Windstream vs. Metronet Internet Providers Compared

Pricing varies widely for internet plans from Kinetic by Windstream

Kinetic by Windstream currently has about 1.2 million customers in 18 states [2]. Kinetic’s prices vary a great deal by location across this wide coverage area. In some areas, you will get their DSL for a promotional price of $30/month for a year, which is much less expensive than most DSL plans. But at the end of the first year, the price will revert to a standard fee of $55-85/month. And in many locations, the starting rate will be $60/month instead for the first year. Fiber prices also vary along with speeds. The one guarantee is that you’ll get more speed for your dollar with fiber. But mostly, Kinetic’s prices are in line with industry averages. Your standard Kinetic rates for fiber will vary from $65-200 for speeds from 300-2000 Mbps. Kinetic’s 1 Gig starts at a $70/month promotional rate for a year, then goes to $95/month. These rates are about average industry rates for fiber internet at the speeds delivered. On the bright side, Kinetic does not set data caps or require you to sign annual contracts for internet plans. Kinetic by Windstream also participates in the Affordable Connectivity Program from the FCC. This federal program offers payment assistance of up to $30/month for qualifying lower-income households. If you live on qualifying tribal lands, you may be eligible for an assistance payment up to $75/month.

Metronet’s prices start good and stay fair, but there’s a hidden fee

Metronet offers very attractive promotional pricing on the low end of industry rates. Their first-tier plan is only $40/month for the first year, a good 20% lower than some competitors. True, the plan’s speed is slower at 100 Mbps than some rival plans. But with fiber’s symmetrical download and upload speeds, you’re already going to have a lot more speed even at 100 Mbps than you’ll get from many cable or DSL providers. Two or three other national fiber internet providers offer promotional prices this good. The difference is that Metronet will not raise its prices dramatically when the first year is over. Metronet’s prices will rise only about $10/month at the 12-month mark. For the entry-level plan, $50 will remain the standard price from that point on. For two of Metronet’s higher-speed plans, you’ll see bigger price hikes at the 2-year point, averaging $20-30 over your original promotional rate. But the 2 Gig plan will only go from $110 to $120 after two years. But let’s cut to the chase on Metronet pricing. Even for the two mid-speed plans that undergo larger price hikes after the 2-year point, the prices are still no higher than industry averages. So, no matter which Metronet plan you pick, you’ll seemingly get a great deal to begin with, and then a good deal. There’s just one catch. Unlike many of the other ISPs, Metronet does not offer free tech support. In order to get tech support, you will have to pay $12/month for their program called TechAssure. The fee is not optional. The positive is that all of your technical needs will be taken care of. You will get full service, including any house calls or equipment repair. The negative? Adding $12 to your monthly bill wipes out a lot of the benefit from Metronet’s low promotional and standard pricing. In Metronet’s favor, the tech support fee will be the only unusual fee on your monthly bill. Because Metronet has no data caps or contracts, you won’t get any surprise overage charges or an early termination fee if you have to cancel your service.

Windstream unveils new 8-Gig access to claim largest 8-Gig provider title

Windstream recently announced that as of July 2023, the company will have 8-Gig internet speeds available to 400,000 households across their 18-state coverage area [1]. 8-Gig internet speeds are at the fastest end of residential internet speeds, and with this achievement, Windstream is making its bid to win some of the internet speed wars. The question is who exactly needs 8 Gigs of symmetrical internet speed. At the moment, 8 Gigs is excessive speed for most residential internet users. 1 Gig will more than supply all the bandwidth that most homes need. Even very large households with multiple devices all streaming or gaming simultaneously don’t usually need more than 1 Gig, thanks to the symmetrical speeds of fiber internet. Even half of 1 Gig (500 Mbps) is usually capable of supporting a five- or six-person home and all the devices in it. For now, then, 8 Gigs may not be a speed that gets a lot of takers. But in the future, as virtual reality (VR) and assisted reality (AR) become more common, that massive bandwidth may be more useful. DSL performance will vary as it always does by location. But Kinetic’s DSL speeds reach the FCC’s standard for high-speed internet (25 Mbps/3 Mbps) for over 85% of its customers [3]. That speed is better than the average speed of broadband for DSL providers.

It’s all-fiber for the win with Metronet

There’s no getting past the fact that an all-fiber connection will give you much more speed and reliability than a cable or DSL internet connection. One of the great advantages of Metronet is that they deliver all-fiber service, every time. The fiber will run from their main network to the wall of your home. You will get symmetrical speeds, so your download and upload speeds will be the same. For any activities involving streaming, real-time gaming, and large file uploads, fiber is unbeatable. Fiber offers even more speed and bandwidth for the future. As technology continues to advance with developments such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), we will begin to need the kind of bandwidth that only fiber offers. Some fiber providers are already beginning to provide 8 Gigs and 10 gigs for residential customers. Though Metronet still tops out at 5 Gigs, their all-fiber connection will be able to meet your future speed needs. Fiber has some other benefits too. Fiber connections don’t weaken or slow in bad weather the way satellite or fixed-wireless connections do. And fiber connections are much harder to hack into or tap than a copper cable.

Equipment fee is optional, but Kinetic activation fee is required

Kinetic charges about $10 a month to rent a Kinetic gateway (modem/router combo). You can also use your own modem/router. If you buy your own, though, you will need to make sure it is compatible. ISPs also do not provide tech support for customers’ personal modems and routers. Kinetic also offers a Wi-Fi management tool for their own gateway that will allow you to change your settings without all the hassle of logging in to your router online. The activation fee is $60 most of the time when you have to pay it. However, many times, you will get a credit for online orders or other promotions that will offset the fee. The website’s small print reveals that for some DSL “extended installations,” you may need to pay a $750 advance fee to proceed with the extended copper line burial. We assume this is not common. While you might choose to pay that high fee in some cases to get wired internet service, you certainly would have to consider your other options as well.

No equipment rental fees, low-cost installation with Metronet plans

For all plans up to 2 Gigs, Metronet will provide you with an eero wireless router at no charge [3]. If you are lucky enough to be able to get a 3-5 Gig plan, you will have to provide your own router to handle that level of speed. Metronet suggests a 10GB WAN/LAN compatible router such as the TP Link Archer AXE3000 [4]. Standard installation will only cost you $25 when you order a Metronet fiber internet plan. While this isn’t as good as free installation, it’s a lot cheaper than the usual $99 fee you’ll pay for installation from many ISPs.

Kinetic by Windstream improves its customer experience

Kinetic scored just slightly lower than average for customer satisfaction on the 2022 J.D. Power Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study [4]. But the good news is that in 2022, Kinetic’s score absolutely soared compared to its performance in the previous two years of the survey. Kinetic’s 2022 score was 720, about 40 points above its 2020 and 2021 results [5]. Kinetic now ranks third in the South, behind only AT&T and Xfinity. This is great news for customers. It’s possible that some of this meteoric rise might be explained by fiber buildout. In general, fiber and cable providers rank highest in customer satisfaction, DSL follows, and satellite and fixed wireless service bring up the rear. So, it’s not completely surprising that Kinetic by Windstream would rise rapidly in the ratings as more of their customers begin to use fiber instead of DSL.

Metronet customers are usually happy with their internet service

Metronet is another ISP that is too small to qualify for major national surveys of customer satisfaction. That means that estimating customer satisfaction is more an art than an exact science – or at least more qualitative than quantitative. The good news is that on the whole, online user reviews for Metronet are much more positive than for ISP competitors who offer cable or DSL service. You don’t see some of the angry rants online about Metronet that you will unfortunately see for cable internet and DSL internet. That’s not to say that cable and DSL providers don’t frequently provide good service, because they do. It’s just statistically more likely that you will see customer rants thrown in the mix. That’s the advantage of all-fiber internet that Metronet is reaping. Again and again, companies that move toward fiber service seem to have happier customers because the networks are newer and the technology is more reliable [5]. And for that reason, we’re going to award 4 stars to Metronet’s customer satisfaction.