Best Internet Providers in Tampa, Florida

CNET recommends Frontier Fiber as the top internet provider in Tampa, offering a winning mix of customer satisfaction, competitive prices and excellent overall value.

Can’t get Frontier Fiber at your address? Tampa has plenty of solid alternatives. Verizon 5G Home Internet and T-Mobile Home Internet are budget-friendly picks, especially if you’re looking to save by bundling with an existing wireless plan. For broad coverage and affordable pricing, Spectrum is another dependable option in the area.

Keep in mind internet availability, prices and speeds vary by location. The details here reflect local offerings, which may differ from providers’ national plans shown in product listings.

The providers mentioned above aren’t the only ones serving Tampa, but they are the ones I would recommend the most. Here’s a quick comparison of the practical internet options available in the Tampa area.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

EarthLink: A name nearly as old as home internet itself, EarthLink now offers service by piggybacking off of the networks of other providers and municipalities. As a result, you’re likely to pay a bit more for service compared to other providers. Pricing and speeds vary widely by location, but all plans come with a one-year contract.

Rapid Systems: Local fixed wireless provider Rapid Systems is a decent choice for internet in rural central Florida, but pricing is high and speeds are low in the Tampa Bay area. You’ll want to check out other internet options at your address before opting for Rapid Systems, as residential pricing in Hillsborough County starts at $79 per month for max speeds of 10Mbps.

T-Mobile Home Internet: With speeds of 72-245Mbps starting at $50 per month ($35 for qualifying Magenta Max customers), T-Mobile rivals Verizon regarding 5G home internet. Although T-Mobile doesn’t have the same speed potential, it does boast greater coverage than Verizon, making it an excellent choice for home internet in suburban and rural areas outside of Tampa.

WideOpenWest: You won’t find WideOpenWest, aka WOW, in Tampa, but it is available in much of the Tampa Bay area, including Clearwater, East Lake, Oldsmar and St. Petersburg. The cable internet provider is a great choice for low-cost, high-speed internet, with service starting at $25 per month for speeds up to 100Mbps.

Satellite internet: HughesNet, Viasat and possibly even Starlink are available in Tampa, but there are plenty of other cheaper, faster options in the area to avoid having to settle for satellite internet.

The cost of internet in Tampa depends on the provider and plan you choose. The cheapest internet plans in Tampa will run you $50 per month plus taxes and fees unless you qualify for a discount with Verizon or T-Mobile.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

At $50 per month, the financial barrier for home internet service in Tampa is a bit higher than in other parts of Florida. As such, you may want to seek more affordable internet services.

Spectrum offers a discounted internet plan designed to help keep those in low-income households connected. The Spectrum Internet Advantage plan comes with download speeds up to 100Mbps starting at $30 per month.

Frontier does not have a special low-income plan like Spectrum does.

According to the most recent Ookla (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis) speed test data, the state of Florida ranked number 3 in Q4 2023 for fastest median download speeds in the US at around 233Mbps. Tampa came in slightly slower than the state, ranked 50th overall among US cities with a median download speed of 232Mbps.

Spectrum clocked the fastest median speed in Tampa at 267Mbps.

Many factors can affect speed tests, such as using Wi-Fi and an internet plan’s maximum speeds, but Tampa’s speed test results are impressive and a good indicator of the speeds you could experience with Spectrum and Frontier.

The slowest available plan from both providers (excluding Spectrum’s Internet Assist) comes with download speeds of up to 500Mbps. Faster plans are available from both providers, while EarthLink offers speeds up to 5,000Mbps in select areas.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

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? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites 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're considering every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for 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 publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main 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?

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.

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