Fiber Optic Web Suppliers – CNET

What’s the greatest fiber web general?

In terms of fiber web, you’ll discover that costs, velocity tiers and repair phrases fluctuate amongst suppliers. That’s why sure fiber ISPs rise above the remainder. Out of all the main suppliers, I discover AT&T Fiber to be one of the best fiber supplier general resulting from its number of high-speed plans, aggressive pricing, favorable service phrases and broad availability.

AT&T Fiber is not the one first rate possibility for fiber web, nonetheless. You may discover my picks of one of the best fiber web suppliers under. Every of the greatest web suppliers listed under makes use of a fiber-to-the-home community, which all however ensures one of the best connection high quality, velocity and reliability. Moreover, these suppliers stand out for his or her distinctive pricing, availability, buyer satisfaction and different components. We replace this checklist periodically.

Finest fiber web of 2023

AT&T Fiber

Finest fiber web supplier general

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Product particulars

Value vary

$55 – $180 per thirty days

Velocity vary

300 – 5,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, tools included

AT&T has the best availability of any fiber supplier, extending service to greater than 16 million potential prospects throughout 21 states. The supplier additionally boasts a number of the lowest pricing on fiber web service if you take note of its new multigig tiers. 

At $180 a month for speeds as much as 5,000 megabits per second, AT&T’s Web 5000 plan boasts a 4-cents-per-Mbps value that’s onerous to cross up, however not each family wants that a lot velocity. All plans, from the budget-friendly 300Mbps plan to multigig service, include limitless knowledge and require no contract. 

The quick velocity, comparatively low pricing and customer-friendly service phrases have earned AT&T excessive buyer satisfaction rankings in recent times. The American Customer Satisfaction Index gave AT&T Fiber an industry-leading rating of 80 out of 100 for 2023.

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CenturyLink

Finest fiber web protection

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Product particulars

Value vary

$30 – $70 per thirty days

Velocity vary

200 – 940Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, tools included with gigabit tier

Although AT&T Fiber and Verizon Fios can be found to extra folks, CenturyLink’s fiber community covers extra areas, with fiber service that spans a powerful 25 states. CenturyLink additionally operates primarily in suburban and rural areas, bringing high-speed fiber connections to areas that won’t in any other case have entry to them. 

Nonetheless, folks dwelling in CenturyLink fiber service areas solely have two plan choices: 100 or 200Mbps beginning at $30 a month, or gigabit service beginning at $70 a month. Whereas extra plan choices could be good, CenturyLink’s gigabit velocity plan remains to be a reasonably whole lot. At $70 a month for speeds as much as 940Mbps and no tools charges, CenturyLink is without doubt one of the most cost-effective fiber suppliers for gigabit service.

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Frontier Fiber

Finest low-cost fiber plan

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Product particulars

Value vary

$50 – $155 per thirty days

Velocity vary

500 – 5,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, no tools charge

Frontier Communications just lately expanded its fiber web protection to 19 states after which rolled out a brand new multigig service to the complete footprint , changing into the primary main ISP to take action.

Frontier’s new multigig plans are priced competitively at $100 a month for speeds as much as 2,000Mbps and $155 month-to-month for the 5 Gig plan. Even in the event you do not want all that velocity, the decrease tiers — 500Mbps beginning at $50 per thirty days and gig service beginning at $70 month-to-month — are pretty much as good a price as you may discover from any main supplier.

Frontier Fiber plans include limitless knowledge and require no contract. In contrast to many different suppliers, Frontier consists of the tools value with the value, so apart from taxes, Frontier plan pricing may be very a lot “what you see is what you pay.” 

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Google Fiber

Finest fiber web gig plans

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Product particulars

Value vary

$70 – $100 per thirty days

Velocity vary

1,000 – 2,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, tools included

Google Fiber remains to be round and resuming growth after a multiyear hiatus. The place out there, Google Fiber gives fiber web service beginning at $70 a month and a 2Gbps plan beginning at $100 a month. Each include tools included at no further value, no knowledge caps and no contracts. 

There’s additionally the newly launched 5 gig and eight gig plans for $125 and $150 per thirty days, respectively. Availability is at present restricted, however a Google Fiber spokesperson confirmed with CNET that the supplier goals to increase the plans to all service areas later this yr.

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Verizon Fios

Finest signup bonuses

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Product particulars

Value vary

$50 – $120 per thirty days

Velocity vary

300 – 2,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, free tools with gig service

Verizon Fios is an in depth second to AT&T when it comes to velocity, pricing and repair phrases, however it lacks the identical breadth of protection. Although out there to almost the identical variety of potential prospects as AT&T Fiber, Verizon Fios primarily serves the mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas. 

These fortunate sufficient to dwell in a Verizon Fios service space will possible discover the fiber web service is tough to beat, particularly for these on the lookout for a low-cost connection. Beginning at simply $50 a month, the lowest-price Fios web plan comes with obtain and add speeds of as much as 300Mbps. The following velocity tier can be an honest worth — $70 a month for as much as 500Mbps — however at $90 per thirty days, gigabit service is priced the identical or a contact greater than you may discover with different fiber suppliers. 

Whichever Fios plan you join, count on some attractive extras together with your order, like free streaming subscriptions, electronics, reward playing cards or different promotional gives.

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Windstream Kinetic

Finest for fiber in rural areas

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Product particulars

Value vary

$40 – $70 per thirty days

Velocity vary

100 – 1,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts

One drawback of fiber web is that it is usually solely out there in choose neighborhoods of bigger cities. Should you’re dwelling within the suburbs or a rural space, then your greatest probability to get fiber web is probably going Kinetic by Windstream. Roughly a 3rd of Windstream’s community — which spans rural and suburban areas throughout 18 states — is fiber optic.

Windstream is without doubt one of the greatest rural web suppliers, bringing high-speed connections to locations possible underserved by cable or by different fiber web suppliers. These in a Kinetic service space may even respect the low pricing — $37 a month for speeds of as much as 200Mbps the place out there, and gigabit service for under $67 a month — together with limitless knowledge and no contract necessities.

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Ziply Fiber

Quickest fiber web supplier

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Product particulars

Value vary

$40 – $300 per thirty days

Velocity vary

100 – 10,000Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Key Data

Limitless knowledge, no contracts, quick rural web connection

Ziply Fiber just lately rolled out a 10Gbps plan, successfully making it the quickest main ISP throughout its Northwest footprint in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington — if not the quickest supplier nationwide. 

As streaming, on-line gaming and distant working and studying have turn out to be extra commonplace, sooner web speeds are in excessive demand. Nonetheless, 10Gbps is greater than the common family will want. For everybody else, Ziply Fiber gives a variety of different velocity tiers from 100 to five,000Mbps.

Learn our Ziply Fiber evaluation.

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Why go for fiber web?

Your web speeds, reliability and general expertise do not rely solely on the web supplier you select. The expertise it makes use of to run service to your own home makes a giant distinction as properly.

If I might advocate any web connection sort above all the remainder, that’d be fiber. My fiber web speeds, add and obtain, are quick and constant, even throughout peak utilization instances or inclement climate. The usual month-to-month charge of fiber web companies, whereas not the most cost effective service amongst web suppliers in my space, remains to be an excellent worth contemplating the speeds I get.

What to think about when purchasing for fiber web

Fiber web is one of the best sort of service for many houses, however there’s extra to selecting a supplier and plan than the connection sort. Listed here are some suggestions to bear in mind when purchasing for fiber web service.

Availability. You will not discover fiber web to be out there in almost as many houses as cable, DSL, satellite tv for pc and even 5G web. In truth, solely round 38% of US households are wired for fiber-optic web. Availability is scarce in suburban and rural areas, and may fluctuate from one neighborhood to the following in most cities. It is doable fiber web is simply not out there at your own home or the handle you are shifting to.

Speeds. Fiber web has the quickest add and obtain velocity potential of any sort of web. Most of the prime suppliers provide velocity tiers as much as 2,000Mbps (2Gbps), 5Gbps and better. Whereas the blazing quick speeds are tempting, they’re more likely to be extra velocity than your own home wants. Try our information to discovering the suitable web velocity for assist deciding on a fiber plan that greatest meets your wants.

Value. Should you’re on the lookout for low cost web, fiber is probably not the best choice. It is true that fiber web plans are sometimes one of the best worth, however you might discover cheaper choices from cable or 5G suppliers.

A couple of fiber suppliers provide plans with beginning costs as little as $30 per thirty days, however you are extra more likely to pay not less than $50 per thirty days for fiber web. Cable web suppliers together with Cox, Mediacom, Xfinity and others have lower-priced plans in lots of areas. In case you are a T-Cellular Magenta Max or Verizon wi-fi buyer, you can get 5G dwelling web for the discounted value of $25 to $35 per thirty days.

Bundles. Few fiber suppliers provide a TV service, that means you might not have the ability to bundle web and TV along with the identical supplier in the event you select a fiber web service. Within the days of streaming and cord-cutting, that is probably not a deal-breaker for you, however it’s one thing to bear in mind when purchasing for each companies.

How we consider fiber web suppliers

Testing an web supplier the identical method CNET checks different services is, at greatest, impractical. As an alternative, we depend on in depth analysis of every supplier to develop our evaluations and suggestions.

When evaluating fiber web suppliers, availability, speeds and general worth are on the heart of our evaluations. We additionally look at added charges, knowledge caps, contract necessities, buyer satisfaction experiences and different components that would have an effect on your high quality of service or buyer expertise.

We seek advice from the Federal Communications Fee at FCC.gov for availability knowledge and the kind of community a supplier makes use of. We then analysis a supplier’s speeds, pricing and repair phrases by a wide range of channels such because the supplier’s web site and our personal historic knowledge. When doable, we contact the supplier instantly to substantiate pricing and velocity particulars.

Lastly, to develop a extra well-rounded perspective of the supplier, we take into account buyer satisfaction experiences from the American Buyer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Energy, in addition to buyer evaluations and complaints from sources such because the Higher Enterprise Bureau, downdetector.com and even Reddit.

Earlier than writing our evaluations and compiling greatest lists, we analysis something and every thing the everyday shopper would need to know previous to signing up for dwelling web service. Learn our piece on how we evaluation web suppliers to be taught extra about our evaluation course of.

Fiber web honorable mentions

• EarthLink: EarthLink makes use of the fiber networks put in by different suppliers or municipal fiber-optic networks, which suggests out there speeds and repair high quality can fluctuate broadly from one area to the following. In choose areas, EarthLink gives fiber service with speeds of as much as 1 gigabit for round $100 a month.
• Optimum: Optimum is primarily a cable web supplier, however it does have a rising fiber community, significantly within the better NYC space. Roughly 1.6 million households can be found for fiber service within the space. Fiber plans are priced the identical as Optimum’s cable web service.
• Xfinity: Comcast Xfinity’s fiber service can be considerably restricted in availability and gives a powerful max velocity of as much as 6,000Mbps. The catch? The plan comes with an equally jaw-dropping value of $300 a month.

Finest fiber web suppliers recap

If fiber web service is offered in your space, it is in all probability value getting, particularly if any of the suppliers listed above is an possibility. AT&T is best to advocate because of its excessive availability, low prices and favorable service phrases, however Verizon Fios is an in depth second with low pricing, excessive buyer satisfaction and plenty of perks for signing up. Google Fiber, Frontier Fiber, Windstream, CenturyLink and Ziply Fiber spherical out the checklist of supreme choices whereas suppliers like EarthLink, Optimum and others are value a glance, too, if out there in your space.

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