Cox vs Spectrum

These two overlap in 25 metro areas and 70 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.

Cox vs Spectrum at a glance

CoxSpectrum
Main technology Cable Cable
Residential locations on that technology 6,447,111 33,900,003
Single technology or mixed Mixed Mixed
Full coverage detail Where Cox is available Coverage page coming

We do not publish speeds or prices here.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 Spectrum 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 Spectrum
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Metro Area 63% 30%
Ocala, FL Metro Area 24% 39%
New Orleans-Metairie, LA Metro Area 69% 19%
Cleveland-Elyria, OH Metro Area 11% 81%
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metro Area 79% 10%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area 8% 85%
Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area 75% 7%
Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL Metro Area 52% 7%
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL Metro Area 66% 6%
Lafayette, LA Metro Area 73% 4%
Morgan City, LA Micro Area 43% 3%
Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT Metro Area 28% 3%
Macon-Bibb County, GA Metro Area 66% 3%
New Haven-Milford, CT Metro Area 9% 2%
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metro Area 80% 2%
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Metro Area 47% 1%
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metro Area 61% 1%
Fremont, NE Micro Area 1% 64%
Gainesville, FL Metro Area 60% 1%
Springfield, MA Metro Area 0% 25%
Richmond, VA Metro Area 2% 0%
Houma-Thibodaux, LA Metro Area 0% 42%
Opelousas, LA Micro Area 0% 68%
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metro Area 0% 91%
Worcester, MA-CT Metro Area 0% 62%

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.

Both are mainly cable networks, so the technology argument does not separate them. Compare on price, contract terms and local service reputation instead, none of which the FCC publishes, and none of which we will invent.

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.