Spectrum is mostly available in urban and suburban areas, offering coverage in 42 states to 110.6 million people. Spectrum’s coverage area increased dramatically after its merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network in 2016, making Spectrum the second-largest Internet provider in the U.S.
Spectrum Internet Services
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One of the defining features of Spectrum, when compared to other cable providers, is its easy-to-understand tiered pricing system, which offers the same price for similar plan speeds nationally. Cord-cutters especially prefer Spectrum Internet® plans, thanks to their unlimited data and affordable contract-free options. In fact, we rank Spectrum third for best Internet providers for streaming.
| Plan name | Download speeds | Starting price | Data cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spectrum Internet | Up to 1 Gbps (wireless speeds may vary) | $49.99 per month for 12 months | Unlimited Data |
Spectrum offers three Internet plans with prices starting at $49.99 per month for 12 months. Wireless speeds may vary from each plan’s advertised speeds. Internet, TV, home phone, and mobile phone bundles are also available from Spectrum, making it easy to find a great Internet deal with Spectrum.
Spectrum Internet Speeds
Spectrum uses what’s known as an HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial) network for the delivery of wired broadband services. In essence, this means data on its network travels over fiber lines for most of the journey to subscribers, but switches over to older, coaxial cable lines for the short distances within neighborhoods. The distance of this coaxial “hop” varies, but the overall effect is that download speeds come in the range of 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps (wireless speeds may vary), with upload speeds up to 35 Mbps (wireless speeds may vary).
The main caveat with HFC or “cable” networks is bandwidth sharing, which is the byproduct of multiple residences being connected to a single fiber “node” in the area. Think of it as branches in a tree getting smaller as they spread out – if one branch needs more water, the tree might send more to that branch at the expense of other branches. You can see this in action during “peak use” hours of the late afternoon and evening, when most customers see a reduction in speeds due to the high volume of streaming on Over the Top (OTT) services like Netflix.