Cox Internet Service 2021 Review

Cox offers a variety of plans with a variety of speeds at a variety of prices, and there are a lot of important ins and outs to consider. Let me start with the one that’s so critical, I’m going to write it in big, bold letters for you.

Your bill will go up after Year 1, no matter what

Cox offers promotional rates on its plans and those promo rates will each knock $10 off the price of your monthly bill for the first year. The catch is that you have to agree to sign a one-year service contract to get the discount. That’s fine: One-year contracts are typical in the ISP industry.

What’s less fine is that your bill will shoot up at the end of that year, in some cases by as much as $26. That’s not outrageous — Spectrum’s cable internet plans go up by $25 or $30 after the first year, and Xfinity cable internet plans come with an average increase of $40 in some regions — but keep in mind that Cox plans start out more expensive than those of its competitors. And while Cox’s website doesn’t do a great job of making this clear, you’ll see that price increase regardless of whether you accept the promo rate.

So, let’s say you want to sign up for Cox’s Preferred 150 internet plan, which nets you download speeds of 150Mbps. You can sign up at the regular rate of $70 per month with no contract, or you can accept the one-year service contract and bring the monthly cost down to $60. Either way, when that first year is up, your bill will go up to $84.

At this point, there’s a good chance you’ll call Cox to complain or . Cox does not have an incentive to lower your costs. Instead, there’s a good chance the clever salesperson will tell you that they can’t offer you the same promo rate again, but they can offer you the promo rate on a faster plan. After all, you want a better deal, right? As it just so happens, you could be getting speeds of up to 500Mbps for $80 per month — $4 less than you’re paying right now for 150Mbps. Doesn’t that sound good to you?

Here’s the thing. That’s another promo rate — a fresh bait-and-switch — and if you take it, the cycle starts all over again.

Look for yourself. It’s no coincidence that each of those Year 2 rates shoots up to a monthly fee that’s greater than or equal to the promo rate for the next most expensive plan. Like the nauseatingly busy carpets at a casino that nudge dizzy gamblers into stopping and sitting at a slot machine, the price structure is carefully constructed to confuse you into spending more money. Whenever someone with an expired promo rate calls to complain about their bill, it’s easy for Cox to guide them into an even more expensive speed tier at a new promo rate. Doing so locks them in as a customer for another 12 months, and it dooms their bill to increase even more after that.

If you don’t want to tumble down that slippery slope, then you’ll need to accept that Year 2 rate and stick with it. That’s a tall ask, given that Cox prices are on the high side. Take that 150Mbps Preferred plan, which costs $84 after Year 1. Cable competitor offers a 200Mbps plan for $70 out of contract, and offers a 200Mbps plan that costs $75 per month after the promo period expires. Both plans offer faster speeds for less per month than Cox.

What else do I need to know about Cox?

Cox’s lineup of home internet plans gets confusing fast, and not just because of the promo shenanigans. Other fine print to consider includes contract quirks, extra fees, data caps, and more. Isn’t shopping for an internet plan fun?

Additional fees

Though Cox doesn’t specify the actual cost anywhere on its website that I could find, you’ll need to pay an installation fee of $100 if you want a technician to get your home’s internet connection up and running. You can skip this fee by ordering an — it’s totally free, but you’ll need to plug everything in yourself.

Cox also charges an extra $13 each month if you use its . Starter, Essential and Preferred customers get a Wi-Fi 5, DOCSIS 3.0 device, while Ultimate and Gigablast subscribers get a faster device that supports and . In either case, you can order to pair with your Panoramic Wi-Fi modem and router at a one-time cost of $130 per pod. Cox also commits to keeping your system’s hardware and software up to date.

You can skip that $13 fee by using your own , along with a router of your own. I’ve also heard from Cox sales agents that it isn’t uncommon for the company to lower that rental fee upon request.

“I’ve seen rental fees of $5 and personally, I have added that promotion when I have offered that to current customers,” one agent told me in a recent chat. “So please feel free to ask for a discount on the modem if you rent it.”

The other fee to be aware of is Cox’s early termination fee. If you cancel your internet service at any point while under a one-year contract, you’ll be charged $120. Make that $240 if you’re under a two-year contract.

Panoramic Wi-Fi doubles as a public hotspot

One more important point of note here: If you use Cox’s Panoramic Wi-Fi system instead of your own modem and router, it’ll put out a second, separate network from your own home network that other Cox customers can use as part of . It’s a separate stream from your home network, so it won’t affect your speeds or data usage, but it’s something you should still be aware of, especially because the feature is on by default.

“Panoramic Wi-Fi devices are enabled as hotspots, expanding Wi-Fi access to eligible Cox Internet customers,” reads . “These devices are automatically enabled as Cox Hotspots upon activation. To disable this functionality, go to Privacy Settings on and sign in with your Cox User ID.”

I can think of plenty of people who wouldn’t want strangers to connect to the internet using the networking hardware in their homes. It’s good to know that Cox customers can opt out, but it would be much better if the company sought their express permission before turning it on in the first place. If Cox is worried that too many people would say no, it should consider offering those customers a discount on their bill for participating.

The dish on data caps

Every Cox plan comes with a data cap — and if you use more data than it allows in a given month, you’ll start incurring extra charges. The cap used to be set at 1 terabyte per month (1,000 gigabytes), but when the hit and , Cox did a nice thing and raised it by about 25% to 1.25TB (1,280GB).

That’s pretty reasonable as far as data caps go. Internet usage is still climbing, but Americans went through an average of just under 400GB of data per month in 2020, . Then again, here at my place, we ended up using about 1,300GB of data per month in 2021. Just keep in mind that my roommate and I both work from home and use the internet pretty heavily (, for Pete’s sake). Good thing our plan doesn’t come with a data cap — no such luck with Cox.

At any rate, once you’ve exceeded Cox’s data cap, you’ll be charged $10 for each additional 50GB block of data that you use, up to a maximum charge of $100. One nice surprise here — if it’s your first month going over the cap, Cox will cut you a break, waive the charges and let you off with a warning.

“If it’s your first month going over, you’ll get a one-time, courtesy credit for each $10 charge on your next bill,” .

That’s pretty generous of Cox — especially since you won’t see any such first-month mulligan from , the other major cable provider that enforces a data cap. On top of that, Cox says you don’t need to worry about speed reductions once you’ve broken the cap.

“We don’t throttle service [or] reduce speeds if customers exceed their usage plan,” says a Cox spokesperson. “We simply work with them to get them on the best usage plan to meet their needs.”

So, does Cox offer any plans with unlimited data? The answer is yes, but it will cost you an additional $50 to your monthly bill. Cox offers a few discounts on unlimited data with some of their bundle packages, but in most cases, you’ll need to sign a two-year contract to dodge the data caps.

How does Cox rank on customer satisfaction?

Internet providers are to begin with, and Cox is a little bit below average in terms of its customer satisfaction track record. In 2021, the  gave Cox a 63 out of 100, which was two points better than the year before but worse than the overall ISP average of 65. Still, Cox’s score tied it with Spectrum for second place among cable providers and ahead of (61), (60), (60) and (55). The only cable provider that outscored Cox in 2021 was Xfinity, which finished with a score of 67.

Meanwhile,  also takes its own look at ISP customer satisfaction each year. Cox was included in three of the four regions surveyed in 2021. it did slightly better here overall than it did with the ACSI but still ended with scores below the overall average for the internet providers surveyed in three of those regions. 

We’ll start in the East, where Cox finished with a score of 708 out of 1,000 — slightly below the overall region average of 714, and behind (758) and Xfinity (725), but ahead of cable rivals Spectrum (676) and Optimum (655). 

Cox was further below average in the South region with a score of 707, trailing the overall category score of 727 and behind five other ISPs, including (753), Xfinity (740), Spectrum (725), Mediacom (723) and (716). Still, it was a good enough finish to beat out (698), Kinetic by Windstream (682), (674), Suddenlink (621) and (578).

Finally, Cox’s most disappointing score came in the West region, where it had done well in 2020. This time around, its score of 696 put it near the bottom, above only Mediacom (654) and Frontier (645). 

To sum it up

If is available in your area, then you’ll likely be better off going with that, as you can expect faster speeds (particularly uploads) and better value, too. If not, then a cable provider like Cox is probably your next best option, with faster speeds than you’ll get by going with ,  or with a .

I can’t say that you’ll be getting a great value with Cox, though, especially given that other major cable providers like and  offer faster plans for less per month. Then again, if you’re living in an area with limited options for high-speed internet, you might not have many other options. 

As for Cox’s data caps, they might seem off-putting, but the terms surrounding them are about as reasonable as you’ll find from an internet provider — enough so that the company’s over-inflated unlimited data bundles probably aren’t worth it for most subscribers.

All of that makes Cox worthy of consideration for high-speed internet at home. Just remember to stay wary of those price hikes.

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