Internet Providers in Columbia, South Carolina

Best Internet Providers in Columbia, SC

If you’re shopping for internet in Columbia, South Carolina, your clear-cut best choice for internet is AT&T Fiber. Not to be confused with AT&T Internet (which is AT&T’s brand name for IPBB internet — it’s basically DSL), AT&T Fiber is AT&T’s top-flight internet offering. It uses a fiber-optic network to offer eye-watering speeds of up to 5 Gbps. Our local review data suggests it yields higher customer approval ratings than most of its competition.

If AT&T Fiber isn’t available in your area of Columbia, your second choice should be the local cable provider, Spectrum. Spectrum gets mixed but overall decent marks from its customers based on our review data. Its top available speed of up to 1 Gbps is fast enough to easily handle a typical household’s internet traffic. Spectrum offers internet-only plans starting at $49.99 per month. But it also offers sizable savings with its bundles, which start at $49.99 per month and include other services, like phone service or cable TV.

We recommend sticking with fiber or cable internet, but there are other connection types available in Columbia. AT&T Internet uses a DSL connection type, among others, to create its “IPBB” network. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet and its 5G home competitors use cell towers to reach customers wirelessly. Satellite internet services like Starlink are wireless, too.

Fastest Internet Providers in Columbia, SC

Columbia’s fastest internet provider is AT&T Internet. The company’s top plan offers a maximum speed of up to 5 Gbps.

For most users, gigabit internet (meaning a speed of 1 Gbps) will be plenty of bandwidth, even if you have a large household and plan to use multiple internet-connected devices at once to do intense things like stream live TV. Multi Gig speeds are likely to be overkill for most families, though that could change as technology continues to advance and higher-quality (and therefore more bandwidth-intensive) streaming formats are popularized.

You can get that gigabit speed from a cable provider, too. Spectrum’s speeds are nothing to sneeze at! With that said, fiber speeds mean more, because fiber internet offers upload speeds that are just as fast as its download speeds. With cable, DSL, and other connection types, upload speeds are always significantly slower than download speeds.

Internet Availability in Columbia, SC

Deciding which internet provider to choose in Columbia basically comes down to one question: Can you get AT&T Fiber or not? If AT&T Fiber is available to you, we recommend you choose it.  AT&T Fiber has the best speeds, it’s super reliable, and customers love it. If AT&T Fiber isn’t available in your area, you’ll have to choose between Columbia’s cable provider, Spectrum, and AT&T’s DSL-like IPBB product, AT&T Internet.

So where is AT&T Fiber available? In short, it’s available mostly in the residential neighborhoods outside of Columbia’s downtown area. You shouldn’t expect to find AT&T Fiber in Arsenal Hill or in the districts nearest to the University of South Carolina. As we move into areas like Wales Garden (to the south of the University) and Elmwood Park (to the north of Arsenal Hill), you’ll start to see blocks where AT&T offers its fiber internet service. Availability improves as you continue further out, into neighborhoods like Rosewood on the southern side of town and neighborhoods like Eau Claire on the northern side.

Neighborhoods east of the city center don’t do quite as well. Unfortunately, if you live near the Main Street District or in Waverly or Five Points, you aren’t as likely to be able to sign up for AT&T Fiber. In areas like this, consider Spectrum’s high-speed plans and bundles.