Serving 57 million customers across 41 states, Spectrum is known for its nationwide footprint and deep catalog of internet, mobile, and cable TV services. If you’re shopping for cable, you’ll likely be a coin’s toss away from a Spectrum store.
But is Spectrum worth your time? As part of CableTV.com’s annual Customer Satisfaction Awards series, we talk to thousands of real-life Spectrum internet and cable TV customers across the nation to see what they think about their internet and TV providers.
From customer service to pricing, keep on reading to hear the truth about Spectrum home internet and cable TV service from real Spectrum customers.
Spectrum internet and TV are generally fine
When you talk to your internet service provider (ISP), are they quickly solving your problems or is your blood boiling by the time you get off the phone? Spectrum had an average 71% approval rating in our customer experience polling, suggesting that customers think that the ISP simply meets the bar. Among national cable ISPs, Spectrum surpassed Optimum (67% approval) and Cox (68% approval), but was a hair behind Xfinity (72% approval).
Spectrum’s TV satisfaction scores went (almost literally) hand-in-hand with their internet results. Beyond provider effectiveness, Spectrum internet and TV subscribers were equally nonplussed with their service.
[There’s] nothing special about them and [my] price keeps going up every year, without improvement of product or service.
Cable ISPs generally offer a decent service baseline, since they’re right between legacy DSL networks and high-end fiber ISPs when it comes to performance. And although national ISPs often have bigger contract or pricing headaches, they often offer resources (like retail storefronts) that you won’t receive from a regional provider.
Our Spectrum hands-on internet review backed up many of our respondent takeaways:
Spectrum Internet isn’t the flashiest service provider out there, but in general, I’ve found it to be incredibly solid. It’s a great choice for those looking to bundle—something that might not be cord-cutters’ cup of tea—and it’s generally very reliable. While Spectrum doesn’t reach every city, town, and hamlet in America, it seems to cover a good portion of the nation’s metropolitan areas, making it accessible to over 100 million Americans.
Spectrum cable TV is also hamstrung by the same cost and fee limitations that other providers face. But as our review mentioned, streaming could provide a roadmap for Spectrum and future subscribers. Spectrum streaming customers (which include our reviewer) had much higher satisfaction scores across the board:
At my house, while we’ve got a lot of streaming services, we’ve chosen to go with just the TV Stream plan, which has best met our needs. When we were sitting down to choose what to do with our cable service, my husband started to advocate for cord-cutting so we made a list of the shows we watched and where we could watch them.While many were available on streaming services, others—like Dodgers baseball—were not. I also liked the ease of being able to program many of my shows into Spectrum’s in-app DVR, versus having to remember when each hit streaming, what app it was on, and if I watched the previous week’s episode.
| Question | Approval rating (internet) | Approval rating (TV) |
|---|---|---|
| What is your overall satisfaction with Spectrum? | 69% approval | 69% approval |
| Thinking about your recent interactions with Spectrum, how effective was Spectrum at meeting your needs? | 76% approval | 71% approval |
| How easy was it to work with Spectrum? | 75% approval | 74% approval |
| How enjoyable were your interactions with Spectrum? | 65% approval | 65% approval |
| To what extent has Spectrum met your expectations? | 70% approval | 70% approval |
Pricing a frustration for Spectrum subscribers
Cable ISPs are notorious for making subscribers jump through hoops, and Spectrum is no different. The cable provider had a 61% average approval rating for price satisfaction, which was well behind market leaders like T-Mobile (78%) and Google Fiber (76%). Spectrum’s cable TV subscribers were similarly unimpressed with their bill, as the provider had a 63% average approval rate for this category.
They are very expensive. They never give promotional discounts and they raise our bill two to three times a year on one or more parts.
Although Spectrum has only two internet plans and minimal service fees, it’s long utilized promotional pricing as a way to slowly increase your internet bill. With these pricing setups, you’ll pay a discounted first-year rate before being hit with a de facto price hike when you start paying your provider’s standard price. Similarly, Spectrum cable TV subscribers have to deal with high pricing and extra fees compared to live TV streaming competitors.
Spectrum has recently gotten more flexible amid competition from 5G ISPs. When you bundle services, Spectrum will lock your internet price for up to three years, and Spectrum Mobile led our cell phone ISP polling with an 88% price satisfaction score. But in general, Spectrum customers are generally annoyed by the provider’s pricing.
| Question | Approval rating (internet) | Approval rating (TV) |
|---|---|---|
| Given the quality of Spectrum services, how would you rate the price that you pay for them? | 61% approval | 63% approval |
| Given your initial expectations, how would you rate the price that you pay for Spectrum services? | 62% approval | 63% approval |
| Given competitors’ prices, how would you rate the price that you pay for Spectrum services? | 60% approval | 63% approval |
Spectrum internet, TV performance is average
Cable ISP networks are popular for a reason—they offer solid-enough performance and reliability at a solid-enough price point. Similarly, Spectrum hit right down the middle with a 71% average approval score for our internet performance polling. While Xfinity still claimed first place among national cable ISPs, Spectrum still outclassed smaller providers like WOW (70%) and Cox (69%).
The only thing I don't like about Spectrum is that it's the only game in town. I have no choice but to use them. Having said that, they've been very reliable.
But despite cable internet’s general reliability, it can be vulnerable to weather outages and service problems because it’s typically installed above ground. Spectrum is fairly proactive about standardizing internet performance for its customers, offering a free modem alongside rental hardware and taking good care of its network to prevent downtime. But Spectrum cable TV subscribers had their share of gripes, as its reliability approval rating fell below 70%.
From our Spectrum internet review:
Compared to the results of the [Customer] Satisfaction Survey, I’ve found Spectrum Internet to be incredibly reliable. It hasn’t gone out once in the six months that we’ve had it, whereas our old service, AT&T, would sometimes go out for hours at a time, leaving me in the lurch during the workday. Our home internet’s speed is pretty good, too. While we’ve had the occasional hiccup when the whole family tries to stream something and play games simultaneously on four different computers, iPads, and phones, it generally feels pretty solid. When I ran five speed tests using HighSpeedInternet.com’s app inside my house, my average download speed was 516 Mbps. My average upload speed was about 11.5 Mbps, while my latency was 10 milliseconds. (When I did the same tests in my ADU, where we have our extender, my average download speed was just 35 Mbps, while my upload speed was 17.7 Mbps, and my latency held steady at 10 milliseconds.)
| Question | Approval rating |
|---|---|
| Are you satisfied with Spectrum’s internet speeds? | 71% approval |
| Are you satisfied with Spectrum’s reliability? | 71% approval |
| Are you satisfied with Spectrum’s TV picture quality? | 73% approval |
| Are you satisfied with Spectrum’s TV reliability? | 68% approval |
Spectrum customer service gets the job done
Need to troubleshoot your internet connection? Spectrum’s 68% approval score for customer service won’t knock your socks off, but it’s perfectly fine for a national cable ISP. Once again, Spectrum fell in the middle between Xfinity (70%) and Cox (65%) for the category, although it also had the lowest disapproval rating (9%) among all three providers.
I love [their] service, products, and speed of internet. Good value too. I love everything about how [intuitive] they are and how customer service goes and how service calls go.
Spectrum’s strengths in this field are similar to other national ISPs: You’ll get resources, including retail storefronts, in-house installers, and well-staffed chat and phone support teams with Spectrum. That said, Spectrum’s customer support could use improvement in getting over the finish line. Among national ISPs, Spectrum’s effectiveness among cable TV and internet subscribers ranked behind providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
In my personal experience, Spectrum’s phone team has always been staffed with domestic reps alongside minimal wait times and attentive service. Our review backed up Spectrum’s strong customer service staffing:
I’ve always found Spectrum’s customer service to be fairly kind and receptive. I’ve had to call three times, and I’ve never felt stuck in a phone tree or like I was being transferred somewhere far away where what was going on in my house didn’t matter. The representatives helped me solve my issues, and even when I was just weighing my options about signing up, they were happy to walk me through the different packages and options, helping craft the one that was right for me.
| Question | Approval rating (internet) | Approval rating (TV) |
|---|---|---|
| How satisfied are you with Spectrum's customer support? | 68% approval | n/a |
| How easy was it to work with Spectrum? | 75% approval | 74% approval |
| How enjoyable were your interactions with Spectrum? | 65% approval | 65% approval |
What do real customers think about Spectrum?
Spectrum’s nationwide footprint means the provider has to address an equally national number of customer concerns. Price increases and service quality were some of the biggest concerns among Spectrum customers we spoke to.
Here are some examples of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly right from the mouths of real Spectrum customers.
Reliable service, good customer service. The only thing I dislike is the cost, but I don't have a choice if I want internet. I do not want any other type of service.
I love cable services but sometimes they go out and take a long time to come back on and the signal drops all the time.
We often have outages or the TV buffers due to the cable not being able to handle the load. Lately, we have been having more than usual outages.
I have not had any problems that were not fixed within hours. When I call, they can check the status and if there is an outage they have kept me posted as the repairs are made.
