Best Internet Providers in Los Angeles: Cable, Fiber and 5G – CNET

Yes. Although fiber internet connections are currently not as prevalent in Los Angeles as cable internet or DSL, you can find fiber internet throughout Los Angeles County. Top fiber internet providers in Los Angeles include AT&T, Frontier and Race Communications.
Spectrum is tough to beat among Los Angeles internet providers if you’re looking for consistent service and wide availability. Yet AT&T’s fiber plans take the top prize for the fastest — including symmetrical download and upload speeds — plans to be found in LA. Overall, change is coming over the next few years in the City of Angels, as providers like AT&T and Frontier start to move away from their older DSL lines (which are still prominent in the area) toward their growing fiber networks. Cable internet still rules in LA, but fiber is the future. 
Read our Spectrum review.

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• Price range: $55 to $180 per month
• Speed range: 300 to 5,000Mbps
• Highlights: Unlimited data, no contracts, equipment included
• Special offers: Up to $200 gift card if you sign up online 

As for your low-cost internet options, Angelenos have several choices from internet providers in the area, nearly all of whom participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program from the Federal Communications Commission. It provides a per month benefit to qualifying households to help them afford high-speed internet service. As you can see from the chart below, some providers’ cheap internet plans — like those from Cox, Race Communications and Starry — will ultimately be free when combined with the ACP credit.
The average starting price for internet service in Los Angeles is approximately per month. Of the other major markets CNET has covered thus far, only Brooklyn rings in at a lower starting price ( a month).
Starry Internet is riding a high after being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2022. Starry aims to put the customer first by making high-speed internet affordable and hassle-free. It uses similar millimeter-wave technology as 5G to deliver high-speed broadband to customers’ homes.

There are other ISPs in the City of Angels beyond our top three picks for the best internet providers in Los Angeles. In some cases, they may be available to only small portions of LA but might be a viable choice for one reason or another. 

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• Price range: $50 to $90 per month
• Speed range: 300 to 940Mbps
• Highlights: No data caps, no contracts, free modem rental
• Special offers: Free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots

For the Los Angeles market, Starry Internet coverage includes some of downtown Los Angeles, as well as Beverly Hills, Burbank, Long Beach and Santa Monica. Most customers will have access to Starry’s 200Mbps tier for . But some areas might be able to sign up for Starry Connect — its low-cost internet access program for (which customers could get for free through the government’s Affordable Connectivity Program) — or Starry Gigabit, which boasts 1Gbps download and 500Mbps upload speeds for .
In addition to fiber, cable and DSL options, Los Angeles is also home to several third-party providers — like EarthLink, EIN, Synergy Internet and Ultra Home Internet — that offer service using the networks of some providers listed below, like AT&T and Spectrum. We won’t get into those, nor the ever-available HughesNet and Viasat, since all Los Angeles addresses should have faster and more flexible alternatives than satellite internet. Without further ado, let’s look at the best internet providers in Los Angeles.

Can I get fiber internet in Los Angeles?

Spectrum Internet As I mentioned earlier in this article, Los Angeles doesn’t crack the top 50 of the fastest cities in the US. A big reason is that 100% fiber connections are not yet as prevalent as cable and DSL connections in the city. But major efforts by AT&T (making its new Internet 2000 and Internet 5000 plans more widely available throughout 2022) and Frontier (whose 2-gigabit plan is now available for all locations serviceable for its FiberOptic offerings) should help boost those stats.

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Sarah Tew/CNET

• Price range: $30 to $80 per month
• Speed range: 50 to 1,000Mbps
• Highlights: Unlimited data, free equipment and installation, no contracts
• Special offers: 30-Day Happy Interneting Guarantee promises a full refund if you’re not satisfied with the service and cancel within the first month

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Most internet providers in Los Angeles offer at least three different tiers, ranging in price from a low of per month to a high of 0 monthly. Overall, the average starting cost for a provider’s cheapest plan is per month. Keep in mind that some providers also charge an additional cost to rent their modem and router.
Though Cox is only available in a small portion of Los Angeles County, it rings in with the lowest starting price at a month for its Internet Starter 25 plan. 

Are there any other internet options in Los Angeles?

How much does internet cost in Los Angeles?

• Cox: Although it’s one of the country’s biggest cable internet providers, Cox has a relatively small footprint in the Los Angeles metro area. It’s solely available in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Starting prices for plans begin at $20 per month for 25Mbps download and go up to $100 per month for its gigabit option. 
• Frontier: Frontier has a notable presence in the Los Angeles market. In fact, according to Ookla’s most recent data, Frontier is the area’s fastest provider on average, at 227Mbps download speed. Its DSL and fiber-optic service are scattered throughout the area, including some of Beverly Hills, Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica and portions of western LA. Similar to our guidance on AT&T, if Frontier’s DSL service is the only option at your address, seek other alternatives. But if Frontier FiberOptic is on the table — which has options for 500Mbps, gigabit or 2Gbps symmetrical speeds starting at $50-$150 per month — you’d be hard-pressed to find a better option.
• Race Communications: Like Cox, Race Communications has a fairly small piece of the pie in the Los Angeles market. It’s mainly situated in Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and Santa Monica. But unlike Cox, and all other providers listed here, it’s a 100% fiber-optic service. There are two plan options: $25 a month for 25Mbps, or Gig service for a very affordable $60 monthly.
• Sonic Telecom: This ISP is mainly known for offering service in the Bay Area. But Angelenos can find Sonic service in a handful of neighborhoods, including Beverly Hills, Glendale, Inglewood, Pasadena and West Hollywood. Although Sonic is known for building 100% fiber networks, much of its offering in the LA market is older DSL, and most of its fiber service in the area currently utilizes AT&T’s fiber network. 
• T-Mobile Home Internet: T-Mobile’s fixed wireless home internet solution uses its 5G and 4G LTE networks to get customers online at an average download speed of 100Mbps. It’s appealing for its simplicity: $50 a month covers all equipment, taxes, installation fees and services. There are no data caps and no contracts required. Although it’s technically available throughout the Los Angeles metro area, you’ll need to plug in your address on the T-Mobile site to see if you’re serviceable. 
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Like T-Mobile, this is a fixed wireless home internet option. But unlike T-Mobile, Verizon leans more heavily on its Ultra Wideband 5G technology, so its average download speeds are higher, around 300Mbps. It also features an all-in price that covers taxes, installation fees and equipment, but splits the cost into two buckets: $50 a month for a two-year price-lock guarantee, or $70 a month for a three-year price-lock and additional perks.  

But back to AT&T Fiber. It offers excellent value. Most AT&T Fiber households in Los Angeles are eligible for its three main plans — 300Mbps, 500Mbps or 1000Mbps — and a growing number are becoming serviceable for its fastest options, a 2 gigabits per second plan and a 5Gbps tier, which is the fastest residential plan you can find in Tinseltown. All AT&T Fiber plans feature symmetrical upload and download speeds, no data caps, no term agreements and no equipment rental fee. 

Digging into the details of home internet in Los Angeles

Which internet provider in Los Angeles is the cheapest?

Los Angeles internet pricing

It’s one thing to get an overview of the best internet providers in Los Angeles. But the questions we get most often revolve around finding the cheapest internet plans or the fastest possible options. So, let’s drill down more specifically on those two areas.
Read our Starry home internet overview.
Los Angeles is a magical place. At least, that’s what it seems to me from the outside. It’s home to the rich and famous, the Lakers, the Dodgers, Hollywood and the Santa Monica Pier. It’s also home to more broadband options than most cities. Shop around and you’ll find broadband choices from fast fiber providers like AT&T and Frontier, reliable cable connections from Cox and Spectrum, the growing availability of 5G home internet from Verizon and T-Mobile, and more.
The prize of the highest starting price goes to AT&T and its new Internet 5000 plan, unveiled in 2022, at 0 a month. We’ll talk more about it in a few moments when we discuss the fastest plans available in Los Angeles. But it should be noted that despite the high monthly cost, it’s actually a high-value plan: it has a very low cost of just under 4 cents per Mbps, which is the best we’ve seen for any plan we’ve covered thus far at CNET.

Los Angeles internet speeds

If you’re looking just at the starting price, the cheapest internet provider in Los Angeles would be Cox, with its Internet Starter 25 plan for a month. However, that price jumps to a month after a year. If you consider the standard price, the cheapest internet provider in Los Angeles would be Race Communications and its Basic Broadband Plus plan, which is 25Mbps download and 25Mbps upload for a month.

What’s the bottom line on the best internet providers in Los Angeles?

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Best internet providers in Los Angeles FAQs