Best Internet Providers in Los Angeles – CNET [CNET]

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 home internet 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.

That said, Los Angeles internet speeds are somewhat bogged down by an abundance of DSL networks still used by major providers like AT&T and Frontier. Per Ookla’s Q4 2021 reporting, Los Angeles was only the 27th fastest city among the top 100 metros in the US. It scored a median download speed of just over 170 megabits per second and a median upload speed just shy of 15Mbps. By comparison, Charlotte was the fastest city on the list (median download of 204Mbps, median upload at 23Mbps) and the country’s most populous metro area, New York, made the top 10 (tied at No. 7 with Durham, North Carolina). 

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 of the 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 service providers in Los Angeles.

Are there any other internet options in Los Angeles?

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

• 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. You can find its DSL and fiber-optic service 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 its 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 a month.
• 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 a majority 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: Similar to T-Mobile above, this is a fixed wireless home internet option. But unlike T-Mobile, Verizon utilizes strictly 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.  

Digging into the details of home internet in Los Angeles

It’s one thing to get an overview of the internet providers that offer service in Los Angeles. But the questions we get most often revolve around finding the cheapest internet plans available, or finding the fastest options possible. So, let’s drill down more specifically on those two areas.

Los Angeles internet pricing

The average starting price for internet service in the Los Angeles market is approximately $38 per month. Though Cox is only available in a small portion of Los Angeles County, it rings in with the lowest starting price at $20 a month for its Internet Starter 25 plan. 

The prize of the highest starting price goes to AT&T and its new Internet 5000 plan, unveiled in 2022, at $180 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.

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 $30 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.

Los Angeles internet speeds

As I mentioned earlier in this article, Los Angeles doesn’t crack the top 25 of the fastest cities in the US. A big reason why is that 100% fiber connections are not yet as prevalent as cable and DSL connections in the city. But major efforts by AT&T — which is 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.

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

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. 

Los Angeles internet FAQs