Optimum vs. Viasat Internet Providers Compared

Good initial prices followed by price hikes

Cable internet is the chief type of connection that Optimum provides its customers. Because of improvements to cable internet technology, you can get gigabit download speeds from many cable internet companies like Optimum. You just won’t get the same upload speeds from cable as you will from an all-fiber connection [3]. Whether you get the usual cable service or all-fiber, you will get good prices from Optimum, and those prices will be locked for 2 years. Here’s an example. You’ll pay $40/month for Optimum’s first tier cable plan, which is 300 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload. That is a good price for these speeds. Even Optimum’s first-tier fiber plan is also priced at $40/month for symmetrical 300 Mbps speeds. 1 Gig speeds run around $80/month for the promotional period. In the areas where you can get 2 Gig or 5 Gig Optimum Fiber, you’ll pay $120-180/month for symmetrical speeds, which is still competitive with prices across the industry. The catch is that after those two years, standard prices will be higher. That may be why Optimum is seeing year-over-year declines in its cable customers [4]. The price hikes may be pushing people to other options at the end of their two-year promotion.

Viasat offers a variety of price points and speeds to fit your budget

Viasat offers much higher speeds than its longtime competitor, HughesNet. While HughesNet only offers download speeds up to 25 Mbps, Viasat offers download speeds up to 150 Mbps in select areas. For the first-tier Viasat internet plan at 12 Mbps download speed, you will pay an introductory price of about $50/month.. For the 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload plan, you will start with a $70/month charge. These Viasat internet plan prices are comparable to HughesNet prices and cheaper than Starlink prices. Viasat features many more plan options than HughesNet, and much higher allowances for monthly high-speed data. All Viasat plans come with unlimited standard data, so you don’t have to worry about overage charges. And where HughesNet will only grant you up to 200 GB of monthly high-speed data, Viasat has plans that go up to 500 GB/month. To give you a rough idea of how much data that is, you can watch about 500 hours of HD movie streaming with 500 GB. The highest data plans from both HughesNet and Viasat will cost you more, of course. The 200 GB plan from HughesNet is $150/month. The 500 GB plan from Viasat is $300/month. But as you can see from comparing those prices, Viasat’s top plan gives you more for your dollar. And if you just really need a lot of high-speed data, Viasat is the clear choice. Be aware that like HughesNet, Viasat requires a two-year contract. If you cancel early, you will pay an early termination fee. You can get a no-contract plan for a non-refundable upfront payment of $500. Viasat has also launched plans called “Liberty” plans, which have free, unlimited data from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. “Choice” plans are on the way with a slightly different pricing structure as well, deploying as the new satellite begins service. So Viasat customers will have no shortage of options. You can type in your zip code here at CompareInternet.com to see details of all the Viasat plans available to you. If you work from home, you have a great new option from Viasat. Viasat Office Hours is an optional service that allows you to use standard work-related applications from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time without consuming any of your High-Speed plan data. You will be able to use Google, Office 365, Adobe programs, Sharepoint, Zoom, MS Teams, and many other popular applications. Viasat Office Hours is currently available for an additional $40/month, and many employers may be willing to reimburse you for the plan given its exclusive business focus. Office Hours is a pricing offer unique to Viasat, and could be a game changer for remote workers.

Cable and fiber both provide fast download speeds, but cable's upload speeds are slower

With hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) technology, Optimum gives its cable customers gigabit download speeds but much slower upload speeds. That’s typical for cable internet service. Optimum is comparable to other major cable internet providers such as Spectrum and Xfinity, offering upload speeds at a maximum of around 35-50 Mbps. Optimum differs from the cable internet competition because it is also launching into the all-fiber internet market. Optimum’s current fiber internet customer base is small but has doubled in the last couple of years from around 100,000 to over 200,000 subscribers [4]. By 2025, Optimum plans to create over 6.5 million fiber passings [5]. Fiber internet’s most striking advantage over cable internet is that fiber offers symmetrical upload and download speeds. With Optimum’s fiber plans, customers get the same 300 Mbps download speed as with cable, but instead of cable’s 20 Mbps upload, they will get a full 300 upload speed from fiber. This is a game-changer for online gaming, videoconferencing, and large homes with multiple devices. When Altice merged Suddenlink under the Optimum brand, the company had two distinct “footprints” left from where the old Optimum and Suddenlink coverage had existed. Suddenlink’s coverage area had been primarily in the South and West. Optimum was strong in the Northeast, and particularly in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Now, the fiber buildout is fastest in that tristate area [1]. Your chances of getting fiber internet from Optimum in the next year or two will be better if you live in the tri-state area.

Viasat delivers fast, reliable internet with ever-improving technology

Viasat recently launched the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite, which will increase bandwidth and speed for Viasat customers [4]. The Viasat fleet will continue to grow in 2023 and 2024, keeping Viasat at the head of the industry in geosynchronous satellite technology. You’ll get a solid, reliable internet connection from Viasat. Keep in mind that the military uses satellite internet for their operations. That’s because satellite internet survives in circumstances when cable or fiber internet might be out for days or weeks. Satellite internet can’t be harmed by an earthly accident, a weather catastrophe, or an attack on wired infrastructure. So in that sense, satellite internet is more reliable than wired internet. That’s why Viasat offers special “backup internet” plans for small businesses to minimize service disruption from outages. It’s true that heavy rain or snow can sometimes cause “rain fade,” which is a weakening or interruption in the satellite internet signal. But rain fade is only temporary. The one caveat about your Viasat internet speed is that your maximum speed will vary depending on where you live. Your plan options can vary from 12 Mbps to 150 Mbps download speed. That’s a wide range, but your speed may be better than DSL in many instances. Upload speeds from Viasat will remain consistent for all plans at about 3 Mbps.

No equipment rental fees, free installation with Optimum plans

Optimum will provide your modem/router as part of your monthly plan fee, with no extra rental charge. If you have a compatible cable plan, you may even get a Wi-Fi 6 router, which will give you higher speeds for multiple devices than Wi-Fi 5. Fiber internet plans from Optimum will often include the Wi-Fi 6 gateway as well. If you would rather use your own modem and router, Optimum will allow it. Just be sure to check for compatibility with their specs. Standard installation is free with Optimum plans.

Viasat equipment: buy upfront or take option of monthly rental fee

If you want to buy your Viasat dish and modem/router upfront, it will cost you $299. That will save you some money if you don’t have to pay the monthly rental fee of $13 for two years. For customers whose credit scores qualify, installation is free. But all others will pay a $100 installation fee.

Optimum customer satisfaction: the big question mark

With so many seemingly good points to its service and pricing, why has Optimum’s customer satisfaction scored significantly below average according to J.D. Power? [6] A random sampling of online user reviews seems to indicate two major complaints. The first is outages and failure of technical response. The second is a more general dissatisfaction with the phone system, being transferred around to different departments, and getting contradictory responses from different phone reps when trying to solve billing issues. Because this is a fairly even distribution of complaints, it’s likely that Optimum is just not quick enough in responding to customer concerns, whether they be technical or billing-related. We can’t know the reason for this dysfunction. Often, these kinds of responsiveness issues happen when companies are understaffed or have high staff turnover in their customer service. But until Optimum gets better ratings, we’re going to have to give them only 3 stars for customer satisfaction.  

Viasat’s customer satisfaction average, but 24/7 customer support is strong

On many popular online review sites, Viasat tends to score slightly above average for customer satisfaction. When customers are not satisfied, their comments are often related to the innate differences of satellite technology. It’s true that satellite speeds cannot approach the speeds of cable or fiber. That’s why it’s not too surprising that Viasat has some customers online who are not happy that their speeds are not fast enough. But it’s hard to get a more objective read on overall customer satisfaction, because Viasat does not appear in the J.D. Power 2022 Survey of Residential Internet Service Customer Satisfaction. Viasat does provide extensive online and phone support, with live reps available 24/7 to help with any issues. The online resource library is clear and on target with common types of information that customers might need. Viasat also has a convenient online portal called My Viasat to manage any aspect of your service. My Viasat also works through an app that you can download on your smartphone. The EasyCare service may also be worth the $9/month you will pay to have all your service calls covered ($95), a dish relocation covered ($200), and premium customer support with the dedicated EasyCare line.