Optimum Internet Plans: Pricing, Speeds and Availability Compared

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Optimum dwelling web ranking

Execs

• Excessive speeds with aggressive pricing
• No information caps, no contracts
• Two-year worth assure
• Fiber service accessible to 2.7 million properties

Cons

• Low buyer satisfaction rating
• Sluggish add speeds for cable web prospects

Optimum presents both cable or fiber-optic web relying on the place you reside. Obtainable speeds and pricing will differ by the connection kind at your deal with. Most prospects can have entry to cable service, however roughly 2.7 million households are eligible for fiber.

Although Optimum’s fiber plans are priced greater than its cable service for comparable speeds, fiber plans are the higher web deal, particularly after the usual pricing goes into impact after the primary yr.

Fiber web comes with symmetrical add and obtain speeds, typically higher reliability and extra high-speed web choices. Optimum’s fiber web presents multigig plans as much as 2,000Mbps, 5,000Mbps and eight,000Mbps in choose areas beginning at $120, $180 and $280 per thirty days, respectively. 

Such costs for dwelling web can understandably really feel a bit steep in comparison with different web plans, however Optimum’s multi-gig plans have a low price per Mbps and are priced in addition to or higher than competing suppliers. AT&T, for instance, has greater pricing on its 2-gig and 5-gig plans whereas Frontier’s 2-gig plan begins at $110 a month.

No information caps, no contracts

Optimum web is freed from information caps and contracts, whatever the service kind or plan. That is a pleasant distinction to rival cable web suppliers like Cox and Xfinity, which can cost overage charges as much as $50 or greater for going over your information allowance.

The no-contract requirement is one other good perk in comparison with Cox and Xfinity, which generally require a time period settlement of at the least one yr to get the bottom pricing. 

Optimum Wi-Fi gear and costs

The Optimum system you get is dependent upon the plan you select and the community kind (cable or fiber). Choose Optimum plans and people in fiber markets might include a Wi-Fi 6 router.

Optimum now presents WiFi 6E gateways and extenders for web plans with speeds of 1 Gig and above. Such units can provide higher Wi-Fi efficiency than older routers, so you could have a greater expertise along with your Optimum gear than others relying on the system you get.

As for set up, a normal set up is included at no further price once you order on-line. If you happen to’d choose skilled set up, together with Wi-Fi configuration on as much as six units and hardwiring on one system, it’s going to add a modest $59 to your preliminary prices.

Utilizing your individual gear

Optimum is considered one of a number of suppliers that will let you use your gear. If you happen to go that route, you will must have a suitable modem and router prepared on the time of set up. Remember that utilizing your individual gear will restrict service upgrades and technical assist. 

Optimum dwelling web availability

Optimum covers two boroughs within the better New York Metropolis space — Brooklyn and the Bronx — and only a stretch past. North to south, serviceability runs from Dutchess County, New York, to Toms River, New Jersey. East to west, Optimum is offered from the tip of Lengthy Island and previous Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a sliver of Pennsylvania alongside the New Jersey border.

Since mother or father firm Altice united Suddenlink and Optimum protection areas below the Optimum model, protection has expanded to incorporate 21 whole states. Exterior of the better New York Metropolis space, Optimum is now accessible in elements of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas and West Virginia, amongst others. 

It is primarily cable, with some fiber combined in

As talked about above, Optimum primarily makes use of a cable or cable hybrid community to ship service. Cable is not essentially dangerous as it could provide gigabit obtain speeds, however the expertise fails to match to the velocity and consistency you get with a fiber connection.

An Optimum spokesperson tells CNET that Optimum FTTH service is already accessible to greater than 2.7 million properties, round a tenth of these serviceable for Optimum web, with extra to return as “fiber deployment continues at a fast tempo.”

How does Optimum examine?

Within the better New York Metropolis space, there’s a little overlap between Optimum and cable suppliers Spectrum and Xfinity. For essentially the most half, Optimum has decrease introductory pricing than each, and the decrease pricing comes with sooner speeds. Optimum and Verizon Fios are extra intently matched, and share a a lot bigger protection space.

Optimum vs. Verizon Fios

Optimum and Verizon Fios share a lot of the identical service areas in better New York Metropolis, so pricing, speeds and repair phrases keep comparatively aggressive between them.

Optimum has the benefit of decrease plan pricing, at the least till the usual pricing kicks in. After the primary yr, Verizon Fios is more likely to be the cheaper choice.

Neither Optimum nor Verizon burden prospects with gear charges, information caps or contracts.

All issues thought of, Optimum and Verizon Fios are intently matched. If introductory pricing drives your determination, Optimum is more likely to be your higher choice, but when normal pricing, quick add speeds and excessive buyer satisfaction are extra of a priority, you could wish to think about Verizon Fios.

Optimum versus ISPs in different service areas

rule of thumb is fiber web is best than cable and cable is best than DSL. In case you have a fiber service from AT&T, Quantum Fiber, Frontier, Kinetic or others accessible at your deal with, the velocity, reliability and general worth it presents might be greater than what you will get from Optimum’s cable web.

However, if the competing supplier to Optimum in your space solely presents a DSL connection (lots of the aforementioned fiber suppliers even have giant DSL networks), Optimum is more likely to be the higher selection for velocity, reliability and worth.

The wild card right here is 5G dwelling web, which has just lately added some much-needed competitors to the broadband area, due to suppliers like T-Cell, Verizon and now AT&T. Though most speeds are at the moment a bit decrease with 5G dwelling web in comparison with cable, the pricing and repair phrases are nearly as good as you will discover.

If you happen to’re on the lookout for options to Optimum and fiber is not accessible in your space, I would advocate checking to see in case your deal with is serviceable for 5G dwelling web.

About that buyer satisfaction

Optimum checks nearly each field in terms of what we at CNET search for in a top quality web supplier, however there’s one field that constantly stays clean: buyer satisfaction. Regardless of the aggressive pricing, quick speeds and different perks, Optimum lingers on the backside of buyer satisfaction studies from sources just like the American Buyer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Energy.

The ACSI divided its outcomes by fiber and nonfiber suppliers in 2023, however this yr was the primary to incorporate Optimum as a fiber supplier. It didn’t impress, incomes a rating of 66 out of 100, a full 10 factors beneath the class common and 6 factors beneath the next-closest ISP (Kinetic, 72).

Contemplating that is Optimum’s first ACSI look as a fiber supplier, I am tempted to chop the corporate some slack, nevertheless it’s exhausting to get previous the ISP’s historical past of poor buyer satisfaction.

As a nonfiber supplier, Optimum had the bottom ACSI rating (58/100) of any main ISP in 2023. Although the supplier did handle to enhance in 2024, its new rating of 63 nonetheless falls effectively beneath the class common (68) and the scores of competing cable suppliers together with Cox, Spectrum and Xfinity. Mediacom was the one cable ISP to obtain a decrease rating than Optimum.

Optimum additionally didn’t fare effectively with J.D. Energy, which gave the supplier a rating of 661/1,000 in 2023. The rating, once more, fell wanting the trade common and lands final within the area, nevertheless it was at the least an enchancment over 2022’s rating of 642.

Why the low buyer satisfaction?

The ACSI and J.D. Energy each price ISPs on quite a lot of buyer expertise indicators, resembling velocity, efficiency throughout peak hours and name heart satisfaction. The studies don’t present how every supplier scored in every class, so it is troublesome to inform precisely the place Optimum confirmed the most important wants for enchancment.

A quick take a look at the Reddit web page for Optimum dialogue hints at points starting from excessive costs and unclear billing to poor buyer assist and substandard gear. Many feedback on websites like Reddit needs to be taken with a grain of salt, in fact, however they could assist shed some gentle on frequent ache factors Optimum prospects expertise.

Optimum web, in abstract

If Optimum is offered in your space, it is more likely to be considered one of your higher web choices, at the least on paper. Optimum presents quite a lot of obtain speeds from 300Mbps to eight,000Mbps in choose areas, for introductory pricing decrease than or about the identical as you will discover from most opponents with comparable velocity tiers. Optimum’s 500Mbps plan might be the perfect all-around plan in terms of velocity and worth, however perks like limitless information, free gear rental and a two-year worth assure make any Optimum plan value contemplating.

Simply take into account: there’s in all probability motive (or two, or three) that the ISP has not fared effectively in buyer satisfaction in recent times. 

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