It’s time to shop for internet service. If you’re among the thousands of Americans who hate their internet service providers, you’re probably not thrilled over the prospect of sifting through ISP promotional offers for hours. It can be tempting to just buy whatever internet plan is convenient or that your friends and neighbors are using.
And while, yes, we’re sorely limited in our internet options depending on where we live, you’ll also have to live every day with the internet plan you pick. If it’s too slow, you’ll be picking up the phone in a few months to call customer service again. If you’re getting lured into a plan with hidden fees and promo pricing, you might find your bill doubling after a year or a few months have passed.
I’ve read hours of internet service plan offerings and customer service reviews about those offerings. To ensure you’re getting a decent internet deal that saves you money and comes with speeds that can keep up with your internet usage, here are the top 10 mistakes to avoid as an internet shopper.
1. You’re not sure how much internet speed you need
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when purchasing an internet service is to buy too much or too little. Internet is already expensive once you factor in the equipment fees and hidden fees (more on those later). Don’t overpay for internet speeds that you just won’t use. And don’t settle for a low tier only to go crawling back to customer support for an upgrade to a higher tier.
The easiest way to avoid strife is to take stock of how much internet speed your household is actually using before you begin shopping for a new plan. To start, count the number of gadgets and smart home devices in your home. Smart devices can be sneaky bandwidth hogs often overlooked when considering internet usage. If you have more than 10 devices online concurrently during a typical day, with internet usage involving more than just browsing the web, a good rule of thumb is to stick to speeds of 500 megabits per second or higher.
If you only have one or two devices on during the day and only one or two internet users working remotely, browsing the web, streaming or gaming at a time, you should be safe with 150 to 300Mbps. Since I work remotely and typically only use two devices simultaneously, AT&T Fiber’s cheapest 300Mbps tier works just fine for me.
If you’ve experienced excessive lag, buffering and Wi-Fi issues with your current tier, it might be time to size up. Your Wi-Fi setup could be to blame for your internet connectivity issues, so run down the list of possible solutions before upgrading.
2. You haven’t considered the internet connection type
Did you know there’s more than one type of internet connection? You may have multiple internet connection types at your address; evaluate them all instead of opting for whatever is most convenient.
Fiber internet, typically considered the gold standard of broadband, can deliver symmetrical upload and download speeds — a feat no other internet connection type can boast of yet. You may be eligible for fiber internet at an address previously only serviceable for cable, so it’s worth asking your landlord or calling a fiber provider to see if you can get fiber.
Since fiber internet is much less available than cable internet, you’re much more likely to be serviceable for cable instead of fiber. Cable is a decent second-best option, with speeds that can reach multi-gig levels (though upload speeds remain sorely lacking).
If you can’t get either fiber or cable, consider 5G internet. Wireless internet is becoming increasingly popular, and Verizon and T-Mobile have dominated the space in recent years. Verizon’s 5G home internet plans claim to offer speeds up to 1,000Mbps and T-Mobile just boosted its speeds and added a new speed tier.
With nearly 100% availability, satellite internet is a safe bet for rural communities or those on the go. But unless you don’t have another option, consider satellite and DSL internet a last resort.
3. You’re overly tempted by promotional pricing and flashy advertising
Xfinity’s FCC-mandated broadband nutrition label displays the “post-introductory price” after one year of service: the monthly cost jumps from $55 to $89.
Screenshot by Cierra Noffke/CNETInternet providers are profit-motivated, first. If you stumble upon a cheap internet plan or deal that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Plus, if you decide to call before you do some research, your customer service representative will probably try to talk you into either upgrading to a faster (more expensive) plan or adding some services you simply don’t need.
Pricing traps and promotional bait are popular among ISPs. Always read the fine print — especially before you call. If you’re not careful, you could be roped into a two-year contract, with your bill increasing exponentially in the next year. Cable providers Xfinity, Astound and Spectrum are notorious for price increases after a promotional period.
If you closely examine the FCC-mandated broadband nutrition labels, you can see what your monthly bill will look like after the promo period ends.
4. You’re not reading the fine print to look for contracts, hidden fees or data caps
Screenshot of Sparklight’s broadband nutrition labels across three plans. Notice how Sparklight describes the data included with each plan as “Unlimited.” If you read the fine print, you’ll find it actually enforces a soft cap of 5TB.
Screenshot/CNETOK, I know it’s boring and arguably the worst part about picking a good internet plan, but reading through the terms of service is the best way to figure out what the internet plan you’re looking at actually entails.
Consult your ISP’s broadband nutrition labels for basic facts and read their full terms of service for any follow-up issues you uncover. If you still have outstanding questions, write them down and make sure you ask them when you call.
First, make sure you’re not signing up for a contract unless you have no other option. Contracts require you to stick with an internet service for the entire term. If you decide your internet plan isn’t working for you halfway through, you’ll either suffer for the next six months or pay a hefty termination fee.
Next, make sure you’re checking for data caps. The broadband nutrition label should indicate any data caps, but sometimes, ISPs won’t use the broadband labels to clearly state whether they’re enforcing a data cap (looking at you, Sparklight), so you’ll have to read through the fine print. Also, sometimes ISPs enforce “soft caps” or use “priority data,” which means your internet speeds will be throttled once you max out your allotted data.
Lastly, are there any hidden fees or junk fees you should worry about? That promotional price of $30 a year for 150Mbps may seem attractive initially, but if your provider leases equipment for an additional $15 and enforces a maintenance fee of $12 monthly, you’re looking at $57 monthly.
In some cases, you may be able to call and negotiate with your ISP to waive a few of those fees. If you’re trying to cut back on initial internet costs, consider installing your internet yourself.
5. You’re not looking at the cost per Mbps
The cost per Mbps is a great way to gauge how good of a deal your internet plan is. Internet prices fluctuate depending on the internet connection type, regional pricing or related market issues. The cost per Mbps is the ratio between the monthly rate (excluding taxes and extra fees) and the advertised speeds — or the price you’re paying for 1Mbps of speed.
You can find the cost per Mbps by dividing the monthly rate by the plan’s max speed. A good rule of thumb is to stick to a cost per Mbps between 10 and 25 cents or lower — if you can. Anything lower than 10 cents per Mbps is usually a good deal.
I’ll caution that the high speeds of fiber internet plans can make using the cost per Mbps approach confusing. For example, AT&T’s fastest tier of 5,000Mbps costs $245 a month. That’s a hefty price for a lot of speed. The cost per Mbps of that plan comes out to 5 cents, which is pretty good by broadband standards but an unrealistic monthly rate for home internet.
If you’re thinking of picking a plan with promotional pricing, compare the cost per Mbps for both the introductory and post-introductory rates. Spectrum’s $50 for 500Mbps plan comes out to a decent 10 cents per Mbps, but if you stick with that plan for a year, your monthly rate will jump to $80, which is a much higher 16 cents per Mbps. In that case, consider shopping around after your promo period ends.
6. You’re not comparing internet plans or reading customer reviews
I know, I know, I’ve already asked you to read the terms of service for one ISP, and now I’m asking you to cross-analyze the offerings from multiple ISPs. It’s tedious work, but the only way to ensure you’re getting the best deal is to carefully read and compare the terms of service of all the ISPs in your area. Now that you know what to look for, you can compare the cost per Mbps and terms of service across different ISP plans. If you’re one of the lucky few who can choose between more than one or two decent internet providers, you should choose carefully.
The terms of service will give you a good sense of what to expect from your internet plan, but those words are written from an ISP perspective. You should always take customer reviews with a grain of salt, but they’re usually an honest portrayal of how those service terms actually play out. For example, if people express consistent confusion about price hikes, consider that a red flag about promotional pricing traps. You can turn to resources like Reddit for city-specific threads about ISPs or the Better Business Bureau for a closer look at what people didn’t like about their service.
7. You’re not worried about tech support
We usually don’t think about our internet until something starts going wrong. Like most internet shoppers, you’re probably not planning for connectivity issues, and if you pick a good ISP and speed, hopefully, you won’t have to deal with those issues. But internet connectivity problems are inevitable, whether it’s a problem with your equipment, your Wi-Fi setup, outages your provider is experiencing or more significant problems beyond your control.
If you can choose between a good ISP without free tech support and a good ISP with free tech support, opt for the support. You’ll never know when you’ll have to make a phone call to troubleshoot your connection or your equipment.
8. You haven’t considered buying your own router
Before I started writing about home internet, I never considered my router, and I couldn’t tell you the difference between a modem and a router. But now I know that it can save you money to buy your equipment upfront instead of paying an extra $10 to your ISP every month. Most routers cost $200 or less, which will pay for itself in just over a year.
Plus, you won’t have to worry about racing to return your equipment when your plan ends, and there’s a chance your router can offer better performance than the one your ISP offers. CNET’s Joe Supan saved nearly $1,000 by buying his own router instead of renting from Xfinity, and he noticed improved upload speeds after doing so.
Just note that if you buy your own router, you likely won’t be eligible for tech assistance from your ISP anymore, and they may even try to blame your internet connectivity issues on your router. Most router manufacturers — notably TP-Link, Netgear, and Linksys — offer their own customer service support anyway.
9. You’re not looking at mobile bundle discounts
The best home internet discounts typically come from bundling with your ISP’s mobile service. Switching over your mobile service provider can be a hassle if you don’t already get service from the same company, but you could save as much as $35 each month on internet by doing so. Astound and Mediacom offer some of the best mobile discount opportunities, but you may have other options, too.
10. You don’t care where your ISP installs your new router
Last but not least. After you’ve done your research and committed to a plan, you’ll have to pick a date for installation. Most people trust that the technicians who install their equipment will pick the best place in the house, but that’s not always the case.
Wi-Fi works best with an optimized setup. If you can place your router/modem in a central spot in the house, closest to where you’re working or where your most used TV is located, work with your technician to make that happen. You can always invest in some Wi-Fi extenders or a mesh network if you think the connectivity will be an issue but don’t assume your technician knows what’s best. After all, this is your internet plan, and you’ll be using it every day.