Here's what you need to know about Sparklight's five internet plans.
At first, Sparklight’s no-contract plans and high download speeds make it look like an ideal internet provider. But watch out for its restrictive data caps—those could end up costing you more than you’d expect.
Data as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
The Streamer & Gamer 200 Plus package is a good choice if you stream TV online. Your home will have enough data to stream full HD shows up to 10 hours a day, plus do other fun things like check social media and play video games.
Keep in mind that if you have a lot of people at home or if you stream 4K movies, you’ll use up 700 GB of data a lot faster than most.
If that sounds like you, you might want to try GigaONE Plus. It comes with more than twice as much data (1,500 GB) as Streamer & Gamer 200 Plus and download speeds up to five times faster. It’s a great way to avoid running into data caps, but it’s undeniably pricey.
| Package | Price | Download speeds up to | Upload speeds up to | Data cap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite 15 Plus | $30.00/mo. | 15 Mbps | 1 Mbps | 100 GB | View plan |
| Starter 100 Plus | $39.00/mo. | 100 Mbps | 10 Mbps | 350 GB | View plan |
| Streamer & Gamer 200 Plus | $65.00/mo. | 200 Mbps | 20 Mbps | 700 GB | View plan |
| Turbo 300 Plus | $80.00/mo. | 300 Mbps | 30 Mbps | 1,200 GB | View plan |
| GigaONE Plus | $125.00/mo. | 1,000 Mbps | 50 Mbps | 1,500 GB | View plan |
Data as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
Each of Sparklight’s internet plans come with painfully restrictive data caps. Data caps aren’t an unusual practice—many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use them to discourage users from downloading super huge files that will eat up bandwidth and slow download speeds for their neighbors.
The thing is, most ISPs have 1,000 GB data caps. That’s enough data for you to stream 10 hours of TV every day, and then some.
But Sparklight’s Lite 15 Plus comes with only enough data for you to stream an hour of TV every day, with no room left over for Instagram scrolling—or anything else.
So if you use the internet like it’s 2020 and not 1998, you’ll probably run into overage fees. That’s $10 for every 100 GB you go over your data plan, with a price cap of $50 per month.
Go over your data allowance too many times, and Sparklight reserves the right to bump you up to a more expensive plan whenever it sees fit. It’s not nice, and it’s not fair, but it is in the user agreement, so you agree to it (in the most technical sense) when you sign up.
If you don’t want a pricey high-speed plan that comes with more data, you can bow to Sparklight’s data caps by carefully monitoring your internet usage. You can check the numbers on your online customer portal, but that will, ironically, cost data to do. And you’ll definitely need to start depriving yourself of binge-watching Netflix Originals.
Or you can spring for the unlimited data add-on for another $40 per month. It’s a costly solution, but it’s the best one Sparklight offers to avoid a problem it created.
Data effective as of publish date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
A good way to get around data caps is bundling your internet package with TV. You’ll still have data caps, but you won’t need to stream to watch all your favorite shows. We hope you didn’t plan on cutting the cord any time soon—Sparklight will have you lassoed in its wires like the villain of a Spaghetti Western.
In a less mustache-twirling move, Sparklight will save you a fistful of dollars on your bundled services for the first six months you’re signed up. The Standard Cable with 200 Mbps Plus bundle will save you $5 per month compared to what you’d pay for the services separately.
But not all of Sparklight’s bundles will save you money—some might even cost you a few dollars more. Also, the fastest Sparklight internet speed—1,000 Mbps in GigaONE Plus—isn’t available in a bundle. To learn about all of Sparklights available bundles, check out our Sparklight bundles review.
Sparklight doesn’t have any deals going on right now, but we’ll let you know here if that changes.
If you plan on using the internet, you can’t get away with signing up for Sparklight’s cheapest plan. Go with Streamer & Gamer 200 Plus or a faster plan, or else you’ll probably run into some serious data-cap fines. If you have a large household and already know you’ll have a lot of demand on your Sparklight Wi-Fi network, go for GigaONE Plus.
If Sparklight hasn’t struck your fancy, check out if there’s a better provider in your area by searching with your ZIP code in the box below:
To find out how Sparklight stacked up against the competition, we broke down Sparklight’s internet plans in areas including price, download speeds, and upload speeds. We also used our annual internet customer satisfaction survey to see what real Sparklight internet customers thought about the ISP.
To learn more about our methodology, check out our How We Rank page.
Sparklight, previously known as Cable ONE, sells cable (or broadband) internet, which uses coaxial copper cables to deliver your cat pictures and memes.
Depending on the package you get, you can get up to 15, 100, 200, 300, or 1,000 Mbps download speeds.
Sparklight doesn’t include unlimited internet data with its packages, but you can add it onto your service for an extra $40 per month. Technically it’s not exactly “unlimited”—if you use more than 5 TB in a data cycle, Sparklight will slow your internet connection dramatically until the next cycle.
Sparklight claims not to throttle internet connections. But if you pay for unlimited data ($40 a month) and use over the 5 TB in a data cycle, Sparklight will slow your connection to around 10 Mbps until the next data cycle begins.
Go for a data allowance of 600 GB. Everyone in your household will be able to stream 1080p TV up to a cumulative of 10 hours daily, with data left over for all your other internet activities.
Pay attention to the video quality of the shows you stream—you could be using up to 7.2 GB of data per hour. More exactly, 720p uses 0.9 GB per hour, 1080p uses 1.5 GB an hour, and 4K Ultra HD uses 7.2 GB per hour.
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