![]() Cheapest for low-income households: Xfinity Internet Essentials Xfinity Internet Essentials brings surprisingly fast internet to your home for a can’t-beat-it price. After the first year, you’ll see a jump in price to $51 before fees, a 155% increase on the initial rate. Lastly, don’t expect the relatively cheap price of this plan to stay. If you rent their router and get a “self-install kit,” there is usually a small “activation fee.” This Nighthawk router/modem combo from Netgear has proven completely reliable - and I saved the $15–25 per month that a router from Xfinity would have cost me. I used a third-party router and modem and avoided the activation cost entirely. In my case, self-install was simple and I only took 15 minutes. However, you probably don’t need to spend this money. On top of that, if you don’t want to install the modem and router yourself, it’ll cost you $100 to have an Xfinity professional do it. Second, in order to get in-home Wi-Fi, you need to either purchase your own router and modem or pay $15 a month for xFi, Xfinity’s own modem/router combo. ![]() Fortunately, avoiding that charge is as simple as setting up auto-pay or paperless billing on Xfinity’s website. Now, a bit on the charges you’ll experience with Connect:įirst, if you prefer to pay bills by mail or in-person, be prepared for a $10 monthly charge. With my internet plan, I got a complimentary Flex box that lets me watch Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, and more from my television. On this plan, you also have the option to add Xfinity’s 4K streaming “Flex” box with NBC’s Peacock Premium streaming service free of charge. This makes the first month effectively free, even if you opt to pay for their $15 per month xFi Wi-Fi router. For the truly cost-conscious, a Comcast representative told me that this Visa card can be put toward your bill. The most obvious is the $50+ Visa prepaid card commonly offered for ordering online. That said, there are a few notable benefits to Connect. I presume this is due to a relative lack of competition for internet services in that region. (I usually use an ethernet cable for important calls to avoid Wi-Fi issues.)Īdditionally, if you live on the more expensive east coast, the plan could cost you about $65 per month. More than that, and you’ll start to have connection issues due to crowded bandwidth when uploading real-time video. Two devices at once is the maximum I’d suggest for making video calls over Wi-Fi. However, if you rely on high upload speeds to make calls on Zoom or similar, you’re probably going to feel underwhelmed by Xfinity’s 5 Mbps upload speeds. Xfinity Connect gives you download speeds of 75 Mbps, which is enough for a small family or group of roommates to stream in HD on a modest flatscreen and have about four phones and a couple of computers connected. This is also a plan that I’ve tested personally, in an apartment with three people. ![]() The speed may vary at some locations, as shown above.Īt $19.99 per month plus taxes and fees, the Connect plan is a good deal compared with Xfinity’s DSL competitors. With all that in mind, let’s walk through each of the cheapest plans in detail: Cheapest for most homes: Xfinity Connect Connect is the cheapest Xfinity plan, not including their low-income subsidy programs. Service setup is simple and equipment is well-designed. For starters, they have the most useable low-income plan in the industry. To be fair, some features have improved over the years. The lowest cost plans ( Connect and Connect More) also feature data caps, something their main competitors have all gotten rid of at this point. I’ve confirmed bill increases as high as 155%. The main downside of Xfinity’s cheapest plans are above-average fees and particularly high bill increases after the first 1–2 years of service. This is especially true with the cheapest Xfinity internet-only plans, thanks to the complex xFi fee update in 2023. When you read the fine print and run test orders, it quickly becomes clear that the price on the box is not the price you actually pay. In my role as a broadband market analyst, I’ve spent over 26 hours researching Comcast Xfinity’s plans and discounts over the past couple years. Xfinity Connect Xfinity Internet Essentials Xfinity Instant TV Choice TV Select Double Play
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