Should You Buy Your Own Modem [EXCLUSIVE]
But sometimes renting can still work out in your favor. Case in point: Right now in San Francisco, Comcast is offering free gateway rentals on select plans for the first two years. If you plan to move, hop to another service provider for a better price, or otherwise need flexibility, choosing to rent can save you cash and headache.
should you buy your own modem
You could end up needing to buy just a modem, just a router, or nothing at all. It depends on the plan you pick, the number of devices you want to put on your network, and what your situation could be like later on.
On the flip side, you could be a person who lives permanently at one residence with just a single available internet provider. Renting a modem could end up far more expensive when sticking with the same provider for the long haul.
With all of this talk about savings through modems, you may be wondering how wireless routers fit into this discussion. The router is a device that provides a Wi-Fi connection for wireless devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Doing so is usually a smart move. For instance, plenty of decent modems cost less than $100. With the average cost of renting a modem from your provider sitting at around $10 per month, a device like that would pay for itself in less than a year and then continue saving you money each month after that. In other cases, where providers will rent you a high-end gaming router or a decent mesh router for a modest monthly fee, doing so might be a pretty decent deal.
Does your provider let you use your own equipment to save some cash? Is that what's best for your home network? It depends on from which provider you get your internet. Let's run through all of the top options to see how their equipment policies compare and whether or not you're in a position to save some money. (You can also find out if your internet service provider is throttling your Wi-Fi connection, and learn if you're putting your router in the wrong spot.)
Astound Broadband offers home internet service in several large metros across the country -- including Austin, Chicago, Houston, New York and Seattle -- and the modem and router rental terms vary from region to region and plan to plan. In some cases, the rental fee can be included for as low as $3 per month, but in others, you'll need to pay as much as $15 monthly.
Regardless of the price, the rental fee includes both a modem and a router, and you can skip it by using your own hardware (here's Astound's list of approved modems). That said, it's worth noting that Astound also offers "Enhanced Wi-Fi" in some regions, which gets you a fancier router for an additional $10 per month. In some regions, Enhanced Wi-Fi means that you get the Eero Pro 6 mesh router, which is excellent, but in others, it's just the standard Eero 6 router, which wasn't nearly as strong a performer in my tests.
This is significant because up until early 2022, AT&T charged $10 per month for its equipment. The company required the use of its combination modem-and-router gateway device and didn't allow customers to use their own modem. That meant that you couldn't skip the $10 monthly additional fee. However (cue the Hallelujah chorus), AT&T scrapped its equipment fee this year, so customers need not worry about that additional amount getting tacked onto their monthly bill.
CenturyLink charges $15 monthly to rent a gateway that combines a modem and a router into one device. Depending on the type of plan you sign up for, that gateway will be one of four models: the Actiontec C3000A, the Greenwave C4000, the Zyxel C4000LZ or the Zyxel C3000Z. You can skip that $15 fee by using a gateway or modem of your own, but CenturyLink cautions customers not to use anything that isn't on its list of approved devices.
"CenturyLink highly recommends using one of our certified or recommended Wi-Fi modems (gateways), which have been tested and approved to work optimally with our high-speed internet technology," the company's website reads. "Retired and third-party devices are more likely to cause performance issues and may not connect to your internet service correctly."
Spectrum includes a free modem with all of its home internet plans, but if you don't have a router of your own, you'll need to pay $5 per month to rent one. The exceptions here are gigabit subscribers of Spectrum's fastest plan tier -- they get the router included at no additional fee.
To skip that $5 monthly fee, you'll need to use your own router, with the usual caveat that your equipment won't be eligible for Spectrum technical support if it malfunctions. You can also use your own modem if you'd like, but make sure to use a Spectrum-supported model.
Xfinity offers customers the option of renting the xFi Gateway, which combines a modem and a router into a single device at the cost of $14 per month. You can skip that monthly charge by using your own modem and router.
Cox charges customers $13 per month to rent its Panoramic Wifi gateway, which combines a modem and router into a single device. Subscribers to the two fastest (and most expensive) Cox plans will receive a DOCSIS 3.1 device that supports Wi-Fi 6. The rest get an earlier-gen DOCSIS 3.0 version with support for Wi-Fi 5.
Frontier provides customers with a free modem and charges $10 per month to rent them a router, but that cost is baked into the advertised monthly rate, so it's not an additional fee that you'll need to pay on top of your monthly rate, like with most other providers. That's all well and good, but the rub is that there's no way to skip that fee, even if you already have a router of your own.
Google Fiber customers receive a modem and a mesh router with up to two additional extenders at no additional cost. If you subscribe to Google Fiber's fastest plan, with download speeds of up to 2Gbps, then you'll get a faster, multi-gig router to go with it, complete with support for Wi-Fi 6.
That's a tough pill to swallow. Paying that much right out of the gate is not appealing. But once you consider that HughesNet requires a two-year contract (and canceling early will activate an early termination fee), you may find that upfront cost will save you money if you foresee staying with HughesNet beyond your initial term.
Mediacom is a midsize cable internet provider, and customers need to pay $13 per month to rent a cable modem from the company. You can skip that fee by using your own modem, but it'll need to be at least a DOCSIS 3.0 model (and Mediacom recommends going with a newer DOCSIS 3.1 model). Here's the full list of approved hardware (PDF).
But wait, there's more! If you need a router, Mediacom will rent you one of those, too. The fee is another $10 per month, and you'll get a two-piece Eero Pro 6 mesh router. Like with the modem, you can skip that fee by using a router of your own, but this rental is actually a pretty decent deal -- the Eero Pro 6 is one of our top-rated mesh routers, and a two-piece setup typically costs well over $200.
That means you could rent the Eero Pro 6 from Mediacom for a year and a half and still pay less than you would if you bought it outright. It's a pretty great way to try out a fancy, tri-band mesh router with support for Wi-Fi 6 to see what sort of impact it'll make on your home networking speeds.
Optimum offers both hybrid fiber and cable connections and 100% fiber hookups. The company provides customers with its Altice Gateway, which serves as your home's modem and router. Your exact model depends on your specific plan and whether your home's connection uses cable or fiber.
"Optimum internet customers using service delivered via our HFC network are able to use their own equipment," an Altice spokesperson tells CNET, pointing to a list of approved third-party modems. "Optimum Fiber service is currently only delivered via the Optimum-provided Gateway, which is designed specifically to work with our fiber network."
Rise Broadband is a provider of fixed wireless home internet connections throughout much of the middle of the country, and subscribers will need to pay $10 per month to rent their modem along with the antenna that receives the over-the-air signal. That fee is unavoidable.
Rise also offers to rent customers a router -- specifically, the TP-Link Deco M4 mesh router. The cost is $5 per device, so a single Deco router will add an extra $5 to your monthly bill, a two-piece mesh setup would raise it by $10, and a three-piece setup will cost you $15 per month.
If you want to skip the monthly charge, Sparklight requires you to use a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem device. If you choose to go that route to save on the added monthly fee, here's a list of Sparklight recommended modems.
Starlink, Elon Musk's internet service, aims to disrupt the satellite internet category by providing faster speeds and lower latency than offered by rivals HughesNet and Viasat. What Starlink shares with those companies, however, is a stark equipment fee. Instead of an additional monthly charge for your equipment, Starlink requires that you pay for the equipment upfront. That means a payout of $599 for the regular service and a jaw-dropping $2,500 if you choose Starlink Premium. There's no getting around those rates if you want to sign up for Starlink.
Starry Internet is a fixed wireless internet provider mostly focused on larger cities, including Boston, Denver, Los Angeles and New York City. Starry optimizes its technology for urban areas, and that customized equipment is included in the price. There's no additional charge beyond your monthly rate.
T-Mobile offers 5G home internet service, and you'll need a 5G modem capable of receiving that wireless signal to connect. Fortunately, T-Mobile takes care of that for you with a 5G modem/router gateway provided free of charge. It's a gray cylinder, and it's all you need after subscribing to get online.
That said, if you have a router of your own that you like, you can plug it into T-Mobile's gateway and use it to put out your home's Wi-Fi signal instead. That might be worth doing if you'd like to set up a mesh network in your home, but with fast top speeds and support for Wi-Fi 6, T-Mobile's gateway is probably enough for anyone outside of that. 041b061a72
