![]() WOW! offers a brief 30 day period to try their service. Considerations when comparing WOW! to other providers 30-day money-back guarantee but expensive termination fees Just keep in mind that not all equipment will be compatible. However, you can bring your own modem and devices. Their sales and service agents will often try to upsell you on this hardware. A basic wireless modem costs ~$10 per month. The top-end “ULTRA” Gateway alongside two Media Players will cost you $25 in most markets, although it combines a TV platform and Wi-Fi router into one box, which is a plus for customers who want simple plug-and-play (more on the ULTRA box below where we cover WOW! TV). WOW!’s router fees vary depending on devices and equipment rented. (Free routers used to be common throughout their service area, but lately they’ve been breaking them out into a separate line item on bills.) Like most cable companies, WOW! prefers to rent routers to their customers. WOW! Equipment options WOW! has basic routers as well as an advanced “ULTRA” router+TV box. Currently, no self-installation options are offered. The company offers next-day installation in many areas for those who need Internet right away. It’s also commonly offered for free as a bonus during local promotions, so we recommend asking about it when you speak to a sales agent to start service. WOW! charges an installation fee, although some customers we spoke to reported being able to negotiate it down when signing up for a contract. In some parts of Alabama and Georgia, customers are even served over DSL lines, which generally results in slower download and upload speeds for those customers compared to cable or fiber. Gigabit service with speeds up to 1,000 Mbps is still relatively rare. WOW!’s 500 Mbps service is increasingly common in their coverage footprint, but hasn’t reached 100% availability yet. With cable, most homes can be hooked up with little to no trouble. (The cost of hooking a single home up to fiber easily runs into the thousands of dollars, even if there’s fiber on the street.)įiber lines also often require extensive installations at the home or office being connected. The advantage of using this system rather than installing a pure FTTH (Fiber to the Home) network is that it can “piggyback” on existing TV networks, which allows WOW! To pass that saving on to customers and provide cheaper service. Their “cable” service is technically hybrid fiber-coaxial, which means that data travels over fiber to a node in your neighborhood before switching over to copper TV cable infrastructure. They have been rolling out pure fiber lines in some areas. WOW! primarily uses coaxial cable technology, which are those black-rubber coated cables that look a bit messy pinned to the side of your house. WOW! uses coaxial cable technology, delivering Internet data over the same cable that delivers cable TV signal. WOW! Network Technology: Predominantly Cable (As the name “Wide Open West” implies.) Cities in their coverage footprint also include Detroit, Augusta, and Chicago. ![]() WOW! is widely available in major and mid-sized cities across the Midwest and South. This data is based on 1,330,598 speed tests. Real-world speeds of WOW! service based on IP verified users in various cities. These results are based on tens of thousands of speed tests gathered on a rolling basis over the past twelve months through M-Labs, the standard speed test integrated with Google as well as our own site. Here’s a rundown on speed performance in specific cities where WOW! is popular. WOW! Internet Speeds and Network PerformanceĪs of August 2018, WOW! is rated in the top 10 among ISPs on Netflix’s ISP leaderboard - no small feat for a smaller network. WOW! also includes email, online voicemail management, and additional security features through their F-Secure program (firewall and antivirus). Plan details change frequently, always verify plan details with the WOW! directly before purchasing service. (Translation: binge Netflix as long as you want with no fees.) They also offer monthly plans with no contract required. WOW! is also known for being cord-cutter friendly, since their Internet-only service is free of data caps. Overall, WOW! earns strong marks for being friendlier on the wallet than many other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and maintaining higher consumer ratings. Best prices require 1–2 year agreements. ![]()
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