If you can get fiber internet from Frontier, it's fast, affordable and reliable. If you only have DSL from Frontier available in your area, the internet will be slower and more expensive for what you get. The good news is that Frontier is constantly expanding its 100% fiber network across the United States.
Metronet is a growing regional provider that offers value-packed internet service to customers. Its all-fiber network is fast and reasonably priced. Overall, we think Metronet is a solid pick for your next internet provider—if you happen to live in one of its coverage areas.
Xfinity is a fantastic provider overall. It offers fast speeds, reliable service, and reasonable prices. Some plans still require contracts, and others still have data limits. Watch out for Xfinity’s hidden fees and spotty customer service record, but it may not be as bad as it once was.
Frontier offers exceptional fiber internet at a low price. Prices vary depending on your service area and eligibility, and starting prices are an amazing deal. Here are Frontier's current Fiber offerings, which includes a discounted price for 12 months when you sign up for autopay:
Frontier fiber service is generally an excellent value. You can get 500 Mbps for around $45 per month or 1 gig for around $65, both of which are excellent prices well below the national benchmark for similar plans. (1) If you get 2 gigs for around $100 a month or 5 gigs at about $130, you'll enjoy excellent reliability and super fast speeds.
Some Frontier internet plans come with extras for free, depending on eligibility. If you sign up for the 5 gigs, free tech support is included. These are all great prices for the value you're getting. Some Frontier plans may come with expert installation or a Wi-Fi router included at no charge.
If you sign up for Frontier's DSL plan, it's quite a bit slower than fiber internet, but it's a great choice if you're in a rural area. Frontier's DSL plan is around $50 per month for up to 115 Mbps, but the actual speed varies heavily with the specific area you’re in. The good is that Frontier guarantees its DSL pricing for two years and doesn't require you to sign a contract. That's definitely a rare perk in the internet world!
Frontier offers fiber in a good portion of its coverage area, but if you're off the beaten path, DSL is a great solution and Frontier offers fast DSL speeds, depending on where you live. (4)
Smaller, regional internet providers sometimes suffer a little in the value department. Either the pricing is good but the speeds offered aren’t up to snuff, or the speeds are fast but the price is outrageous. Metronet bucks this trend. In fact, the 1 gig plan actually starts out at a lower price than most competitors and less than half the national benchmark for similar plans (1).
You do have the standard rate hikes after the first 6-24 months, however. Competing internet providers sometimes offer small perks that make them more attractive, but Metronet definitely holds its own.
Xfinity is generally a very good value, especially at the middle and lower tiers. In fact, it offers some of the best budget plans of any of the major internet service providers. Eligible households may qualify for high-speed internet as low as $9.95 a month with unlimited data and equipment.
Depending on your area, you can get a 50 Mbps Internet Essentials plan for less than $20 per month and a 400 Mbps plan for $50 per month. Those plans have a data cap of 1.2 terabytes which is a high data cap. Data caps are common among cable internet service providers (ISPs). Removing it costs an extra $30. But overall, this pricing is an excellent deal for the speeds you're getting.
The 400 Mbps plan, which is about right for an average family that's online a lot, is also a great price. It rings in at about 36% of the national benchmark in its range. (1) That means you're paying just $0.18 per megabit, with plenty of megabits to go around.
Faster internet plans are available from Xfinity. Some areas can get speeds up to 2 Gbps, and others can get plans as fast as 6 Gbps. For reference, 6 Mbps is ridiculously fast, and it also comes at a higher price. Most households don’t need 6 Gbps internet speeds unless they’re streaming a ton of 4K content or have several people gaming online at the same time. These fast internet plans do come with unlimited data, though, so it might still be worth it for some households.
Frontier's fiber internet performance is excellent, with speeds up to 5,000 Mbps and no data caps to limit you. In fact, Frontier's fiber plans are some of the fastest (2). Frontier's fiber internet has the fastest ping of any provider, according and a study by the FCC (3), and it's neck and neck with the competition in terms of speed and reliability. These fiber plans also offer symmetrical speeds, which means the upload speed is equal to the download speed. This is crucial if you upload or share a lot of large files, do video calls, or play games online in real-time.
Where fiber isn't available, Frontier offers pretty fast DSL internet. Frontier offers upload speeds up to 115 Mbps, but the speed you get relies heavily on where you live. For many households, 115 Mbps is plenty, especially if you don't stream HD video or have multiple people online at the same time trying to do video calls or gaming online.
Performance with Metronet is great. There are plans ranging from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, all of which offer symmetrical upload speeds. This means upload speeds are equal to download speeds—excellent for content creators, streamers, online gamers, and anyone else who shares a lot of large files. Best of all, there are no data caps.
Although some fiber providers have started offering 2 gig and even 5 gig plans, we don't think anyone needs to pay for that much speed (and if you're one of the few who does, you probably already know who you are). Metronet’s 1 gig option will be plenty for most needs, but extremely heavy users who require faster speeds will have to look elsewhere. Find out how much internet speed you need.
Xfinity internet performance is excellent. Its speeds are fast and reliable. In fact, in many markets, it has one of the fastest internet speeds around. Xfinity's internet service is reliable and consistent. If outages occur, Xfinity is responsive and generally restores service within hours. Xfinity internet is also highly rated for speed (2), and research from the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) scored it among the top for reliability (3).
Frontier offers fantastic value when it comes to equipment and installation. If you have Frontier's DSL internet, the equipment itself is fairly standard. It's free, which is nice, but you might still want to use your own gear if you need more control over which devices on your network get bandwidth priority. DSL installation typically costs $85, and there's no self-install option. Depending on your plan and service area, you may qualify for free installation.
If you have fiber internet from Frontier, you're in luck! You get free rental of an eero 6 on the Fiber 1 Gig plan or an eero6E mesh Wi-Fi system, on the Fiber 2 Gig plan. If you have the 5 Gig plan, you'll get the TP-Link AXE300 6E with an optional TP-Link RE815XE Wi-Fi extender for an extra $10 per month. You could still technically use your own gear, but it's hard to do any better than the latest and greatest from eero and TP-Link.
If you're eligible, you may be able to get a Frontier self-install kit—otherwise, a professional will come to your house to install the internet for you. If you need a pro to come out, you may be charged $50 on your first bill. In some areas, professional installation is included free, if you're eligible.
Frontier makes cancellations easy. Cancellation is also free, but some customers are charged a $20 restocking fee for rented fiber gear and a $50 restocking fee on DSL gear.
Metronet provides all the equipment you need to get started free of charge, including an eero wireless router so you can get online quickly. This is a nice change of pace in an industry that often charges $10–$15 per month for mediocre gear. You do have the option of adding a wireless extender for $10 per month (called WholeHome Wi-Fi), but it isn’t strictly necessary.
More good news concerning installation—while most providers charge between $50 and $100 (or more) for installation, Metronet will bill you only $25. That’s not bad at all. Of course, when installation is a mandatory part of the service, we’d prefer it to be free, but we’ll take what we can get. Plus, all you have to do to receive a $25 installation credit (effectively making it free) is to sign up for automatic billing.
Our only complaint is the lack of any type of self-installation option, so you'll have to set aside a good two to four hours for a technician to come to your house.
Xfinity internet offers the choice of professional and self-installation. The professional option is often more affordable than competitors, at $100. It's required if you haven't had Xfinity service at the address for more than 12 months. The self-install kit is free, but you may pay for shipping and handling. If you have trouble installing yourself, you can contact customer service for help, but beware that you may face long hold times.
As for equipment, the Xfinity xFi gateway is fairly typical (and costs a fairly typical $14 per month). You can add a Wi-Fi extender (and unlimited data) if you bump up to xFi Complete for about $15 per month for the first two years (and $25 per month starting in year 3). This is a bit steep for just the extender—you can grab an excellent Wi-Fi extender for right around $50. However, using Xfinity's equipment gives you unlimited data, and you qualify for a free upgrade after three years.
Read more about how internet bills work.
If you use your own equipment, unlimited data costs an extra $30 per month for lower tier plans, but is included for plans of at least 1 Gbps.
The Frontier customer experience is a mixed bag. The service itself is fairly reliable—especially the fiber. The DSL service is relatively stable, but more prone to slowdowns during heavy traffic times (which is typical with all DSL internet).
Frontier has received low scores in customer satisfaction from organizations like the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). (3) The provider ranked second-worst in overall satisfaction in the most recent surveys, falling below average. The complaints we’ve seen point generally to a broad pattern of poor customer service, so if that’s a key factor in your choice of provider, you might want to steer clear until Frontier can sort out its issues.
If you order Frontier internet, the only way to order internet service is to call in. It works okay for most people, but some folks love the convenience of handling everything without having to deal with phone trees, wait on hold, or talk to a live human. At least the hold music is nice, though, and you can enter info via text message!
Decent value, fast performance, and reasonable equipment and installation costs make for a great experience overall. Metronet also claims to have 24-hour local support, and customers generally seem satisfied with their service.
There is one glaring issue, though: the provider charges a mandatory “technology service fee” of around $10 per month.
Metronet claims this is to cover the cost of service calls, tech visits, and equipment maintenance. However, we don’t see this type of charge from any other provider, and it effectively nullifies the free equipment, so we have mixed feelings.
We've also seen a few complaints from customers who feel like they were being charged more than advertised, but we thought that the price increases and fees were pretty fairly laid out on the website, so just make sure to read the fine print (2).
The Xfinity internet customer experience is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have reliable service, with the option for unlimited data if you want it. This makes for a great day-to-day experience with Xfinity.
On the other hand, Xfinity internet has a spotty customer service track record. It ranks above average on customer surveys (4). While customer service seems to be above average, not everyone has a great experience, and we've seen some complaints about billing issues and miscommunication between the company and their technicians.
If you need to connect with the company, we recommend using its customer service portal and downloading the Xfinity app first before trying to reach reps by phone.