{"id":850201,"date":"2026-09-16T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850201\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T21:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:14:10","slug":"cox-customers-officially-make-the-jump-to-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850201\/","title":{"rendered":"Cox Customers Officially Make the Jump to Spectrum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two of the country\u2019s largest internet providers have officially become one, as existing Cox customers will start getting their monthly internet bills from Spectrum from Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Charter, which sells phone, internet and TV services under the <a data-link-uuid=\"d3020f6a-4b21-41a1-af4b-0c5652f9bbc4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/internet\/spectrum-internet-review\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spectrum<\/a> brand, agreed to buy <a data-link-uuid=\"6824961b-b824-4ca8-b213-fb82b7c5e7d7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/internet\/cox-communications-internet-review\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cox<\/a> in May 2025, but the deal didn\u2019t clear its final hurdle until the California Public Utilities Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpuc.ca.gov\/news-and-updates\/all-news\/cpuc-approves-charter-cox-merger-with-strong-consumer-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">approved it last month<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The acquisition creates the largest <a data-link-uuid=\"4983f937-2c06-4cd9-9d66-21988d5a4556\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/internet\/best-internet-providers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">internet provider<\/a> in the country, with Charter now boasting more than 35 million customers. While <a data-link-uuid=\"6cdfd87a-cd02-4092-a03e-7db6bc8ef1e9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/internet\/my-internet-provider-is-a-monopoly-heres-why-yours-probably-is-too\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">internet monopolies<\/a> are a major problem in the US \u2014 over a third of Americans only have access to one or no internet provider \u2014 this acquisition won\u2019t necessarily make that problem worse. That\u2019s because Charter and Cox have <a href=\"https:\/\/broadbandmap.fcc.gov\/provider-detail\/fixed?version=jun2025&amp;zoom=4.00&amp;vlon=-98.162634&amp;vlat=37.562754&amp;providers=130235_40_on%2C130360_40_on&amp;br=r&amp;speed=0_0&amp;pct_cvg=0\" data-id=\"405e501e-caf0-4e13-9d16-6e50c0a992df\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">very little overlap<\/a> in the areas where they operate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo consumer is going to lose a competitive offering they currently have,\u201d Blair Levin, a telecom industry analyst at New Street Research, told CNET. \u201cThere\u2019s no reduction of competition in any relevant geographical product market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The deal could be a welcome change for Cox customers. Cox received a score of 68\/100 in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey, while Spectrum earned a 71\/100.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, a <a data-link-uuid=\"9411888a-fb8e-4e6d-943c-9244e7bce5db\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/internet\/internet-providers-with-shocking-post-deal-price-hikes-ranked\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNET analysis<\/a> of internet plans found Spectrum\u2019s price hikes to be steeper, with Spectrum increasing prices by an average of $37 monthly after one or two years, depending on the location. Cox\u2019s plans increased by $28 per month, but only after two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Spectrum says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cox.com\/residential\/cox-is-now-spectrum.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cox customers won\u2019t have to do a thing<\/a>: Prices and plans will stay the same, and they can keep using their existing Cox equipment. Spectrum is also offering a year of free mobile service to Cox customers who make the jump to Spectrum Mobile, plus a slew of new streaming subscriptions for customers on eligible Cox Contour TV plans. <\/p>\n<p>Some critics argued that the Federal Communications Commission should have done more to help consumers before granting Charter approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FCC approved the largest cable merger in nearly a decade and did not require Charter to do anything it wasn\u2019t already planning to do,\u201d John Bergmayer, legal director at the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-id=\"405e501e-caf0-4e13-9d16-6e50c0a992df\" href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/fcc-formally-approves-cox-charter-merger-in-34-5-billion-deal-reducing-broadband-competition\/\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cConsumers, as always, will bear the costs of reduced competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As part of the approval process, Charter agreed to move all of Cox\u2019s offshore jobs to America within 18 months. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-id=\"405e501e-caf0-4e13-9d16-6e50c0a992df\" href=\"https:\/\/corporate.charter.com\/about-charter\">According to a post on its website<\/a>, Charter says it has a 100% US-based workforce as of Dec. 31, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img alt=\"Joe Supan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c14e6a9d-cfa0-439a-b5a4-2a3d2b607866.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-64 photo\" height=\"64\" width=\"64\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Supan is a senior writer for CNET covering home technology, broadband, and moving. Prior to joining CNET, Joe led MyMove&#8217;s moving coverage and reported on broadband policy, the digital divide, and privacy issues for the broadband marketplace Allconnect. He has been featured as a guest columnist on Broadband Breakfast, and his work has been referenced by the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, National Geographic, Yahoo! Finance and more.<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/profiles\/jsupan\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" class=\"articleAuthorBioFooter_link\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the country\u2019s largest internet providers have officially become one, as existing Cox customers will start getting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74],"class_list":["post-850201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-internet","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}