What is the best internet provider in Athens?

AT&T Fiber is the best internet provider in Athens, offering the fastest speeds in the city along with straightforward service terms and high customer satisfaction ratings. While it is slightly more expensive than other providers in the area, its prices do not automatically increase after a year or two, and you receive significantly faster internet speeds.

However, if you're looking for the cheapest price but still desire a reliable internet service provider, Spectrum offers plans starting at just $50 per month. Pricing on Spectrum's standalone internet plans increases after a year, however, and renting a Wi-Fi router can add an extra $10 to your monthly bill. If you don’t want to worry about caveats like that, T-Mobile Home Internet offers a transparent alternative. Everything is included in its $50 monthly bill, and your price is locked in for as long as you stay a customer.

Best internet in Athens, Georgia

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Other available internet providers in Athens

• Satellite internet: Satellite is an option wherever you have a clear view of the southern sky, but it’s rarely your best option. HughesNet and Viasat are the traditional satellite ISPs, and both come with slow speeds, high monthly prices and stingy data caps. Starlink is an internet provider from SpaceX that uses low-earth orbit satellites to provide faster speeds, but you’ll have to buy the equipment upfront for $499. 
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Like T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon offers fixed wireless internet in Athens. It’s only available to 27% of households, but it’s worth considering if you can get it. Speeds go up to 1,000Mbps, and you can pay a very low price when you bundle with a Verizon cellphone plan. 

Cheap internet options in Athens

Athens residents have several good options for cheap internet. Spectrum, T-Mobile and Verizon offer service starting at $50, but you'll get faster speeds with Spectrum. If you don’t want to worry about your bill going up, T-Mobile Home Internet locks in your price for as long as you remain a customer.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Athens

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

Athens internet providers, such as 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 promotions, check out our guide to the best internet deals. 

How fast is Athens broadband?

Five internet plans in Athens offer gig speeds (download speeds above 1,000Mbps). That’s fewer than Atlanta (10 gig-speed plans) but the same as Augusta and Greenville. 

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 person sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming. 
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two people to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming. 
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more people to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Athens

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 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. 

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? 

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. 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, you can visit our how we test ISPs page.

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

No matter where you live in Athens, you should have access to a few good internet providers. AT&T Fiber is the best of the bunch, and it’s not particularly close. It has the fastest speeds and the highest customer satisfaction scores of any provider in the area, and you won’t have to worry about price increases, data caps or equipment fees. Spectrum is a solid backup option, but its upload speeds are much lower, and prices increase dramatically once the introductory rate expires. If you don’t want to worry about your bill going up, T-Mobile Home Internet’s main selling point is its simplicity: it costs $50-$70 a month (or less with an eligible phone plan), comes with a price-lock guarantee and includes all equipment.

Internet providers in Athens FAQs