How to Activate My Internet Again Cox Payment

Cable internet is a tried-and-truthful means for delivering fast download speeds to people's homes, and Cox Communications is available to more than 20 one thousand thousand people in the United states of america. Billing itself as the largest private telecom provider in the country and boasting nearly $12 billion in annual revenue, Cox serves more than vi million residential and business organization customers and offers cable internet in 19 states and Washington, DC.

If you live within that Cox footprint, at that place's a good chance y'all've at least considered it -- especially if faster fiber plans from other net service providers aren't available where yous live. In cases like that, Cox's cable speeds are likely the side by side best thing and certainly faster than what you'll get from DSL,satellite or a fixed wireless connection.

Like

• Gigabit speeds available beyond entire service surface area
• Reasonable data usage terms, no throttling

Don't Similar

• Plans are pricier than other cable internet providers
• Steep price increases after commencement yr
• Cox gateway device doubles every bit a public hotspot by 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'south more, Cox's pricing structure will try to push you into a more than expensive plan each twelvemonth. You'll too need to contend with a monthly data cap -- though, fortunately, Cox's data usage policies are about as reasonable as yous could hope for.

All of that makes Cox a middle-of-the-pack option for getting connected at home. Only there's a lot you lot should consider earlier yous sign up. Here's a total rundown on everything from prices and plans to terms, fees and the company'southward customer service track tape.

Cox's dwelling internet footprint is smaller than other cable providers, and concentrated in key cities and regions throughout the continental United states of america.

FCC/Mapbox

Where does Cox Communications offer home cyberspace service?

Along with the majority of Rhode Isle, Cox's network covers parts of 19 states and the Commune of Columbia, with service nearly 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 information collected past the Federal Communications Commission, Cox's domicile internet footprint reached merely nether seven% of the U.s. population as of December 2020. That'south tens of millions of people, but it's curt of Comcast and Charter Spectrum, two larger cablevision internet providers that each offer service to roughly one-tertiary of US households.

Cox's more than focused footprint too shows that information technology isn't a top option for rural customers, as most of its cable infrastructure is located in dense urban areas. Other providers are better positioned to offer service outside of America's cities. If that's what you're looking for, check out our top rural internet recommendations.

How does cable cyberspace stack upwardly these days, anyway?

Pretty well, as a matter of fact. In add-on to the fact that it's easy to parcel cable internet with cable TV and other services, most cable providers can offer download speeds of up to 940 megabits per second or college. That's much amend than what you'll get with DSL, satellite internet or fixed wireless, and it's competitive with a lot of the state'due south top fiber providers.

That said, a practiced fiber connection will offering concurrent upload speeds as fast every bit the downloads -- and this is where cablevision cyberspace 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 program (940Mbps) comes with upload speeds of 35Mbps, while the four plans beneath it offering max uploads that range from 3Mbps to 10Mbps. That might cause a crunch if you've got multiple people in your business firm making Zoom calls, gaming online or doing anything else that requires y'all to upload lots of data to the cloud in curt order.

And hey, speaking of those plans...

Cox internet plans, prices and terms

Programme	Max speeds	Regular monthly rate (no contract)	Promo monthly rate (with contract)	Monthly rate after 1 year	Equipment rental fee	Monthly data cap
Starter 25	25Mbps download, 3Mbps upload	$40	$xxx	$45	$13/month (skippable)	i.25TB
Essential l	50Mbps download, 3Mbps upload	$50	$40	$66	$13/month (skippable)	1.25TB
Preferred 250	250Mbps download, 10Mbps upload	$70	$60	$84	$xiii/month (skippable)	1.25TB
Ultimate 500	500Mbps, 10Mbps upload	$90	$80	$100	$thirteen/month (skippable)	1.25TB
Gigablast	940Mbps, 35Mbps upload	$110	$100	$120	$13/month (skippable)	1.25TB

Cox offers a variety of plans with a diversity of speeds at a multifariousness of prices, and there are a lot of important ins and outs to consider. Let me start with the one that's and then disquisitional, I'grand going to write it in big, bold letters for you.

Your neb will go up after Yr i, no matter what

Cox offers promotional rates on its plans and those promo rates will each knock $10 off the price of your monthly nib for the commencement yr. The catch is that you have to agree to sign a 1-year service contract to get the discount. That'southward fine: One-year contracts are typical in the ISP manufacture.

What'due south less fine is that your bill volition shoot up at the end of that yr, in some cases, by as much every bit $26. That's non outrageous -- Spectrum's cable internet plans go up by $25 or $30 later the first year, and Xfinity cable internet plans come with an average increase of $xl in some regions -- only go along in mind that Cox plans get-go more expensive than those of its competitors. And while Cox's website doesn't practise a great job of making this clear, you lot'll see that price increase regardless of whether you accept the promo charge per unit.

So, let's say you desire to sign upwards for Cox'south Preferred 250 internet plan, which nets you download speeds of 250Mbps. You can sign up at the regular charge per unit of $lxx per month with no contract, or you can accept the ane-year service contract and bring the monthly cost downwards to $60. Either way, when that offset yr is up, your neb will go upward to $84.

Here'due south how the promo trap works. You sign up for service and and so your bill goes upwards afterwards a twelvemonth (orange arrows). You lot telephone call to complain, and the "best value" available is the promo rate for a more expensive plan (dark-green arrows). The cycle repeats, and your bill keeps getting higher.

Ry Crist/CNET

At this signal, there'south a good chance you'll call Cox to complain or try to renegotiate. Cox doesn't accept an incentive to lower your costs. Instead, at that place's a good hazard the clever salesperson will tell you lot that they can't offer you the aforementioned promo charge per unit again, only they can offer yous the promo rate on a faster program. After all, you want a ameliorate deal, right? As it simply then happens, you could be getting speeds of up to 500Mbps for $fourscore per calendar month -- $4 less than yous're paying correct now for 250Mbps. Doesn't that audio proficient to you?

Here'south the affair. That'south another promo rate -- a fresh bait-and-switch -- and if y'all accept it, the cycle starts all over once more.

Await for yourself. It'south no coincidence that each of those Year 2 rates shoots up to a monthly fee greater than or equal to the promo rate for the adjacent most expensive program. Similar the nauseatingly decorated carpets at a casino that nudge giddy gamblers into stopping and sitting at a slot auto, the price structure is carefully constructed to confuse you into spending more coin. Whenever someone with an expired promo rate calls to complain about their beak, information technology's easy for Cox to guide them into an fifty-fifty more expensive speed tier at a new promo rate. Doing so locks them in every bit a client for another 12 months, and it dooms their beak to increase even more after that.

If you don't want to tumble down that glace slope, you'll need to accept that Twelvemonth 2 charge per unit and stick with it. That's a tall ask, given that Cox prices are on the high side. Have that 250Mbps Preferred plan, which costs $84 after Year one. Cable competitor Xfinity offers a 300Mbps plan for $70 after the promo catamenia expires. That'south faster speeds for less per calendar month than Cox.

What else do I need to know about Cox?

Cox's lineup of habitation internet plans gets confusing fast, and not just considering of the promo shenanigans. Other fine print to consider includes contract quirks, extra fees, data caps, and more. Isn't shopping for an internet programme fun?

Additional fees

You tin employ your ain modem and router, or you can hire Cox's modem and router gateway device for $13 a calendar month.

Cox Communications

Though Cox doesn't specify the actual toll anywhere on its website that I could discover, you'll need to pay an installation fee of $100 if you lot want a technician to go your home's internet connexion upwards and running. You tin can skip this fee by ordering an Easy Connect cocky-install kit -- it's totally complimentary, but you'll need to plug everything in yourself.

Cox also charges an extra $thirteen each month if you use its Panoramic Wi-Fi modem/router device. Starter, Essential and Preferred customers get a Wi-Fi 5, DOCSIS 3.0 device, while Ultimate and Gigablast subscribers get a faster device that supports DOCSIS 3.one and Wi-Fi 6. In either case, you tin order plug-in range extender pods to pair with your Panoramic Wi-Fi modem and router at a onetime price of $130 per pod. Cox also commits to keeping your system'southward hardware and software up to date.

You can skip that $13 fee by using your ownCox-approved modem, forth with a router of your own. I've too 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 contempo chat. "So delight feel free to ask for a discount on the modem if yous hire it."

The other fee to be enlightened of is Cox's early on termination fee. If you cancel your cyberspace service at any signal while under a one-year contract, you'll be charged $120. Make that $240 if you lot're nether a ii-year contract.

Panoramic Wi-Fi doubles as a public hotspot

One more of import bespeak of note here: If you utilize Cox's Panoramic Wi-Fi organisation instead of your own modem and router, it'll put out a second, carve up network from your ain home network that other Cox customers can use every bit part of the company's web of over 3 million publicly accessible hotspots. It's a dissever stream from your dwelling house network, then it won't touch on your speeds or information usage, but you should still be enlightened of information technology, peculiarly because the feature is on by default.

"Panoramic Wi-Fi devices are enabled equally hotspots, expanding Wi-Fi access to eligible Cox Internet customers," reads the fine impress 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 tin think of enough of people who wouldn't want strangers to connect to the internet using the networking hardware in their homes. It's good to know that Cox customers tin opt out, but it would exist much meliorate if the company sought their express permission before turning it on in the outset place. If Cox is worried that besides many people would say no, information technology should consider offer those customers a disbelieve on their bill for participating.

The dish on data caps

Every Cox program comes with a data cap -- and if y'all use more data than it allows in a given month, you'll offset incurring extra charges. The cap used to be set at 1 terabyte per month (1,000 gigabytes), only when the pandemic hit and home internet usage soared, Cox did a nice thing and raised it by about 25% to 1.25TB (1,280GB).

That's pretty reasonable equally far every bit information caps become. Internet usage is still climbing, but Americans went through an average of just under 400GB of information per month in 2020, according to Statista. Then over again, here at my place, we used well-nigh one,300GB of data per month in 2021. But keep in mind that my roommate and I both work from home and apply the cyberspace pretty heavily (I test routers here, for Pete'southward sake). Practiced thing our plan doesn't come with a data cap -- no such luck with Cox.

At any charge per unit, once y'all've exceeded Cox's information cap, you'll exist charged $10 for each additional 50GB block of data that you lot utilize, up to a maximum charge of $100. One nice surprise here -- if information technology's your first calendar month going over the cap, Cox will cut you a pause, waive the charges and allow yous off with a warning.

"If it's your first calendar month going over, you lot'll get a old, courtesy credit for each $ten charge on your next beak," the Cox website reads.

That'due south pretty generous of Cox -- peculiarly since y'all won't see any such first-month mulligan fromComcast Xfinity, the other major cable provider that enforces a data cap. On pinnacle of that, Cox says y'all don't demand to worry about speed reductions one time you lot've broken the cap.

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

So, does Cox offer any plans with unlimited data? The answer is aye, just it volition cost you an boosted $50 to your monthly bill. Cox offers a few discounts on unlimited data with some of their bundle packages, only you'll demand to sign a two-year contract to dodge the data caps in most cases.

Cox'south rating with the American Customer Satisfaction Index improved by three points in 2021, but that'due south still below the category average.

American Customer Satisfaction Alphabetize

How does Cox rank on client satisfaction?

Internet providers are far from popular, to begin with, and Cox is a little bit below average in terms of its customer satisfaction track tape. In 2021, the American Client Satisfaction Index gave Cox a 63 out of 100, which was two points amend than the year before but worse than the overall Internet service provider average of 65. Still, Cox'due south score tied information technology with Spectrum for 2nd place among cablevision providers and ahead of Windstream (61), Mediacom (60), Optimum (60) and Suddenlink (55). The only cable provider that outscored Cox in 2021 was Xfinity, which finished with a score of 67.

Cox'south strongest customer service rating came from the US East region, where J.D. Ability scored information technology but beneath the category average.

J.D. Ability

Meanwhile, J.D. Power also takes its ain look at Internet service provider customer satisfaction each yr. Cox was included in three of the four regions surveyed in 2021. information technology did slightly better here overall than it did with the ACSI just still ended with scores beneath the overall boilerplate for the internet providers surveyed in iii of those regions.

We'll showtime 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 cable rivals Spectrum (676) and Optimum (655).

Cox was further beneath average in the South region with a score of 707, trailing the overall category score of 727 and behind five other ISPs, including AT&T (753), Xfinity (740), Spectrum (725), Mediacom (723) and Sparklight (716). Even so, it was a good enough finish to shell Borderland (698), Kinetic by Windstream (682), CenturyLink (674), Suddenlink (621) and HughesNet (578).

Finally, Cox's most disappointing score came in the Due west region, where it had done well in 2020. This fourth dimension effectually, its score of 696 put it almost the bottom, above simply Mediacom (654) and Frontier (645).

To sum information technology upwards

If fiber net is bachelor in your area, yous'll likely be better off going with that, as you can expect faster speeds (peculiarly uploads) and improve value, too. If not, then a cablevision provider like Cox is probably your next best option, with faster speeds than y'all'll become by going with DSL, satellite cyberspace or a fixed wireless connection.

I tin't say that you lot'll be getting a neat value with Cox, though, specially given that other major cable providers similar Xfinity and Spectrum offer faster plans for less per month. Then once again, if you're living in an expanse with limited options for high-speed internet, you might non have many other options.

As for Cox's data caps, they might seem off-putting, merely the terms surrounding them are almost every bit reasonable as you'll detect from an cyberspace provider -- enough so that the company'southward over-inflated unlimited data bundles probably aren't worth it for most subscribers.

All of that makes Cox worthy of consideration for high-speed cyberspace at dwelling house. Just retrieve to stay wary of those price hikes.

Cox internet FAQs

Can I bundle Cox dwelling internet with other services?

Yep, you can. Like with most cablevision providers, Cox offers a variety of Tv set and cyberspace bundles, along with bundles that include habitation phone service, security monitoring, and dwelling house automation.

Are in that location any perks or other features available to Cox subscribers?

In addition to the network of hotspots mentioned earlier, Cox likewise offers a feature called Elite Gamer, which promises to reduce lag past upwardly to 32% while gaming online. Elite Gamer comes at no boosted charge if y'all're using Cox'south Panoramic Wi-Fi modem or router. If y'all're using your own modem, Elite Gamer costs $7 a calendar month.

Does Cox offering whatever discounts for low-income customers?

Yes. Cox offers a 50Mbps, $10-a-month plan for low- or stock-still-income families chosen Connect2Compete. Homes with children who receive free or reduced-cost school lunches should qualify -- you tin can learn more or bank check eligibility here.

Similarly, Cox likewise features a ConnectAssist program aimed at depression-income households without children. Customers enrolled in government financial aid programs may be eligible for a 50Mbps plan for $30 a month.

Finally, Cox is also participating in the regime'southward Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers a $30 habitation internet disbelieve for those who qualify.

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Source: https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/cox-communications-internet-review/

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