AT&T vs. Xfinity: Customer-Friendly Fiber and Low-Cost Cable

Is AT&T or Xfinity web higher?

A case might be made for both supplier as the most effective total, however given the selection of AT&T Fiber or Xfinity, I might suggest AT&T Fiber. Xfinity has a bigger protection space and decrease introductory charges, however AT&T Fiber comes with no information caps, gear charges, contracts or set value will increase. Xfinity, alternatively, is prone to include some or all of these situations relying on the place you reside and the plan you select.

AT&T and Xfinity are two of the biggest web service suppliers within the US, so one or each suppliers could also be out there at your tackle. If that is the case, you may have a pleasant collection of high-speed, high-value plans.

The quick speeds, truthful pricing, and favorable service phrases have earned each suppliers excessive buyer satisfaction rankings. AT&T and Xfinity completed with above-average rankings amongst main web suppliers in the newest surveys from the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power and Associates.

Which of those two ISPs, AT&T or Xfinity most closely fits your own home networking wants? Let’s intently study how they stack up so you’ll be able to resolve. 

Our take – AT&T fiber plans are powerful to beat: 300Mbps beginning at $55 per 30 days, 500Mbps for $65 and gigabit service beginning at simply $80 month-to-month. On prime of that, over 100 AT&T cities nationwide are eligible for the corporate’s quickest fiber plans: 2Gbps for $125 and 5Gbps for $225.

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Our take – Xfinity presents extra plan choices than AT&T and is prone to have the most cost effective plan, although speeds with the mentioned plan will probably be a lot decrease than the lowest-priced AT&T Fiber plan. Just be careful for a value enhance after your promotional interval of 1 or two years — it might add as a lot as $20 to $50 to your invoice, relying on the place you reside and the plan you select.

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AT&T vs. Xfinity plans, pricing and speeds

You’ll discover an outline of AT&T Fiber and Xfinity web plans under. Available Xfinity speeds, pricing and service phrases can and do range by area and the precise plan you select. I solely included plan particulars for AT&T Fiber as a result of in case your alternative comes right down to Xfinity and AT&T’s DSL or fastened wi-fi service, it’s best to go along with Xfinity.

Xfinity’s velocity tiers are pretty constant all through all service areas, however pricing could range barely from one market to the subsequent. For instance, the usual velocity for Xfinity Connect is 150Mbps, however the beginning value can range anyplace from $20 to $30 per 30 days primarily based on the place you reside.

Rates on all plans, excluding the $300-per-month 10 gigabit plan, are set to extend after the primary yr or two of service, relying in your location and the plan you select. The actual enhance will, once more, range by location and the plan you select, however it’s potential your month-to-month invoice might go up by $20 to $50 or extra as soon as the value assure expires. Service phrases additionally range by location and plan as a knowledge cap, gear payment (in the event you select to hire) and contract could apply.

Meanwhile, AT&T Fiber plans, speeds and phrases are constant no matter what a part of the nation you reside in. The supplier’s 300, 500 and 1,000Mbps plans can be found in all service areas whereas many may even have the selection of two,000 and 5,000Mbps plans as properly. There is not any set value enhance after 12 months.

AT&T plans do not include service contracts, however your invoice will go up after the promo interval if in case you have DSL or fastened wi-fi. None of the plans will soar by greater than $15, although, so the rise is not as steep as you would possibly see with Xfinity.

Fees, information caps and different potential sticking factors

Both suppliers could tack on taxes and month-to-month charges every month, and in some circumstances, you may additionally must handle a knowledge cap.

AT&T vs. Xfinity added charges

First, the charges. Like most suppliers, AT&T and Xfinity will cost you a bit additional every month in the event you do not enroll in autopay or paperless billing, however these charges are straightforward sufficient to dodge. Just, you understand, enroll in autopay and paperless billing. Problem solved.

The gear charges are one other story. With AT&T, you will not must pay additional to make use of AT&T’s Wi-Fi gateway. That’s included within the common month-to-month payment. With Comcast Xfinity, the price to hire the xFi Gateway is $15 per 30 days, however it could be included at no additional cost together with your plan. You may bypass the payment, if there may be one, through the use of your individual gear, offered it is authorised to work with Xfinity, and you are OK with the truth that Comcast will now not be capable to supply device-specific technical help.

AT&T vs. Xfinity information caps

As for information caps, AT&T does not use them with any of its fiber plans, so we’ll give it some credit score. There is, nonetheless, a knowledge cap for AT&T’s nonfiber plans, which is why we mentioned just a bit little bit of credit score.

AT&T Internet, the DSL aspect of the service, comes with a knowledge cap of terabyte and a half of knowledge (1.5TB) in a given month of service. You’ll get charged $10 for each extra 50GB of knowledge your own home makes use of. That extra cost will get capped at $100, so as soon as you’ve got eaten up at the least 500GB of additional information, AT&T throws its fingers up and says, “see you subsequent month.” If you assume you want limitless information, you’ll be able to improve your plan for an additional $30 per 30 days to sidestep the information cap altogether, and you may also ditch the information cap by bundling residence web with different AT&T providers.

Another level of word: The information cap with AT&T Fixed Wireless is way decrease, kicking in at 300GB. You’ll nonetheless get charged $10 for every extra 50GB of knowledge you employ, however AT&T caps the cost at $200 as an alternative of $100. Be aware of falling asleep throughout a Netflix binge, AT&T Fixed Wireless clients.

Xfinity, in the meantime, enforces a knowledge cap of 1.25TB per 30 days, however some places and plans could don’t have any information cap in any respect. If you’ve a cap, going over could value you $10 for each 50GB of extra information used, capped at $100.

In equity, 1.25TB is numerous information, however it’s not unreasonable to assume {that a} busy family would sometimes want extra. For instance, on my community, the place I make money working from home, stream loads of motion pictures in 4K, and stay with a roommate who’s on-line simply as a lot as I’m, we went by means of about 320GB of knowledge right here within the first 9 days of the month. That put us on tempo to make use of simply over 1TB by the top of the month.

If you reside with, say, two roommates — or with a complete household of web customers — then information caps like these is likely to be one thing you’d need to keep away from in the event you might.

AT&T vs. Xfinity contracts

AT&T web service, from fiber to fastened wi-fi, doesn’t require a contract. Xfinity additionally doesn’t make you signal a contract, however choose plans could require a one- or two-year time period settlement with a view to get the bottom pricing. Canceling or altering your service earlier than the time period settlement is up could end in early termination charges and shedding the decrease introductory charge on service.

AT&T vs. Xfinity set up prices

AT&T fees $99 for skilled, in-home set up, however self-installation kits can be found in some circumstances, too. Check with the corporate to see if that is an possibility for you. If not, asking the salesperson if they will waive the set up payment might be well worth the try, as AT&T usually waives it throughout seasonal promos.

With Xfinity, skilled set up prices much less at $40, and you do not have to “qualify” for the self-installation possibility such as you do with AT&T. Point Comcast.

AT&T vs. Xfinity protection in contrast

A product of the nation’s largest cable supplier, Xfinity Internet, is offered in choose areas throughout 39 states and Washington, DC, protecting about one-third of the complete inhabitants of the US. Most of that protection is cable web, however Xfinity has a small fiber community.

Areas the place Xfinity’s fiber web service is offered primarily embrace components Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, although components of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee could also be serviceable for fiber as properly.

As for AT&T, the telecom firm presents residence web plans in 21 states, protecting a lot of the South, Midwest, and West Coast. Both suppliers could also be out there at your tackle in some components of the nation, together with Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Memphis, Miami and San Francisco.

AT&T pegs the variety of households with entry to fiber at roughly 21 million, spanning over 100 metro areas. The firm plans to broaden fiber entry to thousands and thousands extra houses by the top of 2025, together with the rollout of its multigigabit plans.

For the remainder, there’s AT&T Internet Air and AT&T Fixed Wireless, which use a satellite tv for pc mounted at your own home to obtain a wi-fi sign, and AT&T Internet, which makes use of DSL copper cable connections together with the corporate’s fiber infrastructure to ship service to individuals’s houses, albeit it at a lot slower speeds.

AT&T vs. Xfinity buyer satisfaction scores

Everyone likes to hate their web supplier, so it is no shock that buyer satisfaction scores for the ISP business aren’t something spectacular. Still, AT&T and Comcast Xfinity are comparatively robust performers right here. Each completed with an above-average rating from the American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2023, adequate to put each among the many prime 4 of all ISPs surveyed.

Meanwhile, AT&T grabbed the highest spot within the North-Central and West areas, and second within the South (the place Google Fiber scored highest) in the newest J.D. Power US Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study for 2023. Xfinity buyer satisfaction was under AT&T in every of these three areas, however nonetheless comfortably above the regional averages.

AT&T vs. Xfinity recap

If your choices are AT&T Internet (the copper-based, DSL-related service) or AT&T’s fastened wi-fi service and Xfinity, the latter would be the best option for velocity, worth, reliability, and so on., practically each time. On the opposite hand, in case your tackle is serviceable for AT&T Fiber and Xfinity, you are prone to get a greater worth with extra favorable service phrases from AT&T Fiber than Xfinity. Given the selection of the 2, Xfinity stands out for its broad availability and low introductory pricing, however AT&T Fiber has the benefit in nearly each different class.

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