High speed internet service has been available throughout the modern world for many years now, but there are a number of service providers all vying for a larger piece of the collective market. For the longest time, getting the fastest internet meant having to pay exorbitant prices for services that were just getting started in the technological realm, but now those technologies are becoming more prevalent, so legitimate high speed internet is much more affordable throughout the common sphere of consumerism. Two of the most prominent suppliers of next-gen communication services are AT&T and Spectrum, and they are responsible for serving a huge portion of the total phone, TV, and internet markets.
Spectrum and AT&T are both available in many areas, and a lot of those areas are overlapping. This means consumers have an option about which service provider they would prefer to use, but which is the overall best option? The best way to determine that is to carefully weigh the most important features of each provider, and that has been done below for the reader's convenience.
Call Spectrum at (855) 650-4212
Call AT&T at (855) 650-4217
Bundled TV services are a relic of the past that the new web-based communications industry has yet to bring forth into the modern age. These packages that customers can choose from either AT&T or Spectrum are highly over-priced, limited in scale, and nearly impossible to customize. Consumers for either service provider can not create their own channel packages without paying for dozens of channels that will never be watched, yet these services continue to push TV packages on their customers because that is where they make the majority of their profit. It won't be long before the TV industry changes to accommodate the vast number of users abandoning traditional TV for services like Netflix or Hulu. Consumers choosing between AT&T and Spectrum shouldn't let TV be a major factor since these two firms are basically identical in their offerings.
Land-based phone lines are another piece of technology from the past that many consumers are moving away from. Everyone uses mobile devices these days, but both AT&T and Charter offer landlines for those who want them. AT&T charges about $10 less per month for their phone service, but consumers will most likely see overages on their phone accounts with minimal use. Spectrum phone services cost roughly $30 per month, and those services are quite profitable for them. Consumers could certainly find better options for landlines if they do their research.
Internet services are the primary reason why consumers still seek out both AT&T and Spectrum. As with all services, there will be a difference in the advertised speeds against the actual speeds offered by these two services, but the question is whether or not those differences are negligible or if they represent an issue with the service.
Spectrum Internet is claimed to be anywhere from 5 to 10 times faster than AT&T while costing roughly the same monthly price. AT&T does have the advantage when it comes to the honesty of their speed claims, but Spectrum offers a generally higher speed. In other words, Spectrum Internet is supposed to be immensely faster than AT&T, and while it is the faster of the two options, it's not as far ahead of AT&T as it claims.
Since the two plans are nearly identical in price, users need to decide if honesty or value is more important to them. Spectrum is hands down the faster option for the price, but AT&T is more honest about the speeds they deliver.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that both AT&T and Spectrum are exceedingly profitable, yet they are constantly trying to increase their revenue in order to take a larger portion of the market. Data caps are an unfortunate truth toward that end, and while some want there to be laws in place that prevent such targeted excessive charging, ISPs are starting to charge consumers for what they perceive to be excessive usage.
Data caps have been standard practice for a number of years, but only recently have they become an issue. Before now, the market was still mixed between traditional TV users and digital streamers, so data wasn't as hugely important. Now that data has taken over the primary communication mediums, ISPs are having to keep up by charging more for those who go over the data caps. AT&T charges customers $30 for going over their data cap, and their usage measuring tools are not accurate at all. However, users who bundle TV and internet from AT&T won't have a data cap.
Since Spectrum has recently merged with several other mainstream ISPs, including Time Warner Cable, they are prohibited from using data caps for several years. When Spectrum is able to use caps again, the market might have evolved past the point of needing them. For now, the fact that Spectrum has no data caps gives them a huge advantage over AT&T.
Related: Spectrum Review / AT&T Internet Review
Users who agree to Spectrum's terms of service are prohibited from using the service to run a home server, but they do offer business accounts that can work with home servers. AT&T allows home servers through their network, but they block port 25 in their system. As a result, home servers are much easier with AT&T.
Most people who have used an internet service provider in the past know that such services tend to offer the worst customer support systems. AT&T is one such company, and their customer service tends to be slow, unhelpful, and generally condescending. AT&T customer service reps have been known to insult and degrade consumers for asking simple questions about issues with their accounts.
Spectrum, on the other hand, is distinctly unique in their customer support services. Their support system is intuitive and highly helpful. Their system is beyond the majority of the ISP industry, and even beyond a good portion of the general market. Their reps are typically well-informed, eager to help, and accepting of issues and the company's fault behind them. When comparing the two, Spectrum is the obvious victor in the customer service category.
Both AT&T and Spectrum both have solid reliability these days in terms of up time. Both companies have robust infrastructures, so its unlikely that your service will be down very often, if at all. However, In terms of raw reliability, AT&T has the edge.
