Bellingham is known unofficially as the City of Subdued Excitement. The nickname dates back to a mural painted in the ’90s, but it’s still a loving tribute to a more relaxed town compared with its big-city neighbor to the south, Seattle. However, Bellingham doesn’t offer a lot of excitement when it comes to high-speed home internet, due to a lack of ISP competition in the area. 

What is the best internet provider in Bellingham?

Most Bellingham residents (I can’t quite bring myself to call them Bellinghamsters) will choose between DSL, cable or fiber.

CenturyLink, Fibră cuantică şi Xfinity are the heavyweight home internet contenders in Bellingham. Thanks to its fiber network, Quantum Fiber squeaks into the best internet service provider position. It also offers the fastest plan, available only at select addresses, which gets you 8,000 megabits per second for $165 a month. If you’re looking for affordable plans, Xfinity’s $40 a month plan gets you 400Mbps speed.

Whenever you’re done with your scenic cruise along Chuckanut Drive or back from your visit to the Whatcom Museum, take a moment to tour with us through the best ISPs in Bellingham. Let’s see if we can achieve some subdued excitement for fiber, cable, DSL şi Internet 5G acasă.

Sursa: Analiza CNET a datelor furnizorilor.

Other available internet providers in Bellingham

Xfinity, CenturyLink and Quantum Fiber are the biggest competitors in Bellingham, but they’re not the only ISP options in town. Rural residents with few choices should check local provider PogoZone or consider satellite internet if other ISPs don’t work out.

• Astound Broadband: A few households in the Bellingham area might be able to get Astound cable internet (formerly Wave Broadband), but it’s unlikely. “While Astound serves a significant base of business customers in Bellingham, the company’s network reaches a much more limited residential footprint — and a majority of residential consumers in and around Bellingham do not have access to Astound’s network and services,” an Astound spokesperson told me. It’s still worth noting the ISP’s presence in the area.
• PogoZone: Bellingham is mainly serviced by big ISPs, but there is a local alternative with PogoZone. PogoZone specializes in fixed wireless and services most of Whatcom County, so it should be on the radar for rural residents who need to get online. Speeds will vary with location. The ISP also offers some fiber services in the area. PogoZone doesn’t advertise speeds, so you’ll need to talk to a sales rep to get details on pricing and plans for your address.
• Ziply: You won’t find Ziply in the main part of Bellingham, but it is an option for some of the surrounding areas primarily via the ISP’s DSL network. This has the usual drawbacks of DSL, with the main beef being slow speeds. For example, I found Ziply DSL service to a Bellingham address in the north that maxed out at just 18Mbps for $75 per month. For Ziply’s fiber network, you must go to another town, like Ferndale.
• Internet prin satelit: When even DSL and fixed wireless don’t reach your home, you may need to look into satellite service from Starlink, Hughesnet sau Viasat. The downside is that speeds aren’t always great and can be expensive. Starlink has the potential for faster speeds than its competitors, but be prepared for a hefty up-front equipment cost. 

Bellingham broadband at a glance

Xfinity and CenturyLink dominate Bellingham home internet, but you may find an alternative internet home with T-Mobile or PogoZone. Pricing varies between the ISPs, but there are some very affordable ways to get online and some good-value plans to consider. 

Pricing details on Bellingham home internet service

Limited choice in ISPs also means limited options for plans. Xfinity has a wide variety of plans and pricing, and its cheapest option comes in at $40 per month. If you have breathing room in your budget, look into Quantum Fiber’s intro-level 500Mbps fiber plan for $50 per month.  

Cheap internet options in Bellingham 

Regarding low introductory prices for home internet, Xfinity has you covered. It’s tough to find anything cheaper than the Xfinity Connect More at $40 for 400Mbps download speeds. Be sure to brush up on your negotiation skills for when your price rises down the line.

What’s the cheapest internet plan in Bellingham?

Sursa: Analiza CNET a datelor furnizorilor.

How fast is broadband in Bellingham?

A recent peek at Ookla’s Speedtest.net data shows Bellingham with a median fixed-internet download speed of just under 315Mbps. (Disclaimer: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) It’s possible to top a gig in download speed if you go with Xfinity’s fastest plan at 2,000Mbps or one of the rare Quantum Fiber addresses that can hit the 8-gig level. CenturyLink’s DSL network may be widespread, but speeds can be lacking. 

Fastest internet providers in Bellingham

Quantum Fiber offers the fastest residential internet in town with a top speed of 8,000Mbps. Xfinity goes up to 2,000Mbps for $80. That said, most Bellingham residents don’t yet have widespread access to some of the multi-gig plans that have popped up in other cities. If sheer download speed is your goal, Quantum Fiber is the ISP to consider.

What are the fastest internet plans in Bellingham?

Sursa: Analiza CNET a datelor furnizorilor.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Bellingham

Furnizorii de servicii de internet sunt numeroși și regionali. Spre deosebire de cele mai recente smartphone, laptop, router sau ustensile de bucătărie, it’s impractical to personally test every internet service provider in a given city. What’s our approach? 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 input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for 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. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of publication. 

Odată ce avem aceste informații localizate, ne punem trei întrebări principale: 

• Furnizorul oferă acces la viteze rezonabile de internet? 
• Clienții primesc o valoare decentă pentru ceea ce plătesc? 
• Sunt clienții mulțumiți de serviciile lor? 

The answer to those questions is often layered and complex, but the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. When selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, although we also factor in things like price increases, equipment fees and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and consider real-world speed data from sources like Ookla şi Rapoarte FCC.

Pentru a explora procesul nostru mai în detaliu, vizitați cum testăm furnizorii de servicii de internet pagină.

What’s the final word on internet providers in Bellingham?

Bellingham is mostly a two-ISP town. There’s Xfinity and CenturyLink (which includes fiber service from Quantum Fiber). Local provider PogoZone is available as an alternative if you’re not happy with your service from the bigger competitors. Xfinity has reasonable speeds with wide availability. Quantum Fiber is a strong option if you can get it. If it’s down to CenturyLink DSL or Xfinity cable, you’ll likely be happier with Xfinity’s speedier offerings.

Internet providers in Bellingham FAQs