Is Wifi Calling Built Into Cox Internet Service

Cable net is a tried-and-true means for delivering fast download speeds to people's homes, and Cox Communications is available to more than 20 1000000 people in the United states. Billing itself every bit the largest private telecom provider in the state and boasting about $12 billion in annual revenue, Cox serves more than than six one thousand thousand residential and business organisation customers and offers cable internet in 19 states and Washington, DC.

If you live inside that Cox footprint, there's a adept chance you lot've at least considered it -- especially if faster cobweb plans from other net service providers aren't bachelor where you live. In cases like that, Cox's cable speeds are likely the next best thing and certainly faster than what you'll become from DSL,satellite or a stock-still wireless connection.

Like

Gigabit speeds available across unabridged service area
Reasonable data usage terms, no throttling

Don't Like

Plans are pricier than other cable internet providers
Steep price increases after first yr
Cox gateway device doubles as a public hotspot past default
Unlimited data bundles are a bad value

That said, Cox plans skew toward the pricey side, with a higher cost per megabit than other cable providers (including Xfinity and Spectrum). What'due south more, Cox's pricing structure will endeavor to push you into a more than expensive program each twelvemonth. You'll as well need to debate with a monthly information cap -- though, fortunately, Cox'due south information usage policies are about as reasonable as you could hope for.

All of that makes Cox a eye-of-the-pack option for getting connected at abode. But at that place's a lot you should consider before yous sign up. Here's a full rundown on everything from prices and plans to terms, fees and the company's customer service rail tape.

Cox's home internet footprint is smaller than other cable providers, and full-bodied in key cities and regions throughout the continental US.

FCC/Mapbox

Where does Cox Communications offer home internet service?

Along with the bulk of Rhode Island, Cox's network covers parts of 19 states and the Commune of Columbia, with service near prevalent in areas around the following cities:

Cleveland, Ohio
Gainesville, Florida
Las Vegas, Nevada
Macon, Georgia
New Orleans, Louisiana
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Omaha, Nebraska
Pensacola, Florida
Phoenix, Arizona
San Diego, California
Santa Barbara, California
Topeka, Kansas
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Wichita, Kansas

According to data collected past the Federal Communications Commission, Cox's home internet footprint reached but nether 7% of the U.s.a. population as of December 2020. That's tens of millions of people, merely it's short of Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum, 2 larger cable internet providers that offer service to roughly one-tertiary of U.s.a. households.

Cox's more focused footprint also shows that it isn't a top option for rural customers, as most of its cable infrastructure is located in dumbo urban areas. Other providers are improve positioned to offering service outside of America's cities. If that'south what you're looking for, check out our top rural internet recommendations.

How does cable cyberspace stack upward these days, anyway?

Pretty well, as a affair of fact. In addition to the fact that information technology'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to bundle cable internet with cable Tv set and other services, most cable providers can offering download speeds of up to 940Mbps or higher. That's much meliorate than what you lot'll get with DSL, satellite internet or stock-still wireless, and it's competitive with a lot of the country's summit cobweb providers.

That said, a good fiber connection will offer concurrent upload speeds every bit fast as the downloads -- and this is where cable net falls short. Yous'll likely be stuck with upload speeds in the double digits, even with near-gigabit download speeds. For example, with Cox, the fastest programme (940Mbps) comes with upload speeds of 35Mbps, while the iv plans below it offer max uploads that range from 3Mbps to 10Mbps. That might cause a crunch if y'all've got multiple people in your house making Zoom calls, gaming online or doing anything else that requires you to upload lots of data to the cloud in short order.

And hey, speaking of those plans...

Cox internet plans, prices and terms

Programme	Max speeds	Regular monthly rate (no contract)	Promo monthly charge per unit (with contract)	Monthly rate later on 1 yr	Equipment rental fee	Monthly data cap
Starter 25	25Mbps download, 3Mbps upload	$xl	$30	$45	$13/calendar month (skippable)	1.25TB
Essential 50	50Mbps download, 3Mbps upload	$50	$forty	$66	$13/month (skippable)	1.25TB
Preferred 250	250Mbps download, 10Mbps upload	$70	$lx	$84	$13/calendar month (skippable)	one.25TB
Ultimate 500	500Mbps, 10Mbps upload	$ninety	$80	$100	$13/calendar month (skippable)	ane.25TB
Gigablast	940Mbps, 35Mbps upload	$110	$100	$120	$13/month (skippable)	i.25TB

Cox offers a diversity of plans with a variety of speeds at a variety of prices, and there are a lot of important ins and outs to consider. Let me offset with the one that'southward so disquisitional, I'm going to write information technology in big, bold messages.

Your pecker volition go upward after Year 1, no matter what

Cox offers promotional rates on its plans and those promo rates will each knock $ten off the price of your monthly bill for the first twelvemonth. The grab is that yous have to agree to sign a i-yr service contract to get the discount. That's fine: One-year contracts are typical in the ISP industry.

What's less fine is that your pecker volition shoot up at the end of that year, in some cases, by as much as $26. That's not outrageous -- Spectrum'due south cablevision cyberspace plans go upwardly by $25 or $thirty after the first year, and Xfinity cablevision internet plans come with an average increase of $40 in some regions -- only go on in heed that Cox plans start more expensive than those of its competitors. And while Cox's website doesn't do a cracking chore of making this clear, you'll see that toll increase regardless of whether you accept the promo rate.

So, let's say you want to sign up for Cox'south Preferred 250 internet plan, which nets yous download speeds of 250Mbps. You tin sign up at the regular charge per unit of $70 per calendar month with no contract, or you lot tin accept the one-year service contract and bring the monthly toll down to $60. Either way, when that start year is upwardly, your neb will become upwards to $84.

Hither's how the promo trap works. You sign up for service and and then your bill goes up after a year (orangish arrows). Y'all call to complain, and the "best value" available is the promo rate for a more expensive program (dark-green arrows). The cycle repeats, and your beak keeps getting higher.

Ry Crist/CNET

At this betoken, in that location's a good chance you lot'll call Cox to complain or endeavour to renegotiate. Cox doesn't accept an incentive to lower your costs. Instead, there's a good chance the clever salesperson will tell y'all that they can't offer yous the same promo rate again, but they can offer y'all the promo rate on a faster plan. Subsequently all, you want a better deal, right? As it just then happens, you could exist getting speeds of up to 500Mbps for $80 per month -- $4 less than yous're paying right at present for 250Mbps. Doesn't that sound skillful to you lot?

Hither'south the thing. That's another promo rate -- a fresh bait-and-switch -- and if you lot take information technology, the wheel starts all once more.

Look for yourself. Information technology'south no coincidence that those Year ii rates shoot up to a monthly fee greater than or equal to the promo rate for the next well-nigh expensive plan. Like the nauseatingly decorated carpets at a casino that nudge dizzy gamblers into stopping and sitting at a slot machine, the price structure is advisedly constructed to confuse you into spending more money. Whenever someone with an expired promo rate calls to complain well-nigh their bill, it'due south easy for Cox to guide them into an even more than expensive speed tier at a new promo rate. Doing so locks them in as a customer for some other 12 months, and it dooms their nib to increment even more.

If you lot don't want to tumble down that glace slope, yous'll need to take that Year two charge per unit and stick with it. That'southward a tall ask, given that Cox prices are on the high side. Take that 250Mbps Preferred program, which costs $84 after Twelvemonth 1. Cable competitor Xfinity offers a 300Mbps plan for $70 later on the promo period expires. That's faster speeds for less per calendar month than Cox.

What else do I demand to know about Cox?

Cox's lineup of domicile net plans gets confusing fast, and not just because of the promo shenanigans. Other fine print to consider includes contract quirks, actress fees and information caps. Isn't shopping for an internet plan fun?

Additional fees

A white Cox router next to a houseplant — You can use your own modem and router, or you tin can hire Cox's modem and router gateway device for $thirteen a month.
Cox Communications

Though Cox doesn't specify the actual cost anywhere on its website that I could find, you'll need to pay an installation fee of $100 if you desire a technician to get your home'south internet connection upward and running. You can skip this fee by ordering an Easy Connect self-install kit -- information technology'due south totally free, but you'll need to plug everything in yourself.

Cox also charges an extra $13 each month if y'all use its Panoramic Wi-Fi modem/router device. Starter, Essential and Preferred customers become a Wi-Fi 5, DOCSIS 3.0 device, while Ultimate and Gigablast subscribers get a faster device that supports DOCSIS 3.ane and Wi-Fi half dozen. In either instance, you can gild plug-in range extender pods to pair with your Panoramic Wi-Fi modem and router at a 1-time cost of $130 per pod. Cox also commits to keeping your organisation's hardware and software upwards to date.

Yous can skip that $13 fee by using your ainCox-canonical modem, forth with a router of your own. I've also heard from Cox sales agents that it isn't uncommon for the company to lower that rental fee upon request.

"I've seen rental fees of $5, and personally, I have added that promotion when I have offered that to current customers," one agent told me in a recent chat. "So please feel gratuitous to ask for a disbelieve on the modem if you rent it."

The other fee to be enlightened of is Cox's early termination fee. If you lot abolish your cyberspace service while under a one-year contract, yous'll be charged $120. Brand that $240 if you're nether a two-twelvemonth contract.

Panoramic Wi-Fi doubles every bit a public hotspot

One more of import point of note here: If y'all use Cox's Panoramic Wi-Fi system instead of your own modem and router, it'll put out a second, split network from your own home network that other Cox customers can use as part of the company's web of over iii 1000000 publicly accessible hotspots. It's a divide stream from your dwelling network, and so it won't affect your speeds or information usage, simply you should all the same be aware of it, particularly because the feature is on past default.

"Panoramic Wi-Fi devices are enabled as hotspots, expanding Wi-Fi admission to eligible Cox Cyberspace customers," reads the fine print on Cox's website. "These devices are automatically enabled as Cox Hotspots upon activation. To disable this functionality, go to Privacy Settings on cox.com/myprofile and sign in with your Cox User ID."

I can retrieve of enough of people who wouldn't want strangers to connect to the cyberspace using the networking hardware in their homes. It's good to know that Cox customers can opt out, but it would be much better if the visitor sought their express permission before turning it on in the first place. If Cox is worried that too many people would say no, it should consider offering those customers a discount on their bill for participating.

The dish on data caps

Every Cox plan comes with a data cap -- and if you utilise more data than it allows in a given month, you'll commencement incurring extra charges. The cap used to be set at 1 terabyte per calendar month (1,000 gigabytes), but when the pandemic striking and habitation internet usage soared, Cox did a nice thing and raised it by almost 25% to i.25TB (1,280GB).

That'southward pretty reasonable as far as data caps go. Internet usage is still climbing, but Americans went through an average of 536GB of data per month in the last few months of 2021, according to OpenVault. So again, hither at my place, nosotros used about i,300GB of data per calendar month in 2021. Keep in mind that my roommate and I both work from home and use the net pretty heavily (I test routers here, for Pete's sake). Expert matter our programme doesn't come with a information cap -- no such luck with Cox.

At any rate, once you've exceeded Cox's data cap, you'll be charged $x for each boosted 50GB cake of information that you employ, up to a maximum accuse of $100. One nice surprise here -- if information technology'due south your beginning calendar month going over the cap, Cox will cutting you a pause, waive the charges and let you off with a warning.

"If it'south your first calendar month going over, you'll get a one-fourth dimension, courtesy credit for each $10 accuse on your adjacent bill," the Cox website reads.

That's pretty generous of Cox -- especially since you won't come across any such first-month mulligan fromComcast Xfinity, the other major cable provider that enforces a data cap. On top of that, Cox says y'all don't need to worry about speed reductions once you've cleaved the cap.

"We don't throttle service [or] reduce speeds if customers exceed their usage program," says a Cox spokesperson. "We but work with them to get them on the best usage plan to run across their needs."

And so, does Cox offer whatever plans with unlimited information? The answer is aye, but information technology volition cost you an boosted $50 on your monthly bill. Cox offers a few discounts on unlimited information with some of their bundle packages, but you'll need to sign a two-year contract to dodge the information caps in nigh cases.

chart showing customer satisfaction with ISPs — Cox's rating with the American Customer Satisfaction Index improved past three points in 2021, but that's still below the category average.
American Client Satisfaction Index

How does Cox rank on customer satisfaction?

Internet providers are far from popular, to brainstorm with, and Cox is a footling bit below average in terms of its customer satisfaction rails record. In 2021, the American Client Satisfaction Index gave Cox a 63 out of 100, which was two points better than the year earlier but worse than the overall ISP average of 65. Nonetheless, Cox's score tied information technology with Spectrum for 2d place amongst cable providers and ahead of Windstream (61), Mediacom (lx), Optimum (60) and Suddenlink (55). The just cable provider that outscored Cox in 2021 was Xfinity, which finished with a score of 67.

Cox's strongest customer service rating came from the Us East region, where J.D. Power scored information technology just beneath the category average.

J.D. Power

Meanwhile, J.D. Ability also takes its own await at ISP customer satisfaction each year. Cox was included in iii of the four regions surveyed in 2021. it did slightly better here overall than it did with the ACSI just still ended with scores below the overall boilerplate for the internet providers surveyed in 3 of those regions.

Nosotros'll get-go in the East, where Cox finished with a score of 708 out of 1,000 -- slightly below the overall region boilerplate of 714, and behind Verizon (758) and Xfinity (725), but ahead of cablevision rivals Spectrum (676) and Optimum (655).

Cox was further below average in the South region with a score of 707, trailing the overall category score of 727 and backside v other ISPs, including AT&T (753), Xfinity (740), Spectrum (725), Mediacom (723) and Sparklight (716). Nevertheless, it was a good plenty finish to beat out Frontier (698), Kinetic past Windstream (682), CenturyLink (674), Suddenlink (621) and HughesNet (578).

Finally, Cox's most disappointing score came in the West region, where it had done well in 2020. This time around, its score of 696 put it well-nigh the bottom, in a higher place only Mediacom (654) and Frontier (645).

To sum it upwards

If fiber internet is available in your area, you'll probable be better off going with that, as you can look faster speeds (particularly uploads) and improve value. If non, and so a cable provider like Cox is probably your next all-time option, with faster speeds than y'all'll get by going with DSL, satellite internet or a fixed wireless connection.

I can't say that you'll exist getting a great value with Cox, though, especially given that other major cable providers similar Xfinity and Spectrum offer faster plans for less per month. Then again, if you're living in an area with limited choices for loftier-speed internet, you might not have many other options.

Equally for Cox's information caps, they might seem off-putting, but the terms surrounding them are about as reasonable equally you'll find from an net provider -- enough so that the visitor's over-inflated unlimited information bundles probably aren't worth information technology for most subscribers.

All of that makes Cox worthy of consideration for high-speed cyberspace at home. Just call back to stay wary of those price hikes.

Cox internet FAQs

Tin I bundle Cox home internet with other services?

Yes, yous can. Like most cable providers, Cox offers a diversity of TV and internet bundles, along with bundles that include home telephone service, security monitoring, and home automation.

Are there any perks or other features available to Cox subscribers?

In addition to the network of hotspots mentioned earlier, Cox also offers a feature called Elite Gamer, which promises to reduce lag by up to 32% while gaming online. Aristocracy Gamer comes at no boosted accuse if you use Cox's Panoramic Wi-Fi modem or router. If you lot're using your own modem, Elite Gamer costs $7 a month.

Does Cox offer any discounts for low-income customers?

Yep. Cox offers a 100Mbps, $ten-a-calendar month plan for low- or fixed-income families called Connect2Compete. Homes with children who receive free or reduced-price schoolhouse lunches should qualify -- you can acquire more or cheque eligibility here.

Similarly, Cox likewise features a ConnectAssist program aimed at low-income households without children. Customers enrolled in authorities financial assist programs may exist eligible for a 100Mbps program for $30 a month.

Finally, Cox is also participating in the government'due south Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers a $xxx home internet discount for those who qualify.