CenturyLink vs. WOW Internet Providers Compared

CenturyLink DSL charges high prices for widely varying speeds

DSL is not one of the more consumer-friendly internet technologies on the market. Usually, DSL customers sign up for their plans because there is no cable or fiber internet in their areas. And that can be a valid choice if DSL will give you better performance than satellite internet, though you have to evaluate that on a case-by-case basis. DSL deals are what you have to take if there’s no better option in town. Many times, DSL plans are good options for customers in rural areas. CenturyLink plans are no exception to the general qualities of DSL. You will generally pay $50 for your DSL package, whether you get 10 Mbps download speed or whether you are lucky enough to get 100 Mbps download speed (very unusual for DSL and true for only 28% of CenturyLink DSL customers) [2]. In better news, CenturyLink’s DSL plans are free of data caps. So, despite the fact that CenturyLink’s DSL prices are high, at least you won’t have unexpected data overage charges.

WOW’s prices are so low they’ll WOW you

If there’s any way that WOW! can claim to have truly earned its name, it’s with low pricing. The first-tier plan will give you 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speed for only $20 a month, and that price lasts a full year. Sure, it’s not superfast speed, but 100/10 is as good as most first-tier cable internet plans. And $20/month is almost unheard of. After one year, your cost will jump to $40/month, but that’s still on the very low end of cable ISP pricing. Price hikes get lower as your plan gets faster. For example, you can get the mid-range plan at 500 Mbps download/50 Mbps upload speed for only $55/month. The shocker? There is no price hike at all. That is rock-bottom pricing for a half-Gig plan with pretty good upload speed by cable standards. It’s certainly enough speed to allow most households to do gaming and streaming simultaneously on multiple devices. A full 1000 Mbps or 1 Gig download from WOW! will run you $65 for the promotional period and $75 after the first year. That’s considerably cheaper than several other major cable providers’ 1 Gig plans, and offers the 50 Mbps upload speed that tends to be the max for cable internet. In July 2022, WOW! launched a 1.2 Gig plan as their fastest option [3]. This is an unusual speed tier given that the company already had a 1 Gig plan, and that the upload speeds for both plans are the same at 50 Mbps. But there are some advantages for the extra $20/month. The 1.2 Gig plan is the only WOW! Plan that doesn’t charge an equipment fee and doesn’t have data caps. Those are pretty good perks that probably justify the extra $20. But you did hear that correctly: WOW!’s lower-speed plans do have a couple of drawbacks that may increase their otherwise excellent prices. Those drawbacks are data caps and a $14/month modem rental fee. Fortunately, the equipment rental fee is optional, meaning that you can skip it if you provide your own modem/router instead. And the data caps are fairly high for the lowest-tier plans (1.5 TB/month) and very high for the 500 Mbps (2.5 TB) and 1 Gig (3 TB) plans. The high caps for the fastest plans make it very unlikely that you will exceed your data caps. If you do exceed them, you will get a maximum overage charge of $50/month. So, just don’t go crazy and have 40 gamers play at your house for a month. The vast majority of households will not ever approach the limits of a 2.5 TB data cap.

“But it was so fast in the ‘90s!” DSL shows its age in many locations

CenturyLink DSL uses one of the oldest internet technologies: copper cables originally designed as telephone wire. In some things, age is good. Age brings wisdom to people, depth to a wine, and richness to cheese. But in internet technology, age is usually a negative, and especially when it comes to internet speed. Only 65% of CenturyLink’s DSL achieves speeds over 25 Mbps, or what the FCC calls “high-speed” internet.  85% of the CenturyLink DSL network is above 10 Mbps. That means a good 15% of CenturyLink’s DSL customers have very, very slow connections below 10 Mbps [3]. If DSL gives you under 10 Mbps download speed and only 1 Mbps upload speed, you won’t be able to play real-time games online with any kind of reliability. You may also experience glitching if multiple people stream or videoconference at the same time. To be fair, some DSL connections will give you faster speeds such as the 28% of customers who will get 100 Mbps download, and  that will considerably improve your performance. But if you are considering ordering CenturyLink DSL, make sure you know what your other options are. You can test your actual speed here to see what kind of performance your current internet connection is giving you.

WOW! cable is a fast, strong choice with gigabit download speeds but slower upload speeds

Internet performance from WOW! matches the stats of the largest cable providers in the nation such as Spectrum and Infinity. You will get fast speeds from WOW!’s high-end plans that will support streaming and gaming with multiple devices. The chief disadvantage of cable internet is that upload speeds are so slow compared to the symmetrical speeds of fiber internet. If you want to do large uploads or real-time gaming on 10 devices at once in your home, there’s no question that you’ll be better off with fiber’s lightning-fast uploads. But for most households with average internet usage, a fast cable plan like WOW! internet will be good enough.

Option to use your own modem/router or self-install your connection

With the CenturyLink DSL plan, there’s a $15 a month modem/router rental fee, which is on the high end of equipment fees. You can avoid the modem/router fee by buying your own. And that might not be a bad plan, given that you will make up the price of a typical modem/router in a year or less. You may have to pay for a professional installation, which is usually a one-time fee of $99. Fortunately, in many places you may also have the option to self-install for $15. It depends whether there is still a working CenturyLink DSL connection in your home.

Equipment rental fees are optional, self-installation is free for WOW!

All WOW! plans come with a free self-installation kit. If for any reason you’re not comfortable with self-installation, you can get pro installation for $50. Though most plans will allow you to rent a modem/router from WOW! for $14/month, you also have the option to supply your own equipment. This choice may be better for your budget if you plan to have service for more than a year. Just make sure you check with WOW! to be sure your router has compatible specs.

CenturyLink runs below average in some satisfaction rankings

CenturyLink’s customer satisfaction rankings vary widely by region on the J.D. Power survey [3]. In the North Central region, CenturyLink ranks above average. In the West, CenturyLink ranks slightly below average, and in the South, CenturyLink is second from last in customer satisfaction. The North Central and West regions where CenturyLink/Quantum Fiber rank higher are also the regions in which Quantum Fiber provides most of its fiber access. The South only includes one state with fiber internet coverage, which means most of that low customer satisfaction rating is based on CenturyLink’s DSL. The American Customer Satisfaction Index confirms that split in results by dividing “CenturyLink” specifically into fiber and DSL. Fiber ranks 16 points higher than the DSL service [4]. For CenturyLink and Quantum Fiber, these customer satisfaction rankings tell the story clearly. CenturyLink’s DSL service is not as likely to please you. However, be aware that there is a certain amount of online cross-marketing between the two companies. So, if CenturyLink says they are able to sell you “fiber” as they seem to imply on their homepage, all that means is that they’re going to send you to a Quantum Fiber plan if your address has fiber availability.

WOW! offers the same customer support amenities as the largest national ISPs [4]. You will get an online portal to allow you to manage your account. Telephone help is available 24/7. Online chat is available every day between 7:00 AM and 11:45 PM EST. In the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study, WOW! outperformed much larger ISPs such as Cox [5]. That strong performance indicates WOW! customers are pretty happy with their service.