What is the best internet provider in Ontario, California?
Frontier Fiber is the best internet service provider in Ontario, offering fast, symmetrical speeds, unlimited data and no extra fees for equipment. Frontier also has some of the lowest prices in the area, and it doesn’t automatically increase prices after a year or two.
Spectrum has the cheapest internet plans in Ontario, starting at just $30 monthly for 100Mbps speeds. However, prices increase significantly after two years, but that’s fairly common practice in the internet world. If you don’t want to worry about price hikes, T-Mobile Home Internet is the only ISP in Ontario that offers a price-lock guarantee, providing plenty of speed for most homes.
methodology page.
Best internet in Ontario, California
Speed range
500 – 5,000Mbps
Price range
$50 – $155 per month
Our take – It’s available to only about half of Ontario, but Frontier Fiber is the clear standout if you can get it. It’s the only fiber provider in the city, which means it’s your only option for fast upload speeds — essential if anyone in your house games online or makes video calls. Unlike Spectrum, Frontier Fiber includes equipment in the monthly price, and your rates won’t automatically increase after a year or two.
Our take – Spectrum is available almost everywhere in Ontario, and it’s a solid backup option for home internet. Prices start at just $30 per month for 100Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speed, but that plan isn’t available at all addresses. Prices also increase significantly after two years, but that’s fairly common for internet providers.
Our take – If you don’t want to worry about your bill going up, T-Mobile is the only ISP in the area that offers a price-lock guarantee. It uses a fixed wireless connection, which can be more erratic than wired internet like Frontier and Spectrum. Still, customers are generally happy with their service: T-Mobile earned the highest score of any non-fiber provider in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey.
How to find internet deals and promotions in Ontario
The best internet deals and the top promotions in Ontario depend on what discounts are available during a given time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.
Ontario internet providers, such as Frontier and Verizon, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Many, including Spectrum and T-Mobile, run the same standard pricing year-round.
For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals.
Fastest internet plans in Ontario
Show more (1 item)
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.
0 to 5Mbps allows you to tackle the basics — browsing the internet, sending and receiving email, 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 Ontario
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? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.
But it doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for 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 the time of publication.
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. 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, visit our how we test ISPs page.
Internet providers in Ontario FAQs
according to FCC data. Frontier Fiber is the only fiber internet provider in the city.
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Updated Dec. 6, 2023 7:00 p.m. PT
CNET staff — not advertisers, partners or business interests — determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid. Reviews ethics statement
Joe Supan is a senior writer for CNET covering home technology, broadband, and moving. Prior to joining CNET, Joe led MyMove’s moving coverage and reported on broadband policy, the digital divide, and privacy issues for the broadband marketplace Allconnect. He has been featured as a guest columnist on Broadband Breakfast, and his work has been referenced by the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, National Geographic, Yahoo! Finance and more.
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