Best Internet Providers in Charlottesville, Virginia – CNET
Posted on September 26, 2023
Best Internet Providers in Charlottesville, Virginia - CNET
As the home of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville’s internet offerings must meet the needs of scholars and permanent residents alike. All need a reliable internet connection for work, school, streaming and staying connected with friends and family nearby or far away.
CNET recommends Xfinity as the best internet service provider in Charlottesville owing to its plan selection and extensive coverage throughout the area. However, local fiber provider Ting is an excellent choice if you’re looking for gig internet. For a low-cost internet alternative, you may consider T-Mobile’s 5G home internet service, which covers much of Charlottesville with max speeds ranging from 72 to 245Mbps.
Our team considers speeds, pricing, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Charlottesville across various categories. Our evaluation includes spot-checking local addresses for service availability. We also do a close read of providers’ terms and conditions and, when needed, will call ISPs to verify the details.
Our process has some limitations, though. Pricing and speed data are variable: Certain addresses may qualify for different service tiers, and monthly costs may vary, even within a city. The best way to identify your specific options is to plug your address into a provider’s website.
Note that the prices, speed and other information listed above and in the provider cards below may differ from what we found in our research. The cards display the full range of a provider’s pricing and speed across the US, according to our database of plan information provided directly by ISPs. At the same time, the text is specific to what’s available in Charlottesville. The prices referenced within this article’s text come from our research and include applicable discounts for setting up automatic payments each month — a standard industry offering. Other discounts and promotions might also be available for things like committing to a contract or bundling with a cellphone plan.
To learn more about how we review internet providers, visit our full methodology page.
Best internet options in Charlottesville
We think Xfinity is the best internet provider for most Charlottesville residents, but there are other decent options if you’re looking for something else. You’ll find our picks for the best ISPs in Charlottesville below.
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...Or call to order: Call to Learn More (877) 498-5506
Product details
Price range $20 – $300 per month Speed range 75 – 6,000Mbps Connection Cable Key Info Data caps on some plans, lots of plan options, solid customer satisfaction numbers
Xfinity is an established provider of cable internet service in Charlottesville and the surrounding area. Xfinity scored two points above the industry average in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index report and finished above average in three of four regions in the J.D. Power study for 2022.
Availability: Xfinity offers cable internet service to 99% of Charlottesville households, according to the FCC.
Plans and pricing: Xfinity offers five different plans in Charlottesville, with various options to suit different needs. The cheapest plan, Xfinity Connect More, offers download speeds up to 200Mbps starting at $25. For $10 more monthly, you can upgrade to the Fast plan, with download speeds up to 400Mbps. Next is the Superfast plan, offering double the download speed potential, 800Mbps, starting at $60 per month. Xfinity has two gigabit plans in Charlottesville: download speeds up to 1Gbps starting at $70 per month or 1.2Gbps starting at $80.
Xfinity’s cable internet, while reliable, doesn’t perform as well as fiber internet, with upload speeds limited to 35Mbps or below.
The Connect More plan increases in price after the first year, while most other plans increase after two or three years.
Fees and service details: Contracts are required on some Xfinity plans to get the best rates. Equipment rental starts at $15 per month, but customers can use their own equipment and skip the fee, and Xfinity Mobile customers waive the fee altogether on all but the cheapest plan.
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...Or call to order: Call to Learn More (877) 300-1397
Product details
Price range $19-$89 per month Speed range 5-1,000Mbps Connection Fiber Key Info Unlimited data, no contracts
Ting is your best bet for fiber internet in Charlottesville. There’s only one plan available, but the 100% fiber connection’s speed and reliability make it worth checking out.
Availability: Service is available throughout much of the city — nearly 60% of Charlottesville households, per the Federal Communications Commission. Neighborhoods along Water St. and E. High St. will see the best availability. However, those in Locust Grove and around the University of Virginia will likely be serviceable for Ting.
Plans and pricing: Ting offers one plan in the Charlottesville area: Home Gigabit. The plan advertises speeds up to 1,000Mbps upload and download (a significant advantage to fiber internet) starting at $89 per month.
Fees and service details: Wi-Fi can add $11 or $18 to your monthly bill depending on the level of service you choose, or you can use your own router and skip the fee altogether. There are no data caps or contracts required.
...Or call to order: Call to Learn More (877) 300-1397
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...Or call to order: Call to Learn More (877) 687-6988
Product details
Price range $50 per month ($30 for eligible mobile customers) Speed range 72 – 245Mbps Connection Fixed wireless Key Info Unlimited data, equipment included, no contracts, no additional fees
T-Mobile Home Internet offers fast, fixed-wireless internet in Charlottesville. With the highest approval rating of any nonfiber provider in the country according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, T-Mobile is a top choice for home internet in Charlottesville. Availability: T-Mobile Home Internet is available to more than two-thirds of Charlottesville residences. Serviceability is greatest just outside the city center in the surrounding communities of Belmont and Woolen Hills. Plans and pricing: T-Mobile offers a single home internet plan for a monthly price of $50 for download speeds ranging from 72 to 245Mbps. By bundling with an eligible T-Mobile mobile plan, customers can save an additional $20 off the monthly rate. Your price is locked in for as long as you remain a customer. Fees and service details: There are no equipment fees, data caps or contracts.
...Or call to order: Call to Learn More (877) 687-6988
All available Charlottesville internet providers
The providers listed above may not be your only internet options in Charlottesville. They’re just the ones we’d recommend most and consider first if moving to the area. Brightspeed is another possible choice for fiber internet in Charlottesville, and satellite internet may best serve residents of surrounding rural areas where other connection types are unavailable.
Brightspeed: Brightspeed recently took over operations from CenturyLink in the Charlottesville area. Its services are available to about 5% of Charlottesville households, with its slower and less desirable DSL offering making up most of that and its fiber service covering the rest.
Fiber internet starts at $59 per month, lower than Ting, so it’s worth checking to see if your address is serviceable. Locations where fiber is unavailable may still be serviceable for Brightspeed’s DSL service, which starts at $50 per month for the fastest speeds available, up to 100Mbps.
Satellite internet: HughesNet, Viasat and satellite internet newcomer Starlink are available throughout Charlottesville and surrounding areas. However, other faster and more budget-friendly options should be considered before turning to satellite internet.
Charlottesville broadband at a glance
All Charlottesville residents can access broadband speeds of 25Mbps down, 3Mbps up and higher. Faster speeds, up to 250Mbps down and 25Mbps up, are also available to nearly every Charlottesville household. Many will also have access to gigabit speeds, with providers such as Brightspeed, Xfinity and Ting offering speeds up to 1,000Mbps or higher.
Joel Carillet/Getty Images
Charlottesville internet pricing
Xfinity offers the cheapest internet service, starting at $25 per month for speeds up to 200Mbps, followed by T-Mobile Home Internet, which starts at $50 per month (or $30 per month if you use the mobile bundle discount). Brightspeed has the best deal on gigabit service, featuring symmetrical download and upload speeds for $79 per month, but again, availability is highly limited in Charlottesville.
Xfinity offers two separate internet plans for qualifying low-income households that are available for a net cost of $0 per month when combined with the ACP credit. Internet Essentials comes with download speeds up to 50Mbps starting at $10 per month, while the faster Internet Essentials Plus plan offers up to 100Mbps starting at $30.
How fast is broadband in Charlottesville?
Median download speeds in Charlottesville are around 172Mbps, according to the most recent Ookla speed test data. That’s below the national average of 210Mbps and the state average (205Mbps), but it’s worth noting plans with faster max speeds are available from various providers in Charlottesville.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in Charlottesville
Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every internet service provider in a given city. So what’s our approach? For starters, we tap into a proprietary database of pricing, availability and speed information that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.
This guide leverages an in-house artificial intelligence tool called RAMP, which is trained on our own writing and uses our database to generate content about specific internet service providers that our writers can use in determining and presenting our picks for a given guide. Check CNET’s AI policy for more information about how our teams use (and don’t use) AI tools.
Because our database is not exhaustive, we go to the FCC’s website to check the primary data for ourselves and make sure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. Plans and prices also vary by location, so we input local addresses on provider websites to find the specific options available to 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 our pre-publication fact-check.
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, you can visit our How we test ISPs page.
Internet in Charlottesville recap
Many Charlottesville residents will find Xfinity to be the area’s best ISP in terms of availability and plan selection. The provider’s cable service can’t quite deliver the upload speed of a fiber-optic connection, however, which is where regional providers Ting and Brightspeed may have an advantage. Those looking to “cut the cord” for a possibly cheaper internet connection with fewer hassles and fees should check to see if T-Mobile Home Internet is available.
Which is the best internet service provider in Charlottesville?
Charlottesville’s best internet service provider depends on the customer’s needs and budget. Xfinity offers the lowest introductory pricing and best plan selection in the Charlottesville area, though Brightspeed and Ting are excellent choices for fiber internet where available.
Yes, fiber internet is available in Charlottesville. Ting is the largest fiber provider in the area, covering approximately 60% of households. Brightspeed also has a small fiber presence in Charlottesville, though the provider primarily relies locally on a copper-based DSL network.
Which is the cheapest internet provider in Charlottesville?
The cheapest internet provider in Charlottesville is Xfinity, which offers download speeds up to 200Mbps starting at $25 per month. T-Mobile offers a 5G home internet plan with a starting price of $50, and customers can save an additional $20 by bundling with an eligible T-Mobile mobile plan.
Which internet provider in Charlottesville offers the fastest plan?
Xfinity offers the fastest internet plan in Charlottesville. The Gigabit Extra plan advertises download speeds up to 1,200Mbps starting at $80 monthly.
