Best Internet Providers in Asheville, North Carolina

CNET’s top choice for internet in Asheville is AT&T Fiber,which offers the fastest speeds in the city, along with symmetrical upload and download speeds and a wide range of plans. Prices start at $55 and go up to $245 per month for speeds up to 5,000Mbps, making it an easy pick if fiber is available at your address.

If AT&T Fiber isn’t in your neighborhood, Spectrum is a solid alternative, with strong speeds and reliable service. Many homes in Asheville also have the option of 5G home internet from T-Mobile or Verizon, which can be a great value if you bundle it with an eligible phone plan.

For those looking to save, T-Mobile and Verizon’s 5G bundles bring monthly internet rates as low as $35 monthly. But for sheer speed, nothing beats AT&T’s 5,000Mbps fiber plan.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

AT&T Fiber and Spectrum Cable Internet are your best options for efficient broadband speeds at reasonable prices. Residents can turn to fixed wireless providers or satellite internet if need be, hopefully only as a last resort. Here are your other internet provider options in Asheville:

• US Cellular: Like T-Mobile, this cellular provider offers fixed internet service that starts at $40 per month and covers roughly 85% of households in Asheville. US Cellular doesn't charge for exceeding a data threshold but the company will slow your speeds after you use your monthly allotment of 600GB.
• Carolina West Wireless: Another fixed wireless provider, Carolina West, uses its (much smaller) cellular network to provide home internet to about 72% of households in the Asheville area.
• Skyrunner: Available to more than 94% of Asheville residents, Skyrunner offers fixed wireless plans that are more expensive than T-Mobile's. The company also charges hefty installation fees and imposes data caps on some service plans.
• Satellite internet: Satellite internet is typically a last resort. The drawbacks include lengthy contracts, slow speeds, high upfront costs for equipment, low data caps and high latency. Starlink, Hughesnet and Viasat are the major satellite providers in the country.

Spectrum's 500Mpbs cable plan, at $40 per month, is slightly cheaper than the entry-level AT&T Fiber plan, which costs $55 per month. You can get an even cheaper monthly price if you bundle home internet service with an eligible cell phone plan with T-Mobile or Verizon.

Skyrunner, a local fixed wireless provider with select fiber options, offers a rate of $45 per month for their standard plan with download speeds of 5Mbps. Although Skyrunner's price may seem reasonable compared to the likes of AT&T and Spectrum, this standard tier comes out to around $4 per Mbps.

You'll find better value and higher speeds from Spectrum's introductory tier of 500Mbps at $40 per month, which comes out to 10 cents per Mbps. Keep in mind that Spectrum's introductory prices will increase by $30 after the first 12 months.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

AT&T is the one provider that offers fiber to a significant percentage of households in the area. Spectrum's cable service tops out at 1,000Mbps -- not as fast as AT&T's top-tier plans, but plenty fast for most households.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you're looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you'll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here's an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Note that these are only guidelines and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

• 0 to 5Mbps allows you to tackle the basics: browsing the internet, sending and receiving email and streaming low-quality video.
• 5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
• 40 to 100Mbps should give one user sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming.
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming.
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it's impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What's our approach? For starters, we tap into a proprietary pricing, availability and speed database that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

Because our database is not exhaustive, we go to the FCC’s website to check the primary data for ourselves and make sure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. Plans and prices also vary by location, so we input local addresses on provider websites to find the specific options available to residents. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP's service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of our prepublication fact-check.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

1. Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?
2. Do customers get decent value for what they're paying?
3. 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. 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 and FCC reports. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

Choosing an internet provider in Asheville is pretty straightforward: If your household is eligible for AT&T Fiber, that's what you want. Its symmetrical 1Gbps service, at $80 per month, will strike the right balance between speed and price for most households. Otherwise, Spectrum's cable internet service is the best alternative, with speeds between 100Mbps to 1Gbps starting at $30 to $50 monthly, respectively.