AT&T Fiber tops our list — but with less than half of households wired for it, Spectrum’s cable internet may be the most (and only) practical alternative.
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? It’s available to less than half of Asheville residents.
If you can’t 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 Commission’s 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 what’s available in Asheville. The prices referenced within this article’s 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 FCC’s broadband map to get a comprehensive list of your specific options.
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.
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.
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 Index’s 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.
Other available Asheville residential internet providers
AT&T Fiber and Spectrum cable internet are your best bets for internet in this area. But there are a few other options available:
US Cellular: Like T-Mobile, this cellular provider offers fixed internet service that starts at $50 per month, and covers roughly 75% of households in Asheville. But while US Cellular doesn’t charge for exceeding a data threshold, the company may slow your speeds once you use up your monthly data allotment.
Carolina West Wireless: Another fixed wireless provider, Carolina West uses its (much smaller) cellular network to provide home internet to about 80% of households in the Asheville area.
Skyrunner: Available to more than 90% of Asheville residents, Skyrunner offers fixed wireless plans that are more expensive than T-Mobile’s. The company also charges hefty installation fees and imposes data caps on some service plans.
Satellite internet: Satellite internet is typically a last resort. The drawbacks include lengthy contracts, slow speeds, high upfront costs for equipment, low data caps and high latency. HughesNet and Viasat are the two major satellite providers in the country, with Starlink an additional up-and-coming option.
Pricing info on Asheville home internet service
Spectrum’s 500Mpbs cable plan, at $50 per month, is slightly cheaper than the entry-level AT&T Fiber plan, which costs $55 per month. You can get an even cheaper monthly price from T-Mobile, however, if you bundle home internet service with an eligible cellphone plan.
AT&T is the one provider that offers fiber to a significant percentage of households in the area, though Skyrunner’s fiber service may be available to a very modest number of addresses. Spectrum’s cable service tops out at 940Mpbs — not as fast as AT&T’s top-tier plans, but sufficient for most households.
Fastest internet plans in Asheville
Source: CNET analysis of provider data.
What’s the final word on internet providers in Asheville?
Choosing an internet provider in Asheville is pretty straightforward: If your household is eligible for AT&T Fiber, that’s what you want. Its symmetrical 1Gbps service, at $80 per month, will strike the right balance between speed and price for most households. Otherwise, Spectrum’s Internet Gig cable service is the best alternative, with speeds up to 1Gbps for $70 per month.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in Asheville
Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP 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. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. 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?
While the answer to those questions is often layered and complex, the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.
Asheville internet FAQs
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