Staff rating

3.8

Plans starting at $65.00

Download speeds up to 1000 Mbps

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Staff rating

3.0

Customer rating

4.0

(1)

Plans starting at $25.00

Download speeds up to 1000 Mbps

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Staff rating

3.5

Customer rating

4.0

(513)

Plans starting at $29.99

Download speeds up to 1 Gbps

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See what providers service your area.

Staff rating

3.8

Strong value and performance from a smaller brand

Overall, we like Clearwave Fiber. It’s a speedy fiber provider with decent pricing and good customer service. Our main complaint is that it’s just not as competitive on the pricing as it could be. In general, though, we think people will be happy with Clearwave Fiber.

What we like

Symmetrical speeds
Unlimited data
No contracts

What we dislike

Price hikes after 12 months
Relatively new, unproven company

See full review

Savings tip: Clearwave Fiber often has sign-up promotions for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Staff rating

3.0

Rise Broadband brings good speeds and great prices to rural customers

Rise Broadband offers competitive fixed wireless speeds at reasonable prices for rural customers. While it won’t compete with your typical fiber or cable internet service, it offers a compelling alternative to satellite.

What we like

Strong rural availability
More data than satellite
Low latency

What we dislike

Limited speeds
weather can impact service

See full review

Savings tip: Rise Broadband often has sign-up promotions for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Staff rating

3.5

Fast internet at reasonable prices

Spectrum offers speedy, reasonably priced cable internet service, and a strong budget plan. We wish there were fewer fees attached, though.

What we like

Simple plan selection
No contracts
No data cap

What we dislike

Pricey gig plan
Lots of small fees
Price increase after 12 months

See full review

Savings tip: Spectrum often has sign-up promotions for first-time customers. Call to ask a rep about current deals and discounts.

Check deals

Value

3.5

Solid value and transparent pricing

Clearwave Fiber fares decently overall in the value department, in large part because fiber just tends to be a good value. With faster plans, like Fiber 1 Gig, Clearwave is competitive and the performance is excellent. This package offers 11.75 Mbps per dollar spent, compared to the Fiber 500 plan at 6.67 Mbps per dollar. Although the latter is cheaper per month, you can clearly see how you get more for each dollar spent with the top-tier plan.

However, compared to competitors like AT&T, Clearwave is definitely more expensive. This difference is more pronounced with the lower-tier packages, where you get a lot more for your money with other providers.

It’s not all bad news, however. You do get unlimited data on all the plans by default—some providers, notably Xfinity, charge quite a lot for this. The equipment costs are also low, at $10 per month.

Additionally, while the price does increase after 12 months, the bump is relatively small at just $15 per month. Clearwave is very up front about this, which is a refreshing change—normally we have to dig to find out how much a plan’s price will increase after promotional periods end.

Pricing details vary by location. Visit

Clearwave Fiber's website

or call to speak with a rep.

See pricing

Value

3.0

Much better value than satellite, but won't compete with traditional cable or fiber

Rise Broadband is a tough service to rate because it’s not your typical ISP. Rise Broadband provides what’s known as fixed wireless service, which means the signal is beamed from a tower wirelessly to your home (rather than running through cable or fiber lines). It’s also generally aimed more at rural areas where cable lines don’t exist. This means it primarily competes with satellite internet and DSL. All this has to be taken into account when considering value.

So, where does Rise stand? Compared to DSL and satellite, it’s an outstanding value. It offers better performance and higher data allowances (with an unlimited data add-on available) than satellite and DSL, and at significantly lower prices. That said, if you’re in an area that has a cable or fiber option, you may find that those providers offer more for your money.

Pricing details vary by location. Visit

Rise Broadband's website

or call 1-844-719-8068 to speak with a rep.

See pricing

Value

3.0

Straightforward internet plans with budget-friendly pricing

Spectrum service offers a solid value—particularly at the lowest tier. There are only three plans to choose from, which could either be a plus or minus depending on your perspective. In this case, we feel it’s a good thing: the plans are straightforward and easy to understand.

The lowest-tier plan offers speeds up to 300 Mbps (wireless speeds may vary) at a decent price, according to government benchmarks (1). That's just $0.17 per megabit per second, with speeds that blow any DSL plan out of the water. The other two internet plans are less exciting, but still reasonably priced for the first year. After 12 months, your price could be up by $20 or more.

Pricing details vary by location. Visit

Spectrum's website

or call 1-866-460-1117 to speak with a rep.

See pricing

Performance

5.0

Fast fiber speeds and unlimited data

Clearwave Fiber does better in the performance department. Speeds are fast—up to 1 Gbps—and all the fiber plans offer symmetrical speeds. This means the download and upload speeds are the same.

With something like cable your upload is normally about 10% of your download speed, if that. This helps a lot with live streaming, video calls, and sharing large files like videos.

As for reliability, fiber is generally pretty solid. However, Clearwave is a newer company, so it’s hard to say how well the service will hold up. Here’s what we can say: in some markets, Clearwave has taken over Hargray’s fiber services, which we have found to be somewhat unreliable in the past. Hopefully Clearwave makes improvements for customers going forward.

Available speeds vary by location. Call to speak with a Clearwave Fiber rep or

go to its website.

Performance

3.0

Better performance than other rural options

Performance-wise, Rise Broadband offers solid speeds—with the caveat that we’re comparing internet options in rural areas here. Most coverage areas have a choice of 25 Mbps and 50 Mbps plans, and some select areas have up to 100 Mbps available. These speeds would be pretty bad in areas with more options. However, if you’re considering fixed wireless, you probably don’t have many more options.

Compared to a satellite provider like Viasat, these speeds are about average—maybe even a little slow. However, fixed wireless like Rise won’t suffer from the huge latency of satellite internet, which makes it much more usable for gaming and other real-time tasks. Rise should handle HD streaming in a small household without too much trouble. You can optionally add unlimited data for an extra $10 per month, which makes a big difference without making the price unreasonable.

Available speeds vary by location. Call 1-844-719-8068 to speak with a Rise Broadband rep or

go to its website.

Performance

4.0

Reliable internet with speeds up to 1 Gbps

Spectrum offers speedy performance overall, with packages up to 1,000 Mbps available (wireless speeds may vary). The lower tiers are more exciting—almost every provider has a gig plan these days, but Spectrum’s lowest plan has speeds up to 300 Mbps, which is still excellent for all but the heaviest users. Additionally, there are no data caps on any of the plans, so you can use as much bandwidth as you like.

Speed is only half the equation, though—even the fastest connection is useless if it doesn’t work when you need it. Luckily, Spectrum is on par with its closest cable competitors here. It offers faster-than-advertised speeds most of the time, according to the US Federal Communications Commission (2), and earned the top spot for median speeds from Speedtest.net (3). Spectrum’s latency scores were a little higher than competitors Xfinity and Cox, but at just 25 ms, you’re still within the playability range for most online games.

Available speeds vary by location. Call 1-866-460-1117 to speak with a Spectrum rep or

go to its website.

Equipment and installation

3.5

No surprises here

Clearwave Fiber offers what it calls the Clearwave Fiber Router. Combined with a whole-home Wi-Fi system and a smartphone app, customers are promised wall-to-wall coverage and a slew of features to help make the experience better. These include individual profiles for people and rooms, bandwidth tests, guest networks, and parental controls. That’s a pretty solid package for $10 per month.

Installation is the typical fiber deal—you’ll need a tech to come out and install the Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which is basically the modem for your fiber network. After that, you can either use Clearwave’s router or bring your own. There’s a $99 installation fee, which is pretty standard.

Equipment and installation options can vary widely depending on

Clearwave Fiber plans

available in your area.

View plans

Equipment and installation

3.0

Surprisingly great Wi-Fi equipment—watch out for that installation fee, though

Rise Broadband offers surprisingly competitive equipment. The provider offers the TP-Link Deco M4 mesh system, which can easily cover an entire large home. Customers can choose to rent up to three of the devices for $5 more per month each, so you can save a little money if you don’t need the full range of all three routers.

Rise Broadband’s installation fee is a whopping $150. That’s one of the highest of any providers we’ve seen. However, many promotions waive this fee. If you can’t find one in your area, it’s also worth asking the sales rep about it—you never know.

Equipment and installation options can vary widely depending on

Rise Broadband plans

available in your area.

View plans

Equipment and Installation

4.5

You can rent a router or use your own, and there’s a fee for self-installation

Spectrum’s equipment setup is a bit different than most—at least when it comes to fees. There is no charge for the modem, but there is a $5 monthly fee for the wireless router (waived on the gig plan). What this means is that Spectrum gives you a separate modem and router, instead of a combined gateway. It also means you can opt to bring your own wireless router if you prefer. Customers can also add Wi-Fi extenders, called Pods, for $3 each per month. If you use the Spectrum router, you can use the company's highly rated smartphone app to manage settings and parental controls.

Installation is straightforward and affordable. If you need a pro to come out, you can opt for a professional installation for $59.99. If you can handle the installation yourself, the self-install kit is about $25. We’d prefer free self-installation, but it isn’t the highest self-install fee we’ve seen, so we’ll take what we can get.

Equipment and installation options can vary widely depending on

Spectrum plans

available in your area.

View plans

Customer experience

3.5

Quick and helpful service

Since Clearwave is fairly new, the customer experience is a bit of a question mark. We’ve not seen a ton of user comments about the provider, but the few we have seen have been generally positive, citing good reliability, lack of data caps, and local customer support. This includes both former Hargray customers as well as new Clearwave customers.

Additionally, while the company’s website lacks self-help options, we chatted with customer service reps several times and were able to consistently get a response within a minute or two. The reps were direct, helpful, and friendly, and we appreciated the speed of the responses.

Visit Clearwave Fiber's website

or call for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer experience

3.0

Drastically improved experience compared to satellite internet, but still suffers from some weather-related interference

The customer experience with Rise Broadband is good overall. It offers solid speeds at a great price—if you’re coming from satellite, it’ll be a whole new world. Our one major gripe isn’t so much with Rise as it is with fixed wireless in general: it’s more susceptible to weather interference than most other types of internet. If you’re in an area with frequent heavy rain or snow, you might have some reliability issues (although satellite would likely have the same issues, too).

Multiple customers have noted that speeds fluctuate throughout the year, possibly due to network congestion followed by maintenance and new infrastructure to accommodate the additional traffic. Unfortunately, your experience may be hindered by limited self-help troubleshooting options if you have any issues.

Visit Rise Broadband's website

or call 1-844-719-8068 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Customer Experience

2.5

Watch out for hefty fees and price hikes down the road

We’ll just come right out and say it: Spectrum has a lot of fees. While you may never see most of them, it’s worth noting that they’re there. Here’s a sample:

$5 to pay over the phone(?!)
$5 reconnection fee
$19.99 to upgrade equipment when switching to the Internet Gig plan

These aren’t going to be on every bill, and you may never see most of them. However, when you do, it makes for a poor experience.

When you add second-year price hikes in the range of $20+, things aren't looking good for Spectrum customers. However, Spectrum customers seem to be about as satisfied with customer service as customers with competitors Cox and CenturyLink, and it's only slightly worse than average. (4)

If Spectrum is the only cable provider in your area and your home isn't wired for fiber internet, we recommend the service. Just set a calendar reminder to contact customer service in a year and see if you can negotiate the price down!

Visit Spectrum's website

or call 1-866-460-1117 for more information on contracts and money-back guarantees.

Go to provider

Made up your mind?

Find out what providers are available near you.

Clearwave Fiber

0.0

(0)

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Rise Broadband

4.0

(1)

5 Star

4 Star

100%

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Sandyfrom Nyc, Ny

Rise Broadband Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 8-29-2022

It's ok the speed could be better

Spectrum

4.0

(513)

5 Star

34%

4 Star

41%

3 Star

20%

2 Star

1 Star

Andrewfrom Newark, NY

Spectrum Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 6-17-2022

My internet goes out all the time whenever I first go to use it when returning home from anywhere.

Theresafrom Merriam, KS

Spectrum Customer for Less than a year

Reviewed on: 6-17-2022

My choice was limited due to my location. Not very pleased that I got my first bill less than a week after activation. And due in less than three after activation.

Nathaliafrom Sherman Oaks, CA

Spectrum Customer for 1+ years

Reviewed on: 6-17-2022

The connection is good and fast overall. It disconnects sometimes out of nowhere, so I wish it was more stable.

Jpfrom Evansville, IN

Spectrum Customer for 8+ years

Reviewed on: 6-17-2022

Thank you all right we have a limited opportunities in this

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Endnotes and sources

“2022 Urban Rate Survey – Fixed Broadband Service,” FCC. Accessed 17 June 2022.
"Measuring Broadband America," FCC. Retreieved Dec. 7, 2022.
"Fastests ISPs of 2022," Speetest.net. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2022.
"Satisfaction Benchmarks by Company, Internet Service Providers," ACSI. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2022.