Cox speed vs competition vs cost

What is your monthly bandwidth limit for AT&T? How about your monthly limit for COX? How about latency between the two?

I have a hunch you'll find latency is generally lower with COX (not always but generally) and that COX gives you significantly more data to use than AT&T. For a slightly more fair comparison. Compare what AT&T would cost if you used it exclusively for the month to COX; you would likely pay overage fees to AT&T and be well into the hundreds of dollars. If you only use the 5GB or whatever $30/month gets you with AT&T then get a wireless hotspot device from AT&T and switch as it's the better deal for you.

Currently COX has a virtual monopoly in the areas they cover and as such have gotten content with their offerings. As better offerings start to enter specific areas cox ups their offerings to compete; however why would you offer more and potentially have to buy new equipment if the people using the equipment don't have access to anything better? You wouldn't, because you are looking to make the owners as much money as possible. COX is in the business of making money, not of making and keeping relationships. The plus side for them, short term increased profits. The down side, increased risk of a mass exodus when decent competition does enter their sales territories.

Hope this helps shed some light,

Divilspawn

AT&T account is $30/month (29.99), unlimited data, 30mbits+/11mbits+ (Wireless via cell towers)

Cox account is $65/month (64.99), unlimited data, 20mbits/2mbits (Fiber to the node, coax to the house)

Latency is a close call but yes AT&tTavg's a tad higher. Both parties avg below 100. Cox beats AT&T around -20 or better. Cox leads on latency but AT&T isn't that far behind. 

Now with the roll-out of Windows 8 on so many things, even more electronics are pushing for smooth video communications. At work, mobile and more....we have such great video communication experiences. At home though, jittery because the upload (although sometimes the call coming in is smooth as long as they aren't calling behind cox...it's just your jittery to them). 

I understand cox seeks profits, and I understand through their current strategy it only helps them sort term; but if they want to be the future leader as well, they need to cater to their customers just as heavily as their investors since as the source of their profit...we are investors all the same. 

Note to Cox: Prove to us Cox that you are the dominating member of the party of competitors. Don't even give competition a reason to pick up customers. Or do you prefer to make the extra money not by growing rapidly but instead by making a quick profit, cutting costs and shipping jobs? Don't be what America has grown to hate and will soon uprise against. Else you will find yourself next to Hostess at the unemployment line.

I have been with Cox for many many years. I'd hate to see them fall behind now. 

Also, I recently just heard (given, at this point it is simply rumors) that cox is planning a small upgrade to the speeds soon. However, with that upgrade they plan to also increase the price. That would be a bad move. In a pressured economy with everyone worried about taxes increasing and the other issues weighing around the corner, Cox shouldn't ask for more when they are already pushing it with the prices they are charging now by charging too much. I want an upgrade as I want to see them catch up with technology and the rest of the states. However, if they rip me off any further than they already are, that will be the end to all my other services as I will cancel everything else. I can learn to live without TV in that case. There are so many alternatives now. On top of that, I will vote to remove Cox from our office, which I guarantee such a vote wouldn't be challenged. 

Again though, as of now I only know the information to be rumors. All I can do is hope that the greed hasn't polluted their heads any further. 

Just got the confirmation that Cox is raising prices on the 15th. As if the price of "too much" wasn't enough as it is. I'm definitely dropping TV for cox. I'm out....and as soon as I find a competitive offer for internet, I am out of that as well. 

Also, no knowledge of a speed increase ....just a price hike. I'll pay no more than $5 more for internet...but for that $5 I want to see more than double the connect. I have had enough of getting ripped off. 

It's official. The prices have been raised. Given only by 3-4 dollars (as far as I can see at the moment), but in exchange they have lost more. It's time someone does something about it. So far I've canceled TV at home as well as my parents house (they had no problem jumping on board). My brother canceled TV as well with Cox as well as two friends who canceled their TV as well. TV has also been canceled at the office as well as plans to move connectivity to Cox. More people are talking about canceling TV but I have no updates on them at the moment so I don't know yet if they went through with it. I do have one other specific friend who just purchased a home and immediately threw up an antenna because they didn't want to deal with it (they have Cox at their old place). They already gave up on Cox before hand though as it was a few months ago.

Cox really needs to clean up and look toward the future. Look at becoming an affordable future technology and not an over-priced tech of the past. 

I really hate to stick up for Cox, since they've been so dang negligent lately (multiple email failures, loss of internet for hours on end, etc).

However, that said, let me just warn you to recheck your "limits" for at&t.    With at&t, "unlimited" does not mean "infinite".   Actually, it doesn't even mean "a lot of data".   Your usage will be throttled if you exceed their arbitrary estimates of what they consider "reasonable".   At this moment, I believe those monthly limits are 3G of data on a 3G smartphone, and 5GB on an iPhone 5.  I also believe that several months ago, at&t was throttling once 2GB of data was transferred.

Before you pull the plug on Cox, I'd advise verifying these limits with at&t.    It sounds to me as if you expect "unlimited" to be defined as "there are no limits", and unfortunately to the best of my knowledge, that is simply not the case.

Good luck!

I've already pointed out that I have stress tested AT&T's cap. I haven't been able to break it yet. Possibly because I'm grandfathered into a true unlimited plan and not one of those new shady deals. I have no plans on switching to AT&T as my main provider. I was using that as an example to show there is competition, they are growing faster (in some cases...100+mbit/s and same price or cheaper) and even my cellphone is faster than Cox (and I don't have to pay extra for "premier speeds" to have that). Cox is behind, you have to pay a lot more for a fancier account that's...still behind, and they are over-priced. That's the debate.

If anything my speeds have gotten a little slower. When they first upgrades a few years back to 20mbits (30 with speedboost or whatever), I was getting initial spikes of up to 98mbit/s with the boost for 2-3 seconds, come down to about 30-32 quickly and after about a minute it typically came down to the 20's. Now with boost it does't clear 27 and then fall after a minute or so to about 17-19. Now the site says "up to 25mbit/s with boost"). So they even admit it's gotten slower. Yet....they still continue to charge more. 

I don't like the idea of a data allowance or data cap on Cox for that matter on something that use to be Unlimited, I too think I may pull the plug on Cox Internet as it's way over priced and I don't think they really offer enough speed packages or are budget friendly. In the end Cox isn't who ends up making the big money it's content providers like Disney, Sony, Etc these company's I just mentioned as content providers continually keep asking for more money for the same content and cox either has to agree and raise prices or drop the content think about it who really gains the most it's content providers whether it's TV, or Internet and Cox has to turn a profit as well but Cox should be more reasonable in their prices to reflect as I said budget friendly packages for those who don't make a lot of money.

Well, we have all compared our speeds at dslreports.com going back a few years and have all agreed that back in 2011 we were all getting much faster speeds due to "boost" than we are today with the new upgrades (+ boost). For premier, with boost, we are all getting around 60 something mbps with and avg speed drop down to about 40. Going back to 2011, we boosted as far as 90-140mbps...given we dropped to 20 after boost. So two years ago we had better bursts than we have today as it's only been capped since then, showing how well they specialize at taking a lot and giving back just a little and calling it an upgrade. I feel like they are assume the general public have the brain power of a small child.

Because of this, starting this year I have been lobbying companies to increase their interest in expanding to the Las Vegas community to offer faster service at a better price. I've been getting mixed results, but within those mixed exist major companies with a lot of features who do show interest in competing. So we need more people to rise up and write, call and email these companies (first researching online the proper names to contact to avoid the chain of communication chaos) so they know Vegas welcomes the idea of a fair competitive system. So far a lot of people are jumping on board. I'm impressed.

I concur - I am starting to look elsewhere because now I'm paying 55.99 a month for only internet, which is not much fast than when I was paying 49.99 or even 53.99 a month.  I'm just using the basic internet and wish the bills did not go up each year; wish there was a locked in price at least.  If I knew I would be paying 55.99 set and not going up again next year, then I'd be fine - or at least cox could give an explanation on why each year the bill goes up, then I might change my mind on switching to another company.

They do give you a reason. They charge you extra each time so that they can give you an "itsy bitsy" (ya I just said that ^^) upgrade. Hence...they are milking you, and the rest of us for whatever they can, Mostly because not enough people stand up to them and say "NO!"

It's a lot like problems children have at school with bullies. They keep pestering and pestering and pestering these poor kids until the kid finally stands up to them and says enough! Course...that usually involves the bully getting knocked out by the kid as well, but I think the point is made :)