Perhaps San Antonio’s most famous attraction, the Alamo, is mythologized as a tale of brave, defiant loss. But this Lone Star State city is a frontrunner regarding the speed of its broadband connections. Of the country’s top 100 cities, San Antonio landed in the top five for the fastest fixed internet speeds on average.
According to the latest results from the speed-testing site Ookla, which tracks city speeds based on daily tests run by customers across the US, San Antonio residents enjoy median download speeds of over 260 megabits per second and median uploads of approximately 35Mbps. This solidifies the San Antonio metro area in the country’s top five and ahead of kindred Texas cities like Austin, Dallas and Houston.
What does that mean for you? If you live in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area, or plan to move there, you’ll have some zippy options, from fiber providers like AT&T and Google Fiber to reliable cable connections from Spectrum. Even if you venture beyond city limits, you should have some reasonable options available. If not, satellite providers like HughesNet and Viasat always ensure you can get your home online. But before you go that route, explore fixed wireless solutions, including 5G home internet, which continues to make significant strides in 2023.
Best internet providers in the Alamo City
Our pick for the best overall ISP in San Antonio is AT&T, but there was plenty of close competition. CNET examines customer service, speed, pricing and overall value before recommending the best broadband in your area. All prices listed on this page reflect available discounts for setting up paperless billing. If you decide not to go with automatic monthly payments, your price will be higher. Here’s what you need to know about the best internet providers in San Antonio.
Note: The prices, speeds and features detailed in the article text may differ from those listed in the product detail cards, which represent providers’ national offerings. Your particular internet service options — including prices and speeds — depend on your address and may differ from those detailed here.
AT&T Internet has a strong presence in San Antonio, reaching approximately 70% of households, according to the Federal Communications Commission. However, not all of those homes can access the company’s fiber service. Some AT&T serviceable areas will feature the company’s DSL offering, which doesn’t compare. Don’t believe me? AT&T said so, essentially — it publicly announced a goal of halving its copper coverage by 2025.
You may be thinking, “Didn’t he just sing the praises of AT&T?” Yes, but not all San Antonio customers within AT&T’s reach get access to AT&T Fiber. Some still only get DSL service, which features top download speeds of around 100Mbps, and in some cases, maxes out at around 25Mbps, which is the bare minimum to be considered broadband speed.
T-Mobile has made some significant strides with its 5G internet service. It boasts over 3 million subscribers, availability to over 50 million people and an eye on continued expansion. Most impressively, T-Mobile says that nearly a third of its customers are from rural areas. So, if you’re in an area where DSL or satellite have been your only choices, T-Mobile Home Internet is a very intriguing option.
Charter Communications’ broadband service reaches more households in the San Antonio metropolitan area than even AT&T does. The two providers are essentially even in San Antonio proper, but Spectrum stretches out more significantly into neighboring New Braunfels. Why might that matter? It could come in handy if you need to move within the region and don’t want the hassle of changing your ISP.
All other available San Antonio residential internet providers
You can find many broadband options across the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan region. Availability is dependent on your address, of course, but you may be able to find some appealing choices beyond our highlighted picks.
Astound Broadband/Grande: You’ll be hard-pressed to find better starting rates in the region than what you’ll get from this cable internet provider. In San Antonio, Astound’s cheapest plan is a 300Mbps tier for $25 per month. At 8 cents per Mbps, that’s excellent value for a provider’s opening offering. Most ISPs, especially cable providers, will have a starting plan of around 50 to 100Mbps. If you’re looking for speed, Astound’s fastest plan — 1,200Mbps — is also one of the best values in the city, ringing in at 5 cents per Mbps, or $60 monthly. It also comes with a free year of HBO Max. All Astound plans come with a two-year price guarantee but beware of a potentially steep increase after that.
Frontier: You can’t get Frontier anywhere within San Antonio city limits. But the provider’s mix of DSL and fiber service is an option to the southeast, specifically in the suburb of Floresville. Similar to our guidance on AT&T service, you’ll want to check your address to see if you can get fiber service rather than DSL. Frontier Fiber — with symmetrical plans of 500Mbps, gigabit or 2Gbps speeds — is an appealing choice. But you could probably do better if you get the slower, less reliable DSL.
Ranch Wireless: This rural wireless provider covers markets throughout south-central Texas. While it doesn’t operate in San Antonio, it does reach many towns on the outskirts, including New Braunfels in the northeast, Adkins and Calaveras in the east, and several rural locations to the south, including Campbellton, Charlotte, Jourdanton and Pleasonton. Ranch Wireless features plans ranging from $30 per month for 1Mbps download and 30GB of data to $120 monthly for unlimited data and 25Mbps download speed.
Rise Broadband: This fixed wireless provider offers internet service on the far east and upper northwest portion of San Antonio. It offers speeds up to 50Mbps and unlimited data too. That makes it an especially viable option for residents outside city limits, in towns like Floresville, Jourdanton, Pleasanton and San Geronimo.
Satellite internet: If you live in San Antonio proper, you should have little need for satellite internet service. There are much faster (and cheaper) alternatives to be found. But suppose you’re part of the significant number of suburban and rural San Antonio-New Braunfels region residents. In that case, you might have reason to consider HughesNet or Viasat, the leading satellite broadband providers. A big drawback to both is they each require a two-year contract commitment. Elon Musk’s Starlink has them beat on that front — it nixes all term contract agreements. However, per the Starlink map, availability is short and potential customers must wait until later in 2023.
Verizon 5G Home Internet: This provider’s 5G fixed wireless home internet product has a higher average download speed (300Mbps) than T-Mobile Home Internet and also claims a similar all-in price that includes all equipment and fees for $50 per month (with eligible Verizon mobile customers getting a 50% discount on top of that). So why have I listed T-Mobile higher? Verizon’s coverage is strongest in metro areas, while T-Mobile flexes its muscles more capably in rural areas. That better fits the San Antonio-New Braunfels region.
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Pricing for San Antonio home internet service
The average starting price for home internet in San Antonio is approximately $48 a month. That considers the promo prices you’ll get at the beginning, not the standard rates you’ll get hit with a year or so later. $48 monthly puts San Antonio toward the higher end of markets CNET has covered so far, including Brooklyn ($36 a month), Los Angeles ($38 a month), Denver ($39 per month), San Francisco ($40 a month), New York City ($41 per month), Seattle ($42 monthly), Dallas and Philadelphia (both near $43 per month), Houston ($45 monthly), Phoenix ($46 per month), Atlanta ($47 monthly), Orlando ($48 a month) and Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego and St. Louis (all approximately $50 monthly).
Cheap internet options in the River City
Although the lowest starting price in San Antonio is a tie between Rise Broadband and its 25Mbps plan for $25 a month and Astound Broadband’s opening selection, the best value is Astound’s 300Mbps plan, which is exponentially faster.
Sticking with the topic of value, most providers we’ve listed are also participating in the Federal Communication Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program. It provides a $30 monthly discount to eligible, low-income homes for affordable, high-speed internet. If you qualify, the ACP can be used towards any internet plan from participating providers and in some cases, you might be able to get internet service for free.
What are the cheapest internet plans in San Antonio?
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Source: CNET analysis of provider data
Fastest internet providers in San Antonio
As I mentioned earlier, the River City is the fastest broadband city in Texas and one of the country’s fastest cities regarding median download internet speeds.
The city’s impressive internet speed numbers are undoubtedly buoyed by the fiber internet service of AT&T (which features a 5Gbps plan in some areas of the city), Frontier Fiber (which also boasts a 5 gig plan) and Google Fiber, whose cheapest (and slowest) plan is a full gigabit.
What are the fastest internet plans in San Antonio?
What’s the bottom line on San Antonio internet providers?
We mention it often in our CNET home internet reviews, but it bears repeating: All things being equal, fiber internet service trumps other internet connection types every time. However, what matters is what’s available at your address. You’re in great shape if you can get AT&T Fiber or Google Fiber at your home. If not, there are still affordable cable options — like Astound Broadband and Spectrum — that’ll get you plenty of speed and decent reliability.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in San Antonio
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’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for 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 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.
To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.
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