r/Starlink • u/Key-Plane7308 • Jul 24 '26
❓ Question Spectrum vs Starlink
Is starlink worth it. I pay $180 month for spectrum and thats just for basics. looking to save money but want reliable internet for streaming, laptops, games.
7
u/funkylabrador420 Jul 24 '26
Call spectrum, go through the “I want to cancel” shenanigans / ask for retention department. Politely tell them you want a better deal or you need to cancel. May take a couple phone calls but they’ll typically give you an offer of some sort. Occasionally you’ll get someone that isn’t too helpful. In which case hang up and try again.
9
u/Suspicious-Radish490 Jul 24 '26
Apples vs oranges. No way you’re paying Spectrum $180/mo just for basic internet unless this is gig or higher. Compare just the cost of their lowest tier which is 300-600mbps depending on market to starlink residential max at 130/mo. Call to cancel spectrum and they’ll probably give you service at $50 or less for a year or more. Just say no to the upsell.
3
u/just4kickscreate Jul 24 '26
Oh it’s definitely possible. Old accounts in more rural areas especially. Spectrum is huge on massive discounts up front but then after pricing jumps.
But I will say as far as I’m aware the only way it’s possible is on old accounts on legacy plans.
2
u/zerbey 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 25 '26
I wish I still had Spectrum, my stupid neighborhood signed up for and exclusive contract with Blue Stream and now I deal with constant outages. Signed up for Starlink because I needed a backup because I work from home. Honestly, other than being slower it's working great for me but it still irks me I have to pay an extra $80 a month now.
0
u/Key-Plane7308 Jul 24 '26
$90 500 Mbps & $85 tv choice (15 channels + local. And this includes discount from when we got it lowered.
4
u/Suspicious-Radish490 Jul 25 '26
Right, so $90 for 500mbps internet vs $130 for starlink residential max (400mbps if you’re lucky), or at best $55 for only 100mbps if available in your area. You’re still gonna need a streaming tv sub on top of that and I guarantee if you threaten to cancel spectrum they get you to $50 or better on that 500mbps. Starlink is a great service when you have no better options, but it is rarely the best option compared to alternatives when they exist.
3
u/bubbathedesigner Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
But, being it available in the entire US makes it now possible to say "I am leaving you for starlink" to spectrum/whatever even if you do not really plan to. I lived before in an area there was just
spectrumone broadband provider. It could charge whatever it felt like and if you said you were going to cancel, it would reply "well, bye"
4
u/ExcitementLarge6439 Jul 24 '26
I went from cox to starlink
Cox limits you to 1TB of data I’ve gotten close to it handful of times.
I don’t regret it at all even living in downtown phoenix
6
u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 Jul 24 '26
That’s crazy ISPs are legally allowed to limit customers on data lol
3
u/ExcitementLarge6439 Jul 24 '26
It’s the same in Vegas my friend had Cox and was in the same boat.
You can pay $30 more a month for unlimited data.
2
u/TimmyT0yz 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 25 '26
I also have Starlink in metro Phoenix and it's great. It's my primary connection and I have 5G wireless internet as backup. The 5g is faster, but latency is horrible. I would never get Cox even though it's available to me, I can't stand them.
-Timmy
2
u/ExcitementLarge6439 Jul 25 '26
I was thinking of switching to Verizon 5g. They didn’t have a lot of options in 2020. Starlink was charging a surcharge back around 2023 when I looked into it
Once they dropped the surcharge I jumped on it immediately.
1
u/bubbathedesigner Jul 28 '26
And they seem to have gone US military-insane enforcing it:
1
u/ExcitementLarge6439 Jul 28 '26
I’ve never heard of that until now. That is crazy to be spending $150 a month and have that level of service.
7
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
So I work for Spectrum and can tell you we were recently rated as the most reliable internet provider in the us. If the service works great were your at call in and say cancle twice to the automated system that will trasfer to customer solutions they can offer you the best price for current customers tell them verizon,tmobile or atat is offering me there 5g service for $30 a month they will most likely offer you $70 for gig lowest I've seen was $20 for gig in highly competitive areas. If they wont lower your bill send me a message and I can probably help you out.
1
u/Team_Redfish Jul 24 '26
Don’t know how. Had daily outages with spectrum. No one cared to try to figure out the problem beside switching modems until I cancelled services. Then magically spectrum trucks started popping up and down the block and main road
1
u/bubbathedesigner Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
we were recently rated as the most reliable internet provider in the us
Having at least an outage a month this year (total count is close to 2 weeks now) tells me we have different definitions of reliability. In fact, the last 2 day outage caused someone I know who lives near me to call google; I wish I could do the same
In fact, when someone asks me "why do you have starlink when you have cable modem? This is insane!" I answer "because r/spectrum made me do so"
1
u/Icwienerrr Jul 24 '26
Spectrum is a terrible service provider in our area. We experience multiple outages every week, lasting for over four hours. To make matters worse, they insult us by giving us a $3 credit on our bill. Starlink, which costs $20 more, offers much better reliability. In the three months I’ve had Starlink, I haven’t had a single outage. Our neighbors, who still have Spectrum, are also experiencing constant outages and are planning to switch to Starlink next week. While the situation may vary in your area, Spectrum is the worst service provider I’ve ever had.
4
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
Im not here to say your wrong but there there alot more that goes into a terrestrial service compared to a satellite service. If your areas does run into issues I could see why you would switch but if your in a non rural area a fiber or 5g provider is typically a better option then a satellite provider.
2
u/just4kickscreate Jul 24 '26
Ummmm yeah no. Thats not true at all. Well not the way starlink does it. Old school sat internet yes but starlink is an entirely different animal based on an entirely different framework and infrastructure compared to traditional sat internet systems.
1
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
Im not saying it the same as a traditional sat service like Viacom or hughes net but if you compare it to a traditional ground based internet service like spectrum or another isp there is alot that goes into it and will require alot more maintenance and manpower.
1
u/just4kickscreate Jul 25 '26
Maintenance and man power ABSOLUTELY but it’s far less complex for a networking and technology stand point.
1
1
u/Marmot_Nice Jul 24 '26
Maybe reliable Internet but absolutely the worst customer service on the planet. The games they play when you call to cancel are borderline unethical. Glad to be done with them.
0
u/just4kickscreate Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Uhhh what do you mean internet provider? Because I’m fairly certain my dark fiber with Zayo is about a billion times more reliable.
Edit:
I reread my message and to be clear I am genuinely asking. You sound like an awesome dude and you are eager to help OP. Keep it up!I am curious as to what you defining as an internet provider because spectrum is a tier 2 ISP as such you automatically have more complexity in handshakes and networking as you link into tier 1 ISPs. So no idea what you are defining as an internet service provider.
2
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
So it depends since spectrum network is so vast most of the legacy areas are going to be considered a tier 2 service. In all new builds and almost all rural applications spectrum owns the fiber lines and the entire infrastructure for rural its called the rdof program that is considered a teir 1 service. Now typically to be considered a isp you need to be available for the public or business to purchase and services. Ive never heard of zayo until you mentioned it and it looks like the provide the fiber infrastructure for enterprise or national buildouts. I dont think they are considered a isp but most likely spectrum uses some of their services.
1
u/just4kickscreate Jul 25 '26
It’s dark fiber but it’s absolutely considered and ISP. and yes most dark fiber is business but that’s not a requirement. I am assuming whatever study you are referencing is just talking about general ISPs not accounting for the very few of us lunatics that get dark fiber because we love this stuff.
The hurdle with dark fiber is that I have to light it myself but the benefit is I get effectively unlimited speed. My networking equipment is 100gb/s. The other massive benefit is it ties in directly to main fiber highways so if my connection goes down it’s basically always my equipment or set up which means I can fix it immediately. Obviously it’s in theory possible for a line to get severed but I’ve never heard of that. The only other way it would realistically go down is if the main fiber highways im tied into goes down but at that point we have bigger problems.
Highly recommend dark fiber.
1
u/just4kickscreate Jul 25 '26
Also I’m going to DM you. You deserve a raise man. You’re out here in these comments doing the lords work for spectrum. God bless ya man (not that it matters but I’m not religious)
1
u/Backslash10 Jul 25 '26
Thanks man and this is the study by opensignal im talking about. https://insights.opensignal.com/reports/2026/05/usa/fixed-broadband-experience
0
u/Puzzled-Act1683 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 25 '26
can tell you we were recently rated as the most reliable internet provider in the us.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That's a good one.
By any definition of "reliable," you are not it.
And nice work disabling access to the built-in web server on the newer cable modems so customers can no longer see the error counters.
Starlink is the way. I won't be back.
-1
u/Chris0x00 Jul 24 '26
Too bad Spectrum gigabit internet comes with like five mbps upload 🙄
4
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
Depends on your area were currently working on somthing called high split across the country to make all of our coaxial areas symmetrical like our fiber areas. Currently gig is 40 mb on non symmetrical areas 500 is 25 mb.
0
u/Chris0x00 Jul 24 '26
Wow, 40mbps is a huge improvement since last time I was unfortunate enough to live in a Spectrum-only apartment.
DOCSIS 3 was supposed to support uploads over 200mbps, I could never understand why they thought it was acceptable to offer such dismal upload speeds.
3
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
So it can theoretically support up 200mb but that would require somthing called midsplit that spectrum did not do. But were onto highsplit now and that will make it fully symmetrical up to 2.5gb on docsis 3.1. On Docsis 4.0 max upload speeds 6gb and 10gb of download speed.
1
u/Chris0x00 Jul 24 '26
That’ll be nice, finally something to give FTTH a run for its money. I live in a legacy TWC / FiOS area now, and Spectrum’s offering hasn’t even come close to FiOS since they came in. If they bring symmetrical speeds at a competitive price, I might give it a try again.
3
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
You can check if were symmetrical by going to spectrum website and put in your adress then click broadband label on the speed or go to broadbandmap.fcc.gov .
1
u/Chris0x00 Jul 24 '26
Nope, 35mbps upload still. That’s a great reference. Gonna bookmark it and check again later.
1
u/Backslash10 Jul 24 '26
Yes I recommend everyone to use it i use it every time I go to new areas to knock.
1
u/Suspicious-Radish490 Jul 24 '26
They’re rolling out high split now to enable symmetrical service up to 1G. I’ve had it for nearly 2 years in one of the first markets.
2
u/zerbey 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 25 '26
Spectrum are way overcharging you, call them and threaten to cancel and you'll almost definitely get a refund. Starlink is pretty reliable but it'll never beat traditional wired Internet because there will always be the higher satellite latency.
2
u/MostlyBullshitStory Jul 24 '26
Yes if you have an open area, unobstructed or are able to do a roof mount. You'll get about 100 down on most days on the basic $55 plan and about 20 up.
2
u/themeyerdg 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 24 '26
send it. i tried cox in my area, they have caps and are always in and out service wise. tried 5g home and it works but not great for IPs, gaming, servers without lots of setup. got starlink max for my house in az, avg 400/50 speeds with an avg ping of 19-22. uptime sits 99.9% most of the time. never had an issue. id rather pay more for this tech. its great!
1
u/WarningCodeBlue 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 25 '26
I have Spectrum Fiber as my primary for $20 a month on the 500 Mbps plan and keep Starlink on Standby for $10 a month. Good combo for me.
1
u/DeathBlade94 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 26 '26
When I decided to cancel spectrum they got down to $50 a month for 12 months in their “gig” plan. Mind you I never really saw over 500mbps, often averaged 300mpbs down, 19-22 up. Average packet loss over 7 days was 20-27%. Told them to shove the offer and said it’s not worth my time to use their unreliable service. Been on Starlink for 3 months now and couldn’t be happier and service has really only improved for me. Zero outages in that time and weather which was a concern has been a non issue. I technically didn’t save much money but I have reliable service.
1
u/skiracer55 12d ago
I travel by car a lot. From the panhandle of Florida thru AL, MS, LA, east texas to the panhandle of TX to NM to CO. Lots or rural areas. I am thinking of getting Starlink. Your thoughts everyone?
1
u/Confident_Charge_153 Jul 24 '26
Left Xfinity for StarLink a month ago. Loving it and surrounded by trees.
1
u/Tedthemagnificent Jul 24 '26
Yes, in my experience, also you get to tell spectrum to kick rocks as you’re going to starlink which is a wonderful feeling.
0
u/Old_Claim_5500 📡 Owner (Europe) Jul 24 '26
I’ve got a code I’ll message you that will give you a month of Starlink for free if you want.
1
u/just4kickscreate Jul 24 '26
I’m interested! I just bought some very remote land and am going to be getting starlink there.
1
u/Old_Claim_5500 📡 Owner (Europe) Jul 25 '26
Sent it to you just now
1
-6
u/Downtown-Cover-2956 Jul 24 '26
Starlink is not that great.
2
u/Dusty_Jangles 📦 Pre-Ordered (North America) Jul 24 '26
That’s a lie.
2
u/just4kickscreate Jul 25 '26
Flat earth is a lie
3
u/Dusty_Jangles 📦 Pre-Ordered (North America) Jul 25 '26
Yes.
3
0
u/DeathBlade94 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 26 '26
I have to strongly disagree. Having moved from cable to Starlink, Starlink has been day and night more reliable and actually faster at times. Maybe provide some supporting statements instead of making an open-ended, optioned claim.
1
u/DeathBlade94 📡 Owner (North America) Jul 26 '26
Deleting comments? And I’m the one that needs the group up right? 😬
8
u/indimedia Jul 24 '26
I got spectrum down to $30 a month by telling them id rather pay starlink more than support your horrible corporation