Best Internet Providers in Asheville, North Carolina
AT&T Fiber – Best Asheville internet provider
- Prices: $55 – $180 per month
- Speeds: 300 – 5,000Mbps
- Key Info: Unlimited data, no contracts, equipment included
Spectrum – Best Asheville availability for high-speed internet
- Prices: $40 – $70 per month
- Speeds: 300 – 940Mbps
- Key Info: Unlimited data, simple pricing, no contracts, modem included, free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots
T-Mobile Home Internet – Best alternative to wired home internet in Asheville
- Prices: $50 per month
- Speeds: 72 – 245Mbps
- Key Info: Unlimited data, equipment included, no contracts, no additional fees
The order of operations is crystal clear when it comes to picking the best internet provider in Asheville, North Carolina. If your household is eligible for AT&T’s fiber-optic connection, we’re done here — that’s your best bet. AT&T offers a wide array of plans, competitive prices and fast (and symmetrical) speeds. The only downside? Its available to less than half of Asheville residents.
If you cant get AT&T Fiber, you’ll have to settle for Spectrum Internet, which offers cable broadband to roughly 90% of addresses in the area. Either way, you should end up with a decent connection; according to the Federal Communications Commissions availability map, nearly all households in the region have access to 250 megabits per second download and 25Mbps upload speeds.
Our team considered speeds, pricing, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Asheville across various categories. Our evaluation includes referencing a proprietary database built over years of reviewing internet services. We validate that against provider information by spot-checking local addresses for service availability. We also do a close read of providers’ terms and conditions and, when needed, will call ISPs to verify the details.
Our process has some limitations you should know about. Pricing and speed data are variable: Certain addresses may qualify for different tiers of service and monthly costs may vary, even within a city. The best way to identify your particular options is to plug your address into a provider’s website.
Note that the prices, speed and other information listed above and in the provider cards below may differ from what we found in our research. The cards display the full range of a provider’s pricing and speed across the US, according to our database of plan information provided directly by ISPs, while the text is specific to whats available in Asheville. The prices referenced within this articles text come from our research and include applicable discounts for setting up automatic payments each month — a standard industry offering. Other discounts and promotions might also be available for things like committing to a contract or bundling with a cellphone plan.
To learn more about how we review internet providers, visit our full methodology page.
Best internet options in Asheville
Though AT&T provides the best and fastest broadband connection in the area, Spectrum’s internet service is the most widely available, with its cable plans accessible by roughly 90% of households in Asheville. Otherwise, the options are slim, leaving you to choose a fixed wireless plan, from T-Mobile or another local provider, to connect your household to the internet. Ultimately, plan availability depends on your home address, so check the FCCs broadband map to get a comprehensive list of your specific options.
AT&T Fiber
Best Asheville internet provider
Product details
Price range
$55 – $180 per month
Speed range
300 – 5,000Mbps
Connection
Fiber
Key Info
Unlimited data, no contracts, equipment included
AT&T offers its high-speed fiber internet to about 40% of households in Asheville — and if that includes your address, we think it’s hands down your best choice. (The company also offers DSL in the area, which we’d recommend only as a last resort.) AT&T Fiber, which is our choice for best fiber ISP nationally, offers the widest variety of fiber plans and the best value in the region, with service starting at $55 per month for 300Mbps and running up to $180 per month for 5,000Mbps, though most people will get all of the speed they need from one of the midtier packages. The 100% fiber-optic service delivers symmetrical upload and download speeds — a perk you won’t get from the other major player in the region, Spectrum, which offers only cable internet service.
Availability: AT&T Fiber availability is somewhat scattered throughout Asheville with some higher-concentration pockets in the Erskine-Walton, Morningside Park and Oakley neighborhoods.
Plans and pricing: Most households can choose from five AT&T Fiber plans, with pricing ranging from $55 to $180 and speeds running from 300Mbps up to 5Gbps. The multi-gigabit plans, while expensive, feature the best price per megabit. That noted, most households will find 1 or 2Gbps speeds sufficient for handling productivity and entertainment tasks, including videoconferencing and online gaming.
Fees and service details: No equipment fees, data caps or contracts are required with AT&T Fiber.
Read our AT&T home internet review.
Spectrum
Best Asheville availability for high-speed internet
Product details
Price range
$40 – $70 per month
Speed range
300 – 940Mbps
Connection
Cable
Key Info
Unlimited data, simple pricing, no contracts, modem included, free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots
Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum Internet, is one of the largest ISPs in the US and offers broader access than AT&T Fiber in the area. In Asheville, there are two plans: Internet Ultra, with speeds up to 500Mbps for $50 per month and Internet Gig, with speeds up to 940Mbps for $70 per month. (Note that 940Mbps, which you’ll often see quoted in the fine print, is the approximate usable portion of a nonfiber gigabit, or 1,000Mbps, connection.) Spectrum does not require a term agreement, so you can cancel at any time without penalty, and there are no data limits, which means you won’t incur additional charges for exceeding a monthly bandwidth threshold.
But there’s a wrinkle: These prices are introductory and apply only for the first two years of service, after which you will be subject to a considerable monthly increase. (Spectrum often offers discounts, but the nonpromotional price for these two plans are $85 and $105 per month, respectively.) It’s also worth noting that Spectrum ranks fourth in customer satisfaction among the major internet providers in the eastern US, according to J.D. Power, and the local Reddit forums reinforce that mediocre reputation.
Availability: Spectrum’s cable internet is more widely available than AT&T Fiber, accessible to approximately 90% of households in Asheville.
Plans and pricing: Spectrum offers two plans. The entry-level tier costs $50 per month and features download speeds up to 500Mbps and upload up to 20Mbps. The company’s Internet Gig plan costs $70 per month for download speeds up to 940Mbps and 35Mbps for uploading.
Fees and service details: Spectrum Internet features no term agreements or data limits. The company includes a free modem, but charges an additional $5 per month for an optional Wi-Fi router.
Read our Spectrum Internet review.
T-Mobile Home Internet
Best alternative to wired home internet in Asheville
Product details
Price range
$50 per month ($30 for eligible mobile customers)
Speed range
72 – 245Mbps
Connection
Fixed wireless
Key Info
Unlimited data, equipment included, no contracts, no additional fees
Fixed wireless speeds are typically considerably slower than what you’ll get from fiber or cable internet services — and your connection can be especially slow during peak hours. But if your address isn’t eligible for AT&T Fiber or Spectrum Internet, T-Mobile’s service offers straightforward pricing, decent speed and the best score of all nonfiber providers in the American Customer Satisfaction Indexs 2023 survey. With no long-term contracts, no data caps and no equipment fees, it’s a viable option — but only if you can’t get cable or fiber.
Availability: T-Mobiles 5G home internet service covers around 70% of Asheville households.
Plans and pricing: T-Mobile offers one home internet plan, which costs $50 a month and delivers 72 to 245Mbps for download speed and 15 to 31Mbps for uploading. If you bundle it with a T-Mobile cellular phone plan, you may be eligible for a considerable monthly discount.
Fees and service details: Everything is included in the monthly price — theres no extra charge for equipment. T-Mobile guarantees the price for as long as you stay a customer and you can give the service a « Worry-free Test Drive » for 15 days.
Read our T-Mobile Home Internet review.
