CNET’s top recommendation for the best internet provider in Arlington is AT&T Fiber. If you can get it at your address, your search is essentially over. AT&T Fiber offers ultrafast upload and download speeds at reasonable prices, making it the best option for most Arlington households.
If AT&T Fiber isn’t available, Spectrum and T-Mobile Home Internet are decent second choices, though they come with a few trade-offs.
Top internet providers in Arlington
The best internet providers offer fast speeds at affordable rates, and have a track record of satisfying customers. In Arlington, the lone ISP that checks all those boxes is AT&T Fiber.
Arlington residents can expect median download speeds of 260Mbps and upload speeds of 23Mbps, according to Ookla speed test results. That’s about on par with Texas (225/33Mbps) and the US as a whole (245/34Mbps). Arlington ranks ahead of nearby Dallas for download speed but falls behind Fort Worth. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
Fastest internet plans in Arlington
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Source: CNET analysis of provider data.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in Arlington
Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, 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.
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. 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 the time of our prepublication fact-check.
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, you can visit our page on how we test ISPs.
What’s the final word on internet providers in Arlington?
Fast internet is widely available in Arlington — 93% of the city can get 250Mbps speeds, compared to 83% of Texas — but residents don’t have as many options as they do in other cities. AT&T Fiber is widely available, and if you can get it, you should. It’s the only ISP in the area that has symmetrical upload and download speeds, and the monthly prices are reasonable — and don’t automatically increase over time the way Spectrum’s sometimes do. T-Mobile Home Internet offers an affordable option throughout Arlington, but it doesn’t offer the same high speeds as AT&T and Spectrum.
Internet providers in Arlington FAQs
What is the best internet service provider in Arlington?
Yes, fiber internet is available in Arlington through AT&T and Spectrum in some areas. The provider offers symmetrical upload and download speeds up to 5,000Mbps throughout the city.
What is the cheapest internet provider in Arlington?
The internet provider in Arlington that offers the fastest plan is AT&T Fiber. Its AT&T Fiber Internet 5000 plan provides symmetrical upload and download speeds of 5,000Mbps.
