How Powerful is Cox Internet?
As internet usage is so critical in this modern society, having a good connection and a fast internet at your home is something very vital. Cox Communications is among the largest telecommunications companies serving the United States with a fast internet connection to 18 states’ residences. But how effective and stable is their internet service, which serves as the platform for such activities, indeed? That sounds rather unfair; let’s look at the details.
Speeds
When it comes to internet speeds, the company has some pretty decent packages, at least in the case of Cox. This base internet package offers download speeds of 100 Mbps to the users. Their mid-tier package, on the other hand, gives users access to 300 Mbps downloads. For those who prefer internet speeds of up to gigabit, there is an even faster package by Cox offering downloads of up to 940 Mbps.
It is the result of Cox investing in and expanding its hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructure. Thus, by substituting the old copper lines for newer fiber optics integrated with coaxial cables, Cox can provide extremely high bandwidth to homes.
The speeds at which Cox claims its services operate also seem generally true based on third-party testing. The bandwidth utilization guarantee from Internet service providers is that customers can attain 80-90% of the download and upload speeds advertised throughout the day, including peak usage hours. This is particularly important for activities such as video streaming, online games, and working from home.
Reliability
However, it is equally important to have reliable connectivity and that is where the internet service needs to excel. Cox performs averagely well in terms of reliability and the up-time they offer to customers. Their networks are also designed to be resilient whereby if one connection becomes unavailable, another one is available to take its place. This gives customers continuity in the reception of service.
Cox states that their services are reliable with close to 99% availability in a given month. In most cases, the power supply is highly reliable but may be disrupted during adverse weather conditions. It also becomes apparent that occasional brief interruptions in the services are due to maintenance and upgrades to the networks. However, Cox is used to informing the customers on any plan they may have concerning the scheduled downtime for maintenance.
To ensure that some customers do not allow any interruption to their internet, Cox provides business-class internet services. All of these feature Service Level Agreements under which Service Providers promise a specific level of availability, usually 99.99%. It also has faster SRM and service restoration times with business packages compared to the other services.
Network Capacity
It has become more important than ever to have enough network bandwidth, as more and more home devices go online and consumption rises. Cox has been constantly modernizing their networks to guarantee that they have enough capacity to accommodate more customers’ demands without any issues of slowed network speed.
Their gigabit internet tier in particular offers the DOCSIS 3.1, current gateway technology, and standard. This makes it possible to deliver over 1 Gbps bandwidth to fiber-optic and coaxial connections offering connections to homes. This amount of bandwidth is not currently used by few if any existing customers. It doesn’t help with the current network usage but it does prepare the networks for the next 5-10 years and beyond.
Cox also uses bandwidth well during busy hours and does not restrict the use of bandwidth in the same manner that other ISPs do. They prioritize basic functions like video calling, video streaming, and web browsing to ensure that the experience on the device does not decline. Other heavy-use activities may also be struck by a marginal decrease in speed during peak hours. Notwithstanding, Cox's capacity is fairly resilient in most circumstances.
Latency
In this case, latency is relevant to real-time and hence applicable to online gaming, business video conferences and tools, and voice calls. Latency is the time it takes for data to go through this journey; from your device to the internet servers you are trying to connect to and back. Latency is the delay in the response of applications; the higher the number, the less responsive the applications will be.
Latency has been on the rise at Cox with most connections now having a latency of 10-25ms as the company continues to work to fix the problem. These are good numbers and they're comparable to other major Broadband Service providers. Reducing latency to below 20ms for the most of customers that were in question required upgrading the equipment and resolvers in customers’ networks.
There are probably some gamers who may still wish to have even lower latency than the specialized gaming routers can at times offer. However, for most applications, including video streaming, the level of latency in Cox networks is quite acceptable.
Price
Of course, the internet speeds, reliability, and performance would be of no use if the monthly prices were out of the reach of the majority of households. However, Cox does offer various packages, and they can be affordable for most prices that people can afford.
Their cheapest plan is the ‘Essential’ plan which costs $39.99 monthly and offers 100 Mbps. Their Classic package costs $49.99 monthly but still, offers speeds of up to 200 Mbps, while upgrading to their Ultimate Classic package lets you unleash gigabit downloading speeds at $99.99 monthly. The majority of the customers portray themselves to be more flexible and willing to go for the mid-range plans which cost between $59.99 and $79.99 to get better speed at reasonable prices.
Therefore, Cox has relatively affordable prices, which are comparable with or even slightly lower than those of other equal-speed packages offered by competitors such as Xfinity, Spectrum, AT&T, and CenturyLink. Combined with internet, TV, and home phone services can also attract fairly good bargains. However, to ensure that as many people as possible have access to its services, Cox also provides special internet packages to students, senior citizens, as well as those who are financially needy.
As with the performance and dependability established, compared to competitors, Cox delivers very good value over internet services and packages. However, it has to be noted that there are still many cases of families that cannot afford the costs even at low prices. However, in as much as the value for the money being charged at the offered speeds, then Cox does offer a cheap proposition.
Conclusion
The factors to consider when measuring the value of such an internet provider will be speed, dependability, bandwidth, delay, and cost. If all these characteristics are taken into consideration, then Cox Communications offers a comprehensive high-speed internet package to suit most modern digital homes as well as most small businesses.
The raw bandwidth available is pleasantly overwhelming with gigabit packages becoming standard nowadays. Speaking of availability, uptime and network redundancy are also suitable for reducing the number of interruptions. Latency and capacity remain to be optimized to keep it running at its best even during peak usage. And lastly, pricing remains relatively low for the kind of performance you get.
In Cox internet offerings, there are few complaints from users that one can consider as flaws for the vast market. Thus, only communication enthusiasts who are ready to endure sub-par speed to save a few bucks or who play games with a very low frames-per-second requirement will be dissatisfied with Cox. That being said, when it comes to almost any other home or small business needs Cox Internet is strong and stable. In the following years, as demand grows, anticipate Cox to continue to expand the strengths of their networks even more to become a highly-rated internet service provider in the United States.
Ready to upgrade your internet experience? Call us now at +1 844-349-7575 to explore the best Cox Internet plans for your needs!