Internet Providers in Boston, Massachusetts

Best Internet Providers in Boston, MA

The best internet provider in Boston is Verizon Fios. Also worth considering is the city’s other major fiber internet provider, Earthlink. For most users, these fiber internet providers will offer the fastest speeds and most reliable service.

Verizon Fios (a longtime favorite in town and the traditional alternative to the city’s cable provider, Xfinity) offers speeds of up to 2 Gbps on a fiber-optic internet connection. Its prices start at $49.99 per month, and the company also offers bundles.

Earthlink’s prices start at $54.95 per month, and its speeds can reach 5 Gbps.

If you don’t have access to one of Boston’s fiber internet providers, your best fallback option will be one of the city’s cable internet providers. Though Xfinity is the most widely available such provider, many Bostonians prefer Astound Broadband Powered by RCN (formerly known simply as “RCN”); it has a solid reputation for pricing and customer service, albeit in a limited geographic footprint. If you’re outside of Astound’s market area and don’t have access to fiber options, then you’ll be looking at Xfinity; it offers bundles and internet plans that can reach speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Though sometimes maligned by locals for its monopoly status (which is now threatened by the arrival of fiber providers), Xfinity still offers undeniably fast speeds. The company has also improved its reputation for customer service in recent years.

Fastest Internet Providers in Boston, MA

Boston’s fastest internet company is Xfinity, which offers speeds of up to 1 Gbps. But that’s not your only option: There are several pretty fast providers in the city.

We’d recommend that you look first at the fiber providers, Verizon Fios and Earthlink; they offer top speeds of up to 2 Gbps and 5 Gbps, respectively. Fiber internet offers “symmetrical” speeds, meaning that your upload speeds will be just as fast as your download speeds. Fiber internet is also more reliable at peak traffic times.

Cable providers can be very fast, too, however. Boston’s cable options are Xfinity (with a top speed of up to 1 Gbps) and Astound Broadband Powered by RCN (which has a top speed of up to ).

Internet Availability in Boston, MA

Boston has a fair number of internet providers (9, technically, though that number includes wireless providers); however, most residents will find themselves deciding between just a couple of options.

One option is sure to be Xfinity, which is Boston’s dominant cable provider. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the North End, South Boston, Back Bay, or anywhere else in town (or anywhere in Brookline or Cambridge, for that matter) — you’re going to have Xfinity as one of your options. Xfinity covers 99.2% of Boston, which is just about everything other than some parkland and industrial sites.

What will change depending on where you live within Boston is which providers you’ll be able to compare to Xfinity. The most important ones to look out for are Verizon Fios (56.0% availability) and EarthLink’s fiber internet plans (56.0% availability).

So, where can you get fiber internet in general (and our top pick, Verizon Fios, in particular)? Let’s start out on the city line, near Boston College. North of BC, in Brighton, Verizon Fios is widely available. That trend continues all the way into Allston — as long as you’re to the north of Commonwealth Avenue. South of Comm Ave is a different story: Coverage dries up after a few blocks. Verizon Fios’s availability seems to strictly follow the border with Brookline (which, as many Bostonians know, is technically not a part of Boston). You won’t find Verizon Fios in Coolidge Corner, we’re afraid.

Back in the parts of town that are technically, actually, truly Boston, Verizon Fios is once again widely available; the company serves just about every address in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Upham’s Corner, and down in Dorchester.

Verizon Fios is pretty widely available along the eastern side of the Brookline border, too. They’re missing a few spots near Boston Children’s Hospital and Northeastern University, but for the most part they do a great job of covering Mission Hill and Back Bay. Availability is great in the South End; however, it gets a little spotty in the Chinatown area before regaining great coverage in the North End.

Verizon Fios serves South Boston, too — from the heart of Southie up into the up-and-coming Seaport area. Charlestown and East Boston are also covered very well.

It’s worth noting that Verizon Fios’s tendency to follow the city limits is not just a Brookline thing. Somerville and Cambridge residents will find themselves largely cut off from Verizon Fios, too. How do you like them apples?