Cox vs. CenturyLink
These two genuinely overlap in several large metros, which makes this one of the few CenturyLink comparisons you will actually have to make.
Cox cable is the stronger download performer and reaches far more addresses in the metros where both operate. CenturyLink wins where it has built fiber, on uploads and on flat pricing. If CenturyLink only offers DSL at your address, Cox is the clear pick.
Where these two actually meet
Unlike most CenturyLink matchups, this one comes up constantly, because Cox and CenturyLink overlap across several large western and southern metros — Phoenix and Tucson, Las Vegas, Omaha, Wichita and New Orleans among them. In those cities the two are often the only wired options on the list.
Our own coverage data shows how lopsided the reach can be. Across the Arizona cities we track, cable coverage sits far above fiber coverage, and Cox is frequently the provider filing the widest availability in a given town. That asymmetry is the backdrop to this whole comparison.
Where Cox wins
Availability and download speed. In the metros it serves, Cox cable typically reaches the overwhelming majority of homes, including plenty of neighbourhoods where CenturyLink has never built fiber. Its download tiers run high enough to satisfy almost any household.
For a download-heavy home — streaming, browsing, gaming as a player rather than a broadcaster — Cox is very often the practical answer, simply because it is there and it is fast.
Where CenturyLink wins
On fiber, CenturyLink takes the fundamentals: symmetrical uploads, no data cap, and a flat rate that does not step up when a promotion expires. Cox applies a data allowance in most markets with a paid unlimited option, and its promotional pricing behaves like cable pricing generally does.
If you work from home, upload video, or run cloud backups, symmetrical fiber is worth paying for. If you have been burned by a bill that jumped in month thirteen, the flat rate is worth something too.
The asymmetry you should expect
Be realistic about the odds. In the shared metros, the chance that Cox reaches your address is high; the chance that CenturyLink fiber reaches it is considerably lower. Phoenix is a good example — cable coverage across the city is broad, while fiber reaches a much smaller share of homes.
This means the decision often resolves itself before you make it. Check the address first and you may find there is only one wired option, in which case the comparison becomes Cox against 5G home internet instead.
Which should you get?
Where CenturyLink fiber is available, take it: better uploads, no cap, flatter pricing. Where CenturyLink has only DSL, take Cox, which will be faster and more reliable by a wide margin.
Where only Cox reaches you, compare it against 5G home internet rather than against CenturyLink, and add the unlimited data add-on to Cox’s price if your household is likely to need it.
Jean founded ShopHighSpeed after trying to find one straight answer about business internet in his own town. He builds the site’s rankings from the availability data providers file with the FCC rather than from provider marketing.