Cox vs Quantum Fiber

These two overlap in 12 metro areas and 117 towns and cities, so for a lot of people this is a real choice rather than a hypothetical one. The first question is not which is better. It is which of them can reach you.

Quantum Fiber is CenturyLink's consumer internet brand, so if you are comparing CenturyLink this is the same network.

Cox vs Quantum Fiber at a glance

CoxQuantum Fiber
Main technology Cable Fiber
Residential locations on that technology 6,447,111 3,157,734
Single technology or mixed Mixed Mixed
Full coverage detail Where Cox is available Where Quantum Fiber is available

We do not publish speeds or prices here. Both providers change them constantly and by market, and a stale number is worse than no number. Coverage is the part that is federally reported and verifiable.

Where you can get both

Metro areas where both Cox and Quantum Fiber report service, ranked by how well covered the less available of the two is because that is what decides whether you genuinely get a choice.

Metro area Cox Quantum Fiber
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area 84% 80%
Hailey, ID Micro Area 79% 77%
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metro Area 80% 76%
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Metro Area 91% 75%
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL Metro Area 66% 76%
Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ Metro Area 58% 65%
Tucson, AZ Metro Area 57% 72%
Ocala, FL Metro Area 24% 73%
Gainesville, FL Metro Area 60% 3%
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ Metro Area 2% 73%
Fremont, NE Micro Area 1% 69%
Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area 75% 0%

Where only one of them reaches

Cox reports service in 18 states and Quantum Fiber in 18, and they share 7 of them. Overlap is the exception, not the rule, so if you are outside the table above this is the part that answers your question.

45 metro areas have Cox and not Quantum Fiber

200 metro areas have Quantum Fiber and not Cox

States where only Cox reports service: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Virginia. States where only Quantum Fiber reports service: Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Showing the eight best covered of each. Ranked by reported coverage within the metro, from the same FCC filing as the table above. Providers self report and overstate, so read these as a ceiling on where a company will sell to you, not a promise about your street.

Which should you pick?

Honestly, in most of the places above only one of them will actually reach your building, and that settles it. Where both do reach you, the useful question is the technology rather than the brand.

That is the case here: Cox is mainly cable and Quantum Fiber is mainly fiber. The practical difference is upload speed and consistency rather than headline download speed, we explain what that means here.

See which one reaches your address →

What we will not do is tell you one is better because it pays us more. See the affiliate disclosure for how that works.