WOW! offers cable and fiber internet at competitive prices, making it an excellent option for folks in the South and Midwest.
An Honest WOW! Internet Review, According to Customers
If you want home internet that makes you say “Wow!” then you might have to go with … WOW!. This fiber and cable service offers reasonably-priced plans with no contracts, no data limits, and the option of a price-lock guarantee.
“I love it. It's reliable, and it's a great price,” says Gary LaPointe, who’s been with WOW! Internet in Dearborn, Michigan since 2015.
But WOW! has its drawbacks. It’s only available in a few places in the US, and we heard a few stories about issues with sales and customer service personnel.
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Get to know WOW!—plans and pricing
WOW! Internet offers four cable internet plans ranging from $30 to $95 per month and four fiber internet packages from $30 to $185 per month.
Roughly half of WOW’s plans are cable-fiber hybrids, meaning there are some fiber-optic lines in the network, but the connections between this wider network and residences are copper cable. Though that doesn’t sound like a big deal, the material connecting your home to the service network really impacts internet speeds. Luckily, WOW! also has some FTTH plans as shown in the table above.
All of WOW!'s cable plans are well-priced and don't require contracts or data fees, but there are some strings attached. For instance, you must enroll in AutoPay to be eligible for the 300 Mbps plan at $30 monthly. And if you want the WOW! Price Lock Promise (which we heartily recommend), your monthly bill goes up to $35.
According to WOW!'s website, the full-fiber, or FTTH, plans range from 100Mbps for $30 to 5Gbps for $185. Like with the hybrid plans, these prices require you to enroll in AutoPay. But unlike the hybrid plans, the fiber plans don’t appear to have the Price Lock Promise Option.
Whatever plan you choose, your monthly cost also includes your WOW! modem or Hybrid Connection Pack, which saves you a few bucks.
You can get a great deal with WOW! Internet. WOW!’s prices are competitive, even next to big cheeses like Google Fiber or AT&T.
You can also compare WOW! to other providers like T-Mobile 5G and Xfinity.
Which WOW! Internet plan is right for you?
WOW! Internet's 600 Mbps plan hits the sweet spot between speed and price. With 600Mbps, most households can easily stream in HD or 4K, game online, and video chat without a problem—even with several devices connected. Unless you have a big household or super heavy internet use (in which case we'd recommend upgrading to gig speeds), the 600 Mbps plan should work perfectly for most people looking for solid performance at a decent price.
WOW! fees for modem and installation
Equipment rental fee
Included in monthly price
Professional installation fee
$99
Self-installation activation fee
$10
Data as of 06/18/2024.
Living up to a name like WOW! seems a tall order, but there’s a reason for it. WOW! stands for Wide Open West, and its headquarters are in Englewood, Colorado—although curiously, WOW! isn’t available in Colorado anymore, so HQ probably doesn’t use its own service.
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 talked with former and current WOW! customers, spent way too much time on the WOW! website, turned over stones in the dusty corners of the internet, tested WOW! customer service, and exchanged several emails with a WOW! spokesperson.
Our breakdown of WOW! 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 WOW! stacks up? See our full take below.
Speed and reliability
WOW! Internet performs adequately in terms of both speed and reliability. Reviews.org’s proprietary speed test data shows that WOW!’s average download speed is 125.53Mbps, which isn’t shabby. In fact, it’s faster than some big-name providers.
On its website, WOW! offers “99.9% network reliability.” While that’s a bold claim, customers agree Reviews.org that WOW! is a reliable service. “It's been rock solid for me, generally even during power outages (for as long as my battery backup at home lasts),” says Gary LaPointe in Dearborn, Michigan.
Reddit user throwawaydakappa also has a positive take: “The speed has been great 95% of the time. Every once in a while I get an unstable connection with an intermittent speed.”
HighSpeedInternet.com tells a different story, though. Its 2023 customer satisfaction survey puts both WOW! speed and reliability just below average.
Dollar value
The best deal WOW! offers for home internet is the 600Mbps plan for $45 a month. Most home residences are served best with speeds ranging between 300Mbps and 500Mbps, so that more than covers you at less than 10 cents per Mbps. Similarly, the best fiber WOW! deal is 500Mbps at $50 per month, which is almost as good a value.
According to LaPointe, WOW! Internet is an excellent deal.
He signed up for WOW! cable internet in 2015 for $29.99 a month for 30Mbps download speed. Now he pays $30 a month for 300. “I'm only paying one cent more than I was nine years ago for 10 times the speed,” he enthuses.
And the facts don’t lie: WOW! offers a lot for not-that-much money. It doesn’t have contracts, data caps, or separate equipment rental fees. Its installation and activation fees are modest, and you have the option of a price lock guarantee with certain plans. The plan costs are also more than reasonable for the advertised speeds.
Customer experience
WOW!’s customer service is fine at best.
Reddit user throwawaydakappa says they once experienced a 20-minute outage followed by two hours of unstable service, and customer support was less than helpful. “The support on the phone claims the fiber terminal/modem doesn't actually have logs or a control panel anyone can access, but I think they're just poorly trained and not given the tools to support customer issues,” they say.
Similarly, HighSpeedInternet.com ranks WOW! Internet just below average for customer satisfaction, while the American Customer Service Index ranks WOW! slightly above average for fiber and slightly below for non-fiber (through the category "All Others").
I’d also like to point out that WOW!’s availability is quite limited. In some cases, even if you move even a single state away, you can’t stay on WOW!’s customer roster.
How long it took to get a real human on the phone: I wasn’t able to connect with a person. The WOW! phone bot wanted me to enter my account number, even after I selected the phone tree option to indicate I’m not a customer.
How the chat service is: The chat is apparently only for current customers—you have to enter an account number to get anywhere.
Overall quality
WOW! delivers satisfactory speed and reliability, and it definitely offers excellent value. Customer service is fairly lacking, which while typical for internet service providers, is a letdown. All in all, though, you really can’t go wrong with this lesser-known internet provider, which offers impressive value that gives it an edge on much bigger internet brands.
WOW! add-ons and perks
Discounts on WOW! mobile plans
Sign up for mobile after signing up for internet
WOW! Whole Home Wi-Fi
Sign up starting at $5 when you enroll in WOW! internet
What do customers think of WOW!?
Gary LaPointe of Dearborn, Michigan is crazy about WOW! Internet. He’s used a variety of WOW! cable plan options over the last nine years. “I've tried higher speeds up to 1Gbps, but the higher speeds were basically for two different reasons: higher upload speeds (most of the lower plans were only 10 Mbps up, and when I was teaching from home, I wanted a little higher upload speed) AND higher data cap (in some areas, they implemented a data cap and higher speed plans had higher caps).”
Through it all, LaPointe has staunchly remained a WOW! customer.
It’s not all sunshine and roses, though. Some WOW! customers definitely have frustrating experiences.
Reddit user throwawaydakappa had an inconsistent experience with WOW! customer service. When they initially interacted with a door-to-door WOW! salesman who offered them a discount, “I was impressed,” throwawaydakappa says. “They actually showed up the next day. They got everything installed.
“45 days later my service was disconnected for non-payment. Weird, cause my first month is supposed to be free.”
Need to contact WOW! customer service or tech support?
Try either of these:
- Call 1-866-496-9669
- Use the chat
Where can you get WOW! fiber service?
“WOW! is bringing its state-of-the-art, all-fiber network to new markets to meet the rising demand for fast and reliable broadband,” says WOW! Internet spokesperson Debra Havins. However, Havins declined to comment on locations of WOW!’s fiber internet service.
From customer reviews, we know there are fiber customers in parts of Florida and Michigan, and we expect WOW!’s fiber service will spread. Hopefully, the company will be more transparent about where WOW! Fiber is available in the future.
In the meantime, if you can’t get WOW! Fiber, you can still take advantage of the hybrid cable service, which is getting an upgrade alongside the fiber expansion. “In tandem, WOW! is upgrading its legacy hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) networks to expand its capabilities and meet the changing needs of customers,” says Havins.
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.
Where is WOW! available?
WOW! is only available in certain Southeast and Midwestern states. Despite the name, you can’t get it in the Western US. Check this list of WOW!'s top cities or enter your zip code below to find out if WOW! is available in your neighborhood.
WOW! vs. the competition
WOW! Internet definitely holds its own with the competition. While WOW! is less available than Xfinity and Spectrum, both its cable and fiber services compare well to rivals.
For instance, most of WOW!’s fiber plans compare well to similar plans from Google Fiber, even beating some of them. Google Fiber gives customers 2Gbps for $100 a month—but WOW! sells 3Gbps for the same price.
FAQs
Yes. Our speed test shows that WOW!'s average download speed of 125.53 is faster than many big-name providers. Plus, WOW! offers both cable and fiber options, with speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to a whopping 5 Gbps. With eight different plans, including various prices and speeds, WOW! Internet has something for just about every household.
WOW! delivers solid speed and reliability. Customers told Reviews.org that the service stays dependable even during power outages, and they experience strong speeds more than 90% of the time.