AT&T vs. Frontier: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Compare AT&T and Frontier head to head

AT&T is the best choice for fiber internet. It has a handful of fiber plans at great prices, making it one of the best internet services for gaming. Frontier is no slouch in delivering fast fiber speeds, but its fiber network is far less available than AT&T’s. Frontier still offers DSL internet as your optional service, while AT&T has fixed wireless internet with DSL-like speeds.

Jump to: Plans and pricing | Extra fees | Customer ratings | Bundles | Internet connection types | Data caps | Contracts | Installation | Availability

Jump to:

• Plans and pricing
• Extra fees
• Customer ratings
• Bundles
• Internet connection types
• Data caps
• Contracts
• Installation
• Availability

Plans and pricing: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T plans and pricing

AT&T stopped offering DSL internet to new customers, so now it’s primarily a fiber and fixed wireless provider. It clashes with Frontier’s fiber only in a few places—meaning you’ll probably never see them both. If you do, both have plans ranging from 500Mbps to 5,000Mbps if speed is what you need. AT&T is the only one of the two with a 300Mbps plan.

AT&T and Frontier command a larger portion of the nation with fixed wireless and DSL, respectively. Again, you may not see these two overlap, but if they’re both listed in your area, AT&T is the better choice. You get speeds of up to 140Mbps with its fixed wireless service, although AT&T has it locked down with a data cap.

Frontier plans and pricing

Frontier is mostly a DSL internet provider with some fiber. It has noticeably cheaper fiber prices than AT&T, especially when we compare the multi-gig plans. Plus, it doesn’t raise your rates—just like AT&T—so it’s a far better megabit-per-dollar value.

Frontier’s fiber is limited in availability, however, so you may see its DSL internet instead. The plan costs more than Frontier’s 500Mbps fiber, but AT&T’s fixed wireless ain’t exactly cheap for the speeds you get, either. If you want more megabits for your buck, you may want to check for cable internet in your area instead.

Extra fees: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T is the only provider of the two with data caps, but they only apply to its DSL with speeds of 75Mbps or less, and its fixed wireless internet—fiber has no data cap. Meanwhile, Frontier’s monthly rates include autopay and paperless billing discounts, so expect to pay $7.99 extra each month if you opt out of both.

Customer ratings: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T takes the fourth spot for overall satisfaction among the 15 national internet providers in our latest customer satisfaction survey. Its strongest point is price satisfaction, which isn’t surprising given the speeds you get for the money. In fact, it has a better pricing score than the national average. AT&T also ranks in the top five for customer service, reliability, and speed satisfaction, showing that it’s a really solid provider if you want fiber internet.

Frontier also delivers fiber internet, but its satisfaction ratings are far lower than AT&T. It ranks in the bottom half in nearly every category except for price, where it ranks seventh, placing it just ahead of Spectrum. Frontier doesn’t increase prices for at least four years, making it a better choice over other providers with shorter promotional periods.

Best TV and internet bundles

* for 24 months plus taxes & internet equip. fee w/ 24-mo. TV agmt. Autopay & paperless bill req’d. After 2 years, then month to month at then current prevailing prices unless cancelled. $10/mo. internet equip. fee applies. Geo & svc. restr’s apply.

^# Limited time offer for Frontier Internet subscribers who are first-time YouTube TV customers. Terms apply.

Technically, AT&T doesn’t bundle TV with its fiber internet. Instead, you can get DIRECTV packages through AT&T to complement its fiber internet. There are no perks or discounts as seen with traditional TV and internet bundles.

Frontier bundles YouTube TV with its fiber and DSL services. Customers save $10 a month by bundling and getting 100+ channels of live TV.

Internet types: AT&T vs. Frontier

DSL internet uses telephone cables to bring the internet into your home. A 140Mbps or slower speed is typical for a DSL connection, although Windstream’s DSL service can reach up to just over 200Mbps.

Fiber-to-the-home services from AT&T and Frontier have a somewhat smaller footprint, generally covering around 30% of their national markets. AT&T is the only provider of the two with a fixed wireless service, however, which sends internet via transmitters to homes that can’t get a landline connection.

Data caps: AT&T vs. Frontier

Frontier doesn’t enforce data caps on its DSL and fiber services, so you can use the internet all you want without worrying about overage fees and throttled speeds.

AT&T doesn’t enforce data caps with fiber, but its DSL internet with speeds of 75Mbps or lower and its fixed wireless service has data caps. In both cases, you pay $10 for every 50GB you go over the monthly limit.

Contracts: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T doesn’t lock you down with a traditional contract. That means you can cancel your internet service at any time without penalty.

Frontier also doesn’t enforce contracts for internet service. However, you must sign a one-year agreement if you accept a Visa Reward Card when you sign up for fiber internet.

Installation: AT&T vs. Frontier

* When you order service online.

Modern AT&T fiber installations include a termination box outside and a fiber jack installed in the room where AT&T’s desktop optical network terminal (ONT) resides—this device is actually a gateway supporting fiber. Older fiber installations have a smaller ONT mounted on the fiber jack and use Ethernet to connect a standard gateway or router.

With Frontier’s fiber-to-the-home service, a technician installs the ONT in your garage, basement, or closet. After that, the ONT connects to your home’s existing Ethernet or coaxial cable wiring—a MoCA adapter and splitter are required for coaxial cabling and TV. The supplied gateway connects to the Ethernet or coaxial cable jack mounted in the wall.

Like self-installing cable and DSL equipment, your home already needs a fiber connection before you can order a self-install kit from AT&T. Frontier also offers self-install for some fiber plans.

Availability: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T has a larger footprint stamped across the US than Frontier. Most of its fiber coverage can be found in the Eastern and Central time zones, except in the Northeast, where Frontier competes with Verizon, Optimum, and Astound Broadband. Frontier’s fiber is mostly available in specific hotspots across the nation, like Dallas, Houston, Tampa, and Los Angeles.

AT&T and Frontier have larger fixed wireless and DSL footprints, respectively. For now, AT&T’s fixed wireless is primarily in the south, with additional coverage in Kansas, California, and around the Great Lakes. Frontier’s DSL internet is mostly in the northeast, West Virginia, around the Great Lakes region, California, and in small pockets scattered across the nation.

Final call: AT&T vs. Frontier

AT&T and Frontier rarely overlap, so picking one over the other is limited to just a handful of areas. Both have fast fiber speeds reaching up to 5,000Mbps, so you can’t go wrong with either one if you want fast fiber speeds.

Frontier is the clear cheaper fiber provider of the two, especially when we compare their multi-gig plans. But we can’t overlook Frontier’s customer feedback in our latest satisfaction survey, where it ranks in the bottom half of four out of five categories. AT&T outranks Frontier in every category, indicating that AT&T is a better long-term deal even if its plans cost more.

That said, go with AT&T for its excellent service, reliability, and speed. Frontier is your go-to DSL internet provider of the two, while AT&T fills in the gaps where wired internet isn’t available.

Methodology

Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.

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