What Austin internet service provider is the best?
CNET ranks Spectrum as the best internet service provider in Austin for its vast insurance, no information cap and no deals. Having said that, Spectrum isn’t available anywhere. If you fall outside Spectrum‘s cover place, T-Mobile Home Internet and Google Fiber are two powerful strategies.
With its 300Mbps plan for merely$ 30 per month, Astound Broadband offers a striking package for budget-conscious families, with no contracts or equipment costs. And if speed is your top priority, Google Fiber’s blazing 8, 000Mbps plan is available for$ 150 per month.  ,
Whether you’re streaming by the lake, games through the temperature, or working from a great interior setup, Austin has an online strategy to match your summer routine.
Best online service in Austin, Texas
Austin online companies compared
Provider | Internet technologies | Regular cost range | collection of frequency | Regular technology costs | Data cover | Contract | CNET assessment score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cable | $30-$70 | 300-1,500Mbps | None | None | None | 7 | |
mobile with a fixed antenna | $60 | 75-225Mbps | None | None | None | 7.4 | |
Fiber | $55-$245 | 300-5,000Mbps | None | None | None | 7.4 | |
Fiber | $70-$150 | 1, 000 to 8, 000 Mbps ( depends on location ) | None | None | None | 7.5 | |
Spectrum Read full review |
Cable | $30-$70 | 100-1,000Mbps | Free modem and$ 10 router ( optional ) | None | None | 7.2 |
mobile with a fixed antenna | $ 50-$ 70 ($ 15 discount on Home Internet Plus for eligible customers ) | 87-318Mbps | None | None | None | 7.4 |
More than one product
Origin: Provider information study by CNET.
Another available online companies in Austin
- You’ll get some of the most affordable starting costs from this cord internet service provider in Austin, Astound Broadband/Grande. Astound’s cheapest plan is$ 30 a month for 300Mbps download speed. The city’s 1-gig plan starts at$ 70 per month, making it the cheapest option available. The get? After the first 12 weeks, a very significant increase.
- AT&, T: If I had to label a runner-up for the best fiber web service for ATX, AT&, T did get that place. Its grain ideas range from 300Mbps to a number of multi-gigabit programs, including one as high as 5, 000Mbps, and it has more coverage than Google Fiber in the Austin rail place. Certainly all Austin people are decent for AT&, T Fiber. Some people also have to deal with the fixed wireless product AT& and T Internet Air, which has download speeds of 225Mbps.
- Evolve Broadband: This geographical service won’t be found within town limits, but its LTE fixed wireless service caters to remote clients in the periphery of the Austin metro region, including to the south and southeast in Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Dale and Lytton Springs and west of the city in McDade and Paige. Although its website does list a$ 100 program for 300GB of information per month, you’ll have to pack out an online form to see plans and prices.
- Frontier: If you’re within Austin capital limits, Frontier isn’t for you. Georgetown people to the northeast and Dripping Springs and Kyle people to the south are prime candidates for its combination of DSL and fiber-optic services. Check the site to see if Frontier Fiber is available at your target. The company’s fiber service, which has symmetrical plans for 500Mbps, gigabit, or multi-gig speeds, is a compelling option with monthly costs ranging from$ 45 to$ 130.
- Optimum: Suddenlink is the name many in the Austin region may hear, but family business Altice USA rebranded in 2022. The newly named Optimum company is therefore more focus north of ATX in Pflugerville, but is only marginally distributed in the metro region, mostly around the Austin Recreation Center and close to Barton Creek Wilderness Park. This cord ISP boasts dynamic starting rates and reasonable filing perks, including Visa gift cards and bundling discounts with infinite cellular plans.
- This VTX-1 cellular company only offers limited coverage in Austin. Coverage can be seen in south-central Texas leasing a several towns on the outer reaches of the Austin metro region, including Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Dale, Elgin, Lockhart, Mustang Ridge and Uhland. Consumers may expect unlimited information with their plans, but velocity and prices may vary based on location.
- Satellite online: Usually, I’d tell someone in a rail place to run, not walk, aside from satellite internet services. Choices in the area are much less expensive and quicker. Several outside the metropolitan limits of Austin didn’t have the same access. When it comes to evaluating Hughesnet or Viasat, the top satellite broadband services, is that the best day to do so. One of the biggest disadvantages to both is the slower velocity and data limits. Starlink, a stranger, has them hit on that front, with faster speeds and an endless data option available. It does however require a hefty upfront payment of$ 349.
- More places are now available for Verizon 5G Home Internet access thanks to the 5G set cellular house internet product. It has a higher average download speed ( 300Mbps ) than T-Mobile Home Internet. For$ 50 per month, which includes equipment rental, installation fees, and taxes ( and eligible Verizon Wireless customers can get a discount to lower that down to$ 35 per month ), is another feature. But why’d we record T-Mobile higher? Because of its use of Ultra Wideband 5G technologies, Verizon’s coverage also tends to favor larger metro areas. In comparison, T-Mobile also uses its 4G LTE system to improve supply. Some people will find it beyond their reach, but if you’re located within the Capital City restrictions, you should look into this choice.
Cheap online options in ATX
Taking into account the promo prices, not the higher regular rates, the average starting cost for internet service in Austin is about$ 50 per month. If you’re searching for the cheapest rates, the lowest starting price in Austin is$ 20 per month, belonging to Astound Broadband. Some other providers, including Spectrum and Frontier, also provide basic plans that are less than the region’s typical internet price.
What’s the cheapest online program in Austin?
Provider | starting cost | Max save speed | regular maintenance cost |
---|---|---|---|
$30 | 300Mbps | None | |
$30 | 100Mbps | Free modem and$ 10 router ( optional ) | |
$ 50 ( for the first year ) | 500Mbps | Free modem and$ 10 router ( optional ) | |
$ 50 ($ 35 with eligible mobile plans ) | 318Mbps | None | |
$55 | 300Mbps | None | |
$ 50 ($ 35 with eligible mobile plans ) | 300Mbps | None |
More than one product
Origin: Provider information study by CNET.
Taking our survey
How to find online deals and promotions in Austin
What discounts are offered during that time frame determine the best online deals and best deals in Austin. Most offers are short-lived, but we look regularly for the latest provides.  ,
Austin internet services, such as Spectrum and Astound Broadband, may present lower introductory sales or streaming add-ons for a limited period. Some companies offer the same common charges year-round, including AT&, T Fiber, and Google Fiber.  ,
Check out our guide to the best online deals for a more in-depth record of promotions.
How quickly is Austin’s bandwidth?
Owing to its numerous fiber choices, Austin has a place among the top five fastest cities in the country. Austin was named as the fifth-fastest area according to Ookla’s most recent monitoring, with a middle download speed of 274 megabits per second. ( Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis. ) That placed ATX far away of Dallas and Houston, two of Texas’s major-city rivals.
People within the town limits have access to the excellent speeds of grain internet services, tilting the weights around. With a middle download speed of about 337Mbps, Ookla’s information ranks Google Fiber as the fastest service in Austin. AT&, T and Frontier even offer fiber programs as fast as 5Gbps, so those three services feature the fastest specific plans you’ll get.
Austin’s fastest net programs
Provider | starting cost | Max save speed | Max upload rate | Data cover | Type of connection |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$150 | 8,000Mbps | 8,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$245 | 5,000Mbps | 5,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$145 | 2,000Mbps | 2,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$100 | 2,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$70 | 1,500Mbps | 1,000Mbps | None | Cable | |
$80 | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$70 | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | None | Fiber | |
$70 | 1,000Mbps | 35Mbps | None | Cable |
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Origin: Provider information study by CNET.
Internet service providers in well-known places close to Austin
Discover all benefits for online companies in Texas.
What is a reliable online rate?
Most online connection programs can now handle simple productivity and conversation tasks. You’ll have a better experience with a more powerful relationship if you’re looking for an online program that can support conferencing, streaming video, or games. Here’s an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the FCC. Please take note that these are only general guidelines and that each connection type, provider, and address affects internet speed, performance, and service.
For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.
- With 0 to 5 Mbps, you can focus on the essentials like browsing the internet, sending and receiving emails, and streaming low-quality videos.
- 5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
- One person should have enough bandwidth to meet the demands of contemporary telecommuting, video streaming, and online gaming with 40 to 100Mbps.  ,
- One to two people can use high-bandwidth services like streaming, videoconferencing, and online gaming at 100 to 500Mbps.  ,
- Three or more people can perform high-bandwidth activities simultaneously at 500 to 1, 000 Mbps.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in Austin
There are numerous and local Internet service providers. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to test every internet service provider in a given city personally. What’s our strategy then? For starters, we tap into a proprietary database of pricing, availability and speed information that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC. gov.  ,
It doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also enter local addresses into provider websites to find out what options are available to residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J. D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. All information provided is current and accurate at the time of publication. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes.  ,
We then ask three crucial questions: ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
- Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?  ,
- Do customers get decent value for what they’re paying?  ,
- Are customers happy with their service?  ,
While the answers to those questions are often layered and complex, the providers that come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. We look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee when choosing the least expensive internet service, taking into account costs like equipment upgrades, price increases, and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We take into account real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports and consider advertised upload and download speeds.
To explore our process in more depth, visit our page on how we test ISPs.
What’s the final word on Austin’s internet service providers?
Within the city limits of Austin, cable internet is still the most ubiquitous internet connection you’ll find. Spectrum and Astound Broadband both offer solid value with their offerings as far as cable internet providers go. As we’ve often mentioned in our CNET home internet coverage, fiber internet trumps cable every time. If your address is suitable for Google Fiber or AT&, T Fiber, and fortunately, both companies are expanding their fiber networks within ATX, you shouldn’t give signing up any second thought.
Internet providers in Austin FAQs
Which Austin internet service provider offers the best services?
In Austin, the provider with the widest availability– outside of satellite providers– is Spectrum, which is why we’ve deemed it the best ISP in the area.
There are at least 17 different internet service providers available to the more than 2 million people who live in the ATX metro, if you take into account the larger Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown area. Those residents aren’t serviceable for all 17 ISPs, so sometimes, the best internet service provider is simply the available one.
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Are there fiber internet providers in Austin?
Yes. AT&, T is perhaps the most widely available fiber provider in the area, and although not all addresses can get its fiber service (others might have access to their fixed wireless plans ), access to AT&, T Fiber throughout the area is growing. Within city limits, Google Fiber is also accessible.
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What is the least expensive internet provider in Austin?
The cheapest internet plan in Austin is Astound Broadband’s 300Mbps plan at$ 30 per month.
Regarding value, Google Fiber’s 8 Gig offering, which comes at a cost per Mbps of about 2 cents (yes, I recognize that’s not cheap ), comes at$ 150 per month. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, AT&, T fiber offers symmetrical gigabit download and upload speeds for$ 80 a month.
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