Optimum vs. Verizon Fios: What You Need to Know

If you live in the Northeast, you may already be comparing Optimum or Verizon Fios for your home internet connection. These two providers offer broadband to some major metro areas in that area of the country, and if you live in parts of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, you might even have a choice between the two. 

Is Optimum or Verizon Fios better?

Both providers serve the Northeastern US, but CNET picks Verizon Fios as the better provider. It offers slightly wider coverage than Optimum and has a 100% fiber network. Optimum, on the other hand, might only offer cable connections for certain markets. Optimum does feature competitive pricing across its plans, but you might see a longer price lock with Verizon Fios.

Optimum, an Altice USA brand known primarily to our friends in the Northeastern part of the country, is becoming familiar to folks in the Southern and Western portions of the US. The cable provider formerly known as Suddenlink is now Optimum. Cable offerings comprise most of its network, but Optimum is growing its fiber reach to new locations. In April 2024, residents of West Orange, New Jersey, gained access to Optimum's fiber-optic network featuring symmetrical speeds of up to 8 gigabits.

According to the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission, Optimum is available to nearly 7% of the country and Verizon Fios is offered to just shy of 9% of US households. You may be looking into these two ISPs and wondering about their differences. Let's take a look.

Our take - Out of the gate, Optimum's services feature competitive introductory pricing, fast speeds, and decent perks. Along with those positives, you get unlimited data, no contracts and no equipment fees. Additionally, Optimum offers a contract buyout if you purchase an Optimum plan while being an active customer with a competing internet service provider, covering up to $100. What's not to like? 

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Our take - Verizon Fios is a 100% fiber internet service, which means you get symmetrical download and upload speeds. That's good, especially if you spend more time working from home and videoconferencing. Fiber internet's high performance and speedy uploads let you accomplish those things better than cable internet, where upload speeds are typically much slower. 

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Optimum vs. Verizon Fios: Coverage and availability

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Verizon Fios spans across nine of the following states:

• Delaware
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Jersey
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Virginia
• Washington, D.C.

Verizon Fios focuses its coverage on several major metro areas in the Northeast. Those cities include Albany, New York; Baltimore; Boston; Buffalo, New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Richmond, Virginia; Syracuse, New York; and Washington, D.C.

Optimum Internet is available to two boroughs in the New York City market -- Brooklyn and the Bronx. It is also available to most of Long Island and a healthy section of northern New Jersey, Dutchess and Westchester counties in New York and portions of Connecticut. 

Also, as I mentioned at the start, Suddenlink is now Optimum, so you'll now be able to find Optimum service in the following 21 states:

Optimum vs. Verizon Fios: Plans and prices

On its site, Verizon Fios boasts that "unlike Optimum's cable network, the fast internet of Verizon Fios runs on a 100% fiber-optic network." On the flip side, Optimum brags, "If you are being mindful of your budget, Optimum is the better choice." Let's start sorting through it by looking at their available plans and price points.

Optimum plans and pricing

Verizon Fios plans and pricing

Let's start with Optimum. As with many ISPs, the number of plans available will vary based on location and address. Instead of the 300 and 500 plans, some customers might see a 200 megabits-per-second plan or a 400Mbps option. In select regions, Optimum's Fiber 2 Gig plan will run customers $120 a month, while Optimum's Fiber 5 Gig will cost you $180 per month, which is a great value at just under 4 cents per Mbps. Optimum also offers an 8 Gig plan for $280 monthly, at around 4 cents per Mbps.

What stands out is the highly competitive pricing. Taken across all six plans, the cost per Mbps of Optimum's starting monthly prices is a very affordable 9 cents per Mbps. Even more impressive? The cost per Mbps for the Optimum 5 Gig plan is just under 4 cents. Keep in mind that these promotional prices usually end after one or two years, bringing the cost per Mbps across nine plans up to 13 cents per Mbps. In particular, the price increase of the Optimum Fiber 300Mbps option from $40 to $70 per month increases that plan from 13 cents per Mbps to 23 cents per Mbps.

Other drawbacks? First, you can see how cable upload speeds don't compare to fiber internet. You only get 20Mbps of upload speed with Optimum 300 and 500; 35Mbps for the 1 Gig plan. What does that mean in the real world? Well, Zoom recommends you have at least 2Mbps upload speeds for a single screen, so if you've got a household with two or three people needing to do some form of videoconferencing, things could get tight quickly. Fiber won't run into that problem.

Second, those super zippy multi-gigabit plans are not available to all locations. Don't expect to see those ultra-fast speeds across the whole Optimum footprint. 

Moving on to Verizon Fios, it keeps things similar across all the areas it serves. The four plans you see are the four plans offered, although most markets will only have the choice of the gigabit tier being the top-end plan. Those plans don't have a promo price that changes to a regular rate after 12 or 24 months. That doesn't mean your rate will never change. When looking across Verizon Fios' available plans, the cost per Mbps is just below 12 cents, slightly cheaper than Optimum's 13 cents per Mbps for its cable and fiber plans. 

Who wins this round?

It depends. Optimum has better prices, but you're not guaranteed a fiber internet connection. On the other hand, Verizon Fios has a 100% fiber connection, which means you get symmetrical upload speeds, which also brings a particular worth. On that note, Optimum obviously sees the value of fiber internet as an Altice spokesperson shared with CNET via email that Optimum Fiber is currently available to over 2.7 million households, and Optimum's goal is that "fiber deployment continues at a rapid pace." It's not yet widely available, but Optimum is pushing further down that road to reach 6.5 million homes by 2025.

Verizon Fios vs. Optimum: Additional fees and add-on expenses

Verizon Fios and Optimum waive your setup if you order service online, so we've got a draw there. Both ISPs do not enforce data caps, so you don't need to fear any looming overage fees for your data usage. That's a win for customers of both services. Third, neither Verizon Fios nor Optimum require you to sign a contract, so there's no threat of steep early termination fees. 

Lastly, you won't have to account for an additional monthly equipment fee with either provider. Previously, Verizon Fios charged customers an additional $15 a month to rent their router. Optimum was a bit cheaper, with its monthly equipment fee ringing in at $10 monthly. That's all moot in 2024 since both have kicked that fee to the curb. 

Optimum vs. Verizon Fios: Perks and promos

Perhaps because they compete in the country's largest metro market, Optimum and Verizon aren't shy about courting customers. 

On the Optimum front, all new internet customers will receive $5-$15 off their monthly bill if they add eligible unlimited Optimum Mobile plans to their service. In addition, new subscribers will receive a Visa prepaid card (the price varies between $50-$200, depending on the plan) and a Max subscription of six to 12 months, depending on your chosen plan.

Optimum also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee and a contract buyout. If you go to Optimum with a bill from a competing provider -- let's say you recently moved to an Optimum-serviceable address and you're coming from another region where you had a contract with your ISP -- it will give you credit to cover the early termination fee you incurred, up to a maximum amount of $100. 

Verizon Fios has some similar deals and offers to sway you its way. First, like Optimum, it extends an early termination fee offer. With Verizon, you'll get a bill credit of up to $500 if you switch from your current provider and are charged a termination fee for breaking the contract. Second, Verizon also boasts a 30-day, money-back guarantee offer. Third, customers who sign up for select 5G mobile plans will get $25 off their monthly bill.

As for perks, new Verizon Fios customers will get a $100 or $200 Verizon gift card and Vix Premium for 12 months. New Fios 1- and 2-Gig customers will also receive $400 off of Samsung appliances, a $200 Verizon gift card and a free 12-month subscription to Vix Premium. Lastly, Fios customers also get a price-lock guarantee of two to four years, depending on your chosen plan.

Verizon Fios vs. Optimum on customer satisfaction

Optimum has a long way to go to match the Verizon Fios customer satisfaction track record. Let's start with the 2024 American Customer Satisfaction Index for ISPs. Verizon Fios landed near the top of the chart with 77 out of 100. Unfortunately for Optimum, the ACSI survey had much harsher news. Optimum's fiber service scored 66 out of 100, five points below the industry average and 11 points behind Verizon Fios. Its cable service did even slightly worse, earning 63 points.

Over at the 2023 J.D. Power US Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study, Optimum's news wasn't much better. The company earned a disappointing score of 642 on a 1,000-point scale, well below the East region average of 707 and a drop from the previous year. To add insult to injury, it landed at the bottom of the list, just below Frontier Communications.

Meanwhile, Verizon Fios also ranked high in this satisfaction survey, earning 760 out of 1,000. This was tops in the East region and was the second-highest score across all ISPs in the survey. 

What's the final verdict? Verizon Fios wins most metrics

If you have a choice between Verizon Fios and Optimum, it's tough not to go with Verizon Fios. First, a 100% fiber network will beat cable internet every time, from reliability to symmetrical download and upload speeds. Despite the compelling savings you'll get with Optimum, Verizon's consistently strong customer satisfaction ratings are enough to put it over the top.