, we spoke with six customers over the phone and to two dozen others on Reddit and other online platforms. We let their experiences guide our research and shape our conclusions. We also spoke with a Spectrum spokesperson and an expert on internet technology to get answers about Spectrum’s so-called “hybrid fiber coaxial” network and its budding fiber-optic capabilities. 

how we review products and services

Spectrum Internet vs. the competition

Although it has plans in the making to compete with fiber, Spectrum can’t top fiber-optic rivals like Verizon or Google Fiber in terms of speed or price. Even AT&T Fiber's infrastructure is more robust than Spectrum's. Spectrum technically beats Kinetic according to our overall scoring, but that's because Kinetic also offers DSL packages. 

Spectrum’s cable internet customers simply don’t get the symmetrical upload speeds that fiber internet customers do. With slower uploads, you get longer wait times and more buffering when you upload large files, post to social media, or host a livestream. Many fiber internet providers also don’t impose price hikes on their plans, so you end up paying less over time than you would with a cable provider like Spectrum.

“Spectrum needs to get rid of promo rates and drastically lower their regular rates to be competitive in areas with fiber,” one Reddit user, teavoo, told Reviews.org. “I would need a very significant discount to give up fiber for Spectrum, like maybe $35 [per month] on a regular [rate], not a promo rate.”

Compare internet providers and prices

Provider
Prices
Download speeds
Upload speeds
Connection type
View plans
Spectrum Internet®$25-$7050-1000 Mbps*4-35 MbpsCable
T-Mobile 5G Home Internet$50-$16072–245 Mbps15–31 MbpsFixed Wireless
Verizon Fios Home Internet$49.99-$109.99300-2300 Mbps300-2300 MbpsFiber
Verizon 5G Home Internet$35-$70^300-1000 Mbps10-50 MbpsFixed Wireless
Kinetic Internet$15-$99.99°25-2000 Mbps-1-2000 MbpsDSL/Fiber
Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change. Data verified as of the article's publication date.
* 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.
w/ Auto Pay. Regulatory fees included in monthly price for qualified accounts. See full terms.
Price per month with Auto Pay & without select 5G mobile plans. Fios plan prices include taxes & fees
^ w/ Auto Pay. Available in select areas.
° With Auto Pay for 12 months

What do customers think of Spectrum Internet?

Spectrum customers gave Reviews.org a wide range of feedback, mainly:

  • Spectrum Internet tends to be a fallback choice for folks with limited options
  • Speeds may lag depending on your plan (gamers beware)
  • The customer service tends to be all over the place, from über responsive to practically ghosting

Most of the customers we spoke to about Spectrum decided to sign up because they had no other viable options. Cable internet companies tend to hold a lot of sway in the regions where they operate, and it’s not uncommon for a brand like Spectrum to be the only high-speed internet option in an area.

“Spectrum was the only service provider that offered anything faster than 100Mbps download,” says Sean Huntley, a documentary producer who lives in Glendale, California with his girlfriend, Alex Brown.

“What, are you going to go to a different water company? It’s a water company,” he says.

Huntley and Brown both work in the film industry (Brown is a film editor) and their jobs require them to have a gigabit home internet plan to work from home. So they went for the fastest-possible Spectrum plan. Their speeds usually clock in at around 400–500Mbps. That’s below the 1,000Mbps ceiling advertised on their plan, but it’s common for internet connections to fall short of the absolute max. They still get plenty of bandwidth to handle downloading large video files, although uploads take longer.

They have rare outages, and setup was quick. All in all, they’re pleased with their service, even if they would prefer fiber. “It’s been competent—and compulsory,” Huntley jokes.

"Spectrum is competent—and compulsory." - Sean Huntley
Pin
Is Spectrum Internet good for gaming?

From what we’ve gathered from customers, Spectrum Internet is okay for gaming but not amazing. Customer Robyn Straw says that when she games on her computer or Xbox, things tend to lag.

Some users report poor customer service and inconsistent speeds

Conrad Burnham, a Spectrum user in Los Angeles, doesn’t have to wait long if there is an outage in his area. “They seem to respond quickly and take care of problems pretty fast,” he says.

But things haven’t gone as smoothly for other Spectrum users—experiences that mirror Spectrum’s middling ratings for customer service. When New York City customer Sakia Anwar experienced a service outage recently, she contacted technical support, only to get stuck on the phone with an upselling customer service agent. He tried to sell her a cable TV plan as she raced to get her internet back up to make it to a work call.

“I told him three or four times, ‘No, I am not interested,’ and he just would not stop,” Anwar recalls. “I think he was reading off a script or something. He was like, ‘Oh, okay, thank you for your feedback,’ and he would keep going on. I wanted to punch him in the throat.”

"I told [the customer service agent] three or four times, ‘No, I am not interested,’ and he just would not stop.” - Sakia Anwar, customer

Robyn Straw, a Spectrum user in St. Cloud, experienced daily outages in summer 2023 that took hours each time to fix. She has missed work calls over Zoom and is now fed up with the long waits that come when she contacts customer service through the My Spectrum app.

“It’s not very customer friendly,” she says, noting that she’s now considering a switch to satellite provider Starlink.

Need to contact Spectrum customer service or tech support?

Does Spectrum have fiber internet?

Spectrum’s internet runs over what it calls a “hybrid fiber coaxial” network. That’s a fancy term used to describe a typical cable internet network: fiber-optic infrastructure makes up a provider’s regional backbone, and then the network switches to coaxial cable for the “last mile” to deliver data into peoples’ homes. That’s not to be confused with a fiber-optic internet service, often referred to as fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), which delivers internet entirely over a fiber network.

But while the bulk of its customers get cable internet only, Spectrum has actually been offering fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) in parts of the country. “It’s a real thing. The company installs it in ‘green’ markets not claimed by other fiber providers,” says Kevin Parrish, a staff writer (and longtime Spectrum customer) at HighSpeedInternet.com. “What it doesn’t do is install FTTH in areas it already delivers cable internet.”

"It's a real thing." – Internet expert Kevin Parrish on Spectrum fiber

It’s not clear how many homes Spectrum has connected to fiber so far—a spokesperson declined to give Reviews.org an exact number. Regardless of the network size, Spectrum’s cable offerings could eventually become as powerful as fiber as the company works to upgrade its core network to support 10Gbps symmetrical speeds.

“Our multiyear network evolution now underway will give us the ability to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across our entire footprint in the coming years,” Bret Picciolo, Vice President of Communications at Charter Communications, tells Reviews.org in an email.

Email
Have thoughts about home internet?

We’re eager to hear from internet customers about their experiences with their home Wi-Fi. Contact us at info@reviews.org to share your thoughts, recommendations, and hot tips.

Want Spectrum Internet? Get a deal

Spectrum offers a solid deal on reliable internet, so it’s worth signing up. Take a look to see what Spectrum deals and promotions you can get.

Deals

Find the latest Spectrum Internet deals here.

Spectrum Internet FAQ

Are customers happy with Spectrum Internet?

Generally, yes, customers are happy with Spectrum Internet. Spectrum customers report its service as reliable and sufficient for their needs despite occasional slow speeds, though they'd prefer fiber if it were available.

Why is my Spectrum Wi-Fi so bad?

Check to see if Spectrum is experiencing an outage. If so, reboot your Spectrum equipment, which is sometimes necessary after an outage.

A poor Wi-Fi connection can generally be traced to a few possible factors: your Wi-Fi device, your equipment, or your network. Check out our internet troubleshooting guide to learn more about improving your connection.

Is Spectrum losing all its customers?

No, Spectrum isn’t losing all its customers, though it has lost some in recent years.

According to Spectrum's 2024 first-quarter reports, residential Internet customers decreased by 72,000, marking a notable contrast from the 67,000 increase observed in the first quarter of 2023. Spectrum may also naturally lose some internet customers as cable TV customers cut the cord and go over to streaming. 

In its quarterly report, Spectrum plans to upgrade its network to be more affordable than competitors, aiming to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds throughout its entire service area.

Peter Holslin
Written by
Peter is a journalist and editor who has been covering tech, culture, and music since the late 2000s. Prior to joining the Reviews.org team as managing editor, he was the senior staff writer at HighSpeedInternet.com, where he covered 5G, mobile hotspots, and internet services. As a freelancer, he’s also written for Rolling Stone, VICE, BuzzFeed, Pitchfork, LA Weekly, and many other publications. He studied writing and journalism at The New School University in New York City and got his start in the media industry as the music editor of the California alt-weekly San Diego CityBeat. He’s also a musician and DJ and owns too many vinyl records for his own good.

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