When you’re looking for a package of essential utilities like TV access and a high-speed internet connection, you’ll need to be a knowledgeable consumer to ensure that you don’t end up locked into a bad plan.
Many consumers have heard that Frontier Fios and AT&T are competitors, but it’s probably still unclear, which is better for your needs.
Given that you may need to live with your choice of an internet service provider (ISP) for up to three years depending on the contract, you need to know about both if you want to make a good decision.
In this article, we’ll explore the differences between Bundled Frontier Fios Internet and TV and Bundled AT&T Internet plus TV so that you’ll understand which service has packages that are favorable for your family and which are going to break the bank without offering enough in return.
What is Frontier Fios?
Frontier Fios is a high-speed fiber-optic network which provides internet access, landline access, and limited TV service.
Frontier Fios tends to have slightly lower pricing than most other ISPs that offer bundled internet and TV services. For internet at 50 Mbps upload speeds, you’ll pay $40 per month as a starting point when you buy the basic Frontier Fios plan.
This basic plan includes landline and pricing guaranteed for two years. You will also get a signup bonus of a $100 Visa reward card and a one-year subscription to Amazon Prime.
Because Amazon Prime has Prime Video, you will get access to a handful of streaming TV shows and movies, but you won’t get any traditional access to live TV channels.
For the Frontier Fios Triple Play bundle, you’ll pay $75 per month and get 50 Mbps speeds for the internet. You’ll also get the same signup bonuses as the basic package. Importantly, you will also get access to 130+ channels of TV via Frontier’s Quantum TV service.
The Triple Play package suffers from low internet speeds for the cost, but there’s no monthly bandwidth limit.
The Quantum TV service is roughly akin to DirectTV, which means that you’ll need to pay extra for premium channels.
If you purchase the Triple Play 500/500 plan, however, you’ll get 500 Mbps internet speeds as well as the same TV selection with the less advanced Triple Play plan. For the best Triple Play Plan, you’ll need to pay $95 per month, however.
The price of the high-speed internet plan is very high, and you will also get a lot of add-ons that you don’t need if you use the internet more than you watch TV.
Where is Frontier Fios offered?
Frontier Fios is a distinct product from Verizon’s Fios service. Frontier Fios is only available in certain parts of the following states:
- California
- Washington
- Oregon
- Texas
- South Carolina
- Indiana
- Florida
Importantly, Frontier Fios is not available in 100% of these states, only a small subset. For instance, Frontier Fios only covers 2.5% of South Carolina’s land area and only 17.9% of Oregon’s.
This fact means that there is a very good chance that Frontier Fios is not offered in your area if you live outside of a major city within the states that it exists as an option.
What is AT&T TV & Internet?
AT&T TV and Internet is AT&T’s new way of bundling internet and TV services. The included TV services with AT&T TV and Internet include the U-Verse TV live TV service, as well as the new AT&T on-demand network.
If you get internet service from AT&T, you will be able to access their AT&T TV service if it is offered in your area.
The strength of AT&T’s packages is TV access. Every AT&T plan includes multiple TV services, each of which is extensive in terms of its content. The primary weakness is that AT&T doesn’t have many effective budget-friendly options.
The least expensive TV and internet bundle is $75 per month, which offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps and over 190 channels of live TV. The signup bonuses for this plan are not very enticing. When you sign up for this package, you’ll only get your installation fee waived as a bonus.
On the other hand, AT&T will also provide you with all of the equipment that you’ll need, including a wi-fi router, a modem, and an HD DVR.
If you’re starting from scratch and you don’t want to go through the effort of setting up this infrastructure on your own, AT&T TV and Internet could be a good choice.
The next most expensive plan starts at $95 per month and includes the same speeds as the less expensive plan. With this plan, you will also have the option of bundling your cell phone plan into the TV and internet package, however.
The downside is that the signup bonuses are even more paltry. You will need to pay for your installation fees with the more expensive plan.
The other major issue with the AT&T internet offerings is that they usually have a bandwidth cap of around one terabyte.
These bandwidth caps mean that if you use more than one terabyte of bandwidth in a given month, you will need to pay an extra fee which is usually equal to 20% of your monthly bill.
Critically, you only get an additional 100 gigabytes of additional bandwidth for the rest of the month when you accidentally go over your bandwidth cap. After using these additional 100 gigabytes of bandwidth, you’ll need to pay the penalty fee again.
As a result, if you have a household full of people who are heavy internet users, you might find that you regularly blow through the cap as well as the second bundle of bandwidth.
In other words, it’s very easy to double your monthly bill if you are not careful with your bandwidth usage when you’re approaching the limit.
Which of these services will be better for my needs?
The better service for your needs depends on which type of service you utilize more intensely: the internet or TV.
Heavy internet users will typically do better with the Frontier Fios options because there are options for high-speed service. Furthermore, Frontier’s options don’t have any bandwidth caps.
As a result, you won’t need to ration your internet usage when you’re approaching the end of the month.
However, Frontier’s TV offerings are not very strong on their merits. Quantum TV is not as extensive as DirectTV or other TV providers. Furthermore, while the signup bonus of a year-long subscription to Amazon Prime is helpful, it does not provide any access to live TV.
When you sign up with Frontier, however, you’ll still get that $100 gift card no matter which plan you pick, so you could ostensibly purchase a different TV service using the money, at least for a while.
AT&T’s TV options are much stronger because you get access to more than one TV service no matter which plans you pick. While there is a lot of overlap between the offerings of DirectTV, U-Verse TV, and AT&T TV, the services are comprehensive when taken in full.
Furthermore, AT&T’s offerings are better if you want to bundle your cell phone service into your internet and TV service. You won’t be getting a deal per se, but you’ll enjoy the added ease of billing.
AT&T’s internet offerings are weak, however. Aside from low speeds, the AT&T internet packages have data caps and high spillover fees that can be very frustrating to pay.
Finally, AT&T’s signup bonuses are remarkably stingy in comparison to Frontier’s. On the other hand, AT&T is available in most regions, whereas Frontier Fios is only available in a few select locations. Both services are expanding their coverage, but Frontier is still far behind.
Notably, neither Frontier nor AT&T is significantly different with regard to their guaranteed pricing schemes. You will struggle to get a guarantee of keeping the same price for longer than 12 months with both providers.
In other words, interpret the package pricing as a starting point rather than an accurate long-term cost.
