Sparklight vs CenturyLink: Extra Fees and Contracts
Installation
When you sign up for Sparklight, you have two installation options: professional and self-installation. With professional installation, you are expected to pay a fee of up to $90. There is no fee for self-installation but it may not be available in your area. Regardless of whether you opt for professional installation or self-installation, a $100 activation fee is required.
CenturyLink offers professional installation or self-installation. Professional installation fees vary by location and internet service type, but these fees can cost up to $99. With self-installation, there is no setup fee and CenturyLink spells out the steps you need to take to set up and activate your internet service on their website. For both installation options, there is no activation fee.
Contracts, Equipment Fees & Fine Print
Contracts are not required to sign up for Sparklight’s internet service. As there are no contracts, there are no early termination fees. On the other hand, an activation fee and equipment rental fee are required. Activating your Sparklight internet service can cost up to $100 and renting their modem with WiFi costs $10/month. You can opt for a regular modem for the same monthly price. As for Sparklight’s download and upload speeds, they range between 100-1000 Mbps and 10-50 Mbps, respectively.
CenturyLink does not offer any long-term contracts. You don’t have to worry about early termination fees that typically come with contracts. Prepay and paperless billing are required for all of CenturyLink’s internet plans. You also have to pay for equipment rental fees, which cost either $15/month or a one-time fee of $200 for the modem with WiFi. Download speeds range between 20-940 Mbps while upload speeds go up to 940 Mbps for the Fiber Gigabit plan.
Data Caps
Sparklight does implement data caps for all of their internet plans, but you can upgrade your plan with unlimited data for an additional $40/month. Data caps range between 350-1500 GB. Sparklight charges $10 for each additional 100 GB of data used per month.
CenturyLink’s Fiber Gigabit plan is the only plan that does not employ data caps. For their other internet plans, the data cap is 1 TB per month. If you want to enjoy unlimited data, your only option is to upgrade to the Fiber Gigabit plan.