What is the best internet provider in Honolulu?

Hawaiian Telcom is the best internet service provider in Honolulu. The service offers affordable monthly prices, nearly symmetrical upload and download speeds and price-lock guarantees of up to three years on some plans. However, once the promo period ends, all plans increase by $15 a month, with the cheapest plan increasing after a year.

If you’re looking for speedy plans, Spectrum is the fastest internet provider in Honolulu, with download speeds up to 1,000Mbps. Spectrum’s upload speeds are much lower, and its price increases are even more extreme than Hawaiian Telcom’s—two factors contributing to the provider’s below-average customer satisfaction scores. According to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, Spectrum fell behind by four points compared to the industry's average.

Spectrum offers the cheapest plan in the area, a $30-a-month plan for 100Mbps. However, if you don’t want to deal with price increases or hidden fees, T-Mobile Home Internet is one of the most customer-friendly internet service providers in the country. Its speeds don’t reach the same heights as the other two ISPs on our list, but most customers haven’t had an issue. T-Mobile also has the highest customer satisfaction score of any non-fiber ISP in the country.

Best internet in Honolulu, Hawaii

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Other available internet providers in Honolulu

• Satellite Internet: Outside of our top three picks, the only other internet service providers in Honolulu with widespread availability are satellite providers Viasat and Starlink. Viasat's singular plan is free of contracts, so you don't have to worry about being tied to a term agreement. However, Viasat Unleashed has a steep monthly price and includes a soft cap of 850GB. Starlink has faster speeds of up to 220Mbps whereas Viasat tops out at 150Mbps only. The standard plan comes with unlimited data, but you have to pay $599 to purchase its satellite dish before you activate the service. 

Cheap internet options in Honolulu

The average starting monthly cost in Honolulu is around $46. Spectrum offers the cheapest internet in Honolulu, with plans starting at $30 per month. But after a year, that price increases to $50. If you don’t want to worry about price hikes, T-Mobile Home Internet is the only provider in Honolulu that doesn't automatically raise its rates, and you can get it for as low as $40 monthly when you bundle with an eligible cellphone plan. Some households can also take advantage of low-income internet programs available in Honolulu.

What's the cheapest internet plan in Honolulu?

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Honolulu

The best internet deals and the top promotions in Honolulu depend on what discounts are available during that time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers. 

Honolulu internet providers, such as Hawaiian Telcom and Spectrum, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, including T-Mobile Home Internet, run the same standard pricing year-round. 

For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals. 

How fast is Honolulu broadband?

According to the latest Ookla speed test data, Honolulu residents receive median download speeds of 222Mbps and upload speeds of 23Mbps. This is good for 64th out of the top 100 most populous cities in the US and slightly lower than Hawaii as a state. Spectrum and Hawaiian Telcom have gig-speed plans available in Honolulu.

Fastest internet plans in Honolulu

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What’s a good internet speed?

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 FCC. 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.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Honolulu

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. So 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. 

This guide leverages an in-house artificial intelligence tool called RAMP, which is trained on our own writing and uses our database to generate content about specific internet service providers that our writers can use in determining and presenting our picks for a given guide. Check CNET’s AI policy for more information about how our teams use (and don’t use) AI tools. 

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 our pre-publication 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, though 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.

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

What’s the final word on internet providers in Honolulu?

There aren’t a lot of internet providers operating in Honolulu, but the ones it does have are widely available and offer good value. The best ISP in the area is Hawaiian Telcom, a fiber internet provider with one of the cheapest plans in the area. Spectrum offers slightly faster download speeds than Hawaiian Telcom, but its upload speeds are dramatically lower, and the price jumps significantly after a year. T-Mobile Home Internet is a wireless alternative in the area that comes with a price-lock guarantee, but it doesn’t reach the same speeds as Hawaiian Telcom or Spectrum. 

Internet providers in Honolulu FAQs