Windstream vs. Optimum 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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.