Best Internet Providers in Birmingham, Alabama

What is the best internet provider in Birmingham?

AT&T Fiber is the best internet provider in Birmingham, with symmetrical upload and download speeds, transparent pricing and high customer satisfaction scores. It’s especially attractive for AT&T cellphone customers, who can save $20 monthly by bundling with AT&T Fiber. 

If you’re looking for the lowest prices, Spectrum offers the cheapest internet in Birmingham, with plans starting at $30 per month. That said, prices increase significantly after a year or two, and equipment isn’t included in the base price. If you’d rather not worry about caveats like these, T-Mobile Home Internet is an excellent alternative. Its speeds aren’t quite as fast as AT&T Fiber’s or Spectrum’s, but everything you need is included in its $50 monthly price, and your rate is locked in for as long as you stay a customer.

Best internet in Birmingham, Alabama

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Other available internet providers in Birmingham

• Satellite internet: If you have a clear view of the southern sky from your home, you can get satellite internet, but it’s rarely your best option. HughesNet and Viasat come with slow speeds, restrictive data caps and high monthly costs. SpaceX’s Starlink service is faster, but you’ll have to pay $599 upfront to purchase the satellite dish. 
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Like T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon also uses its cellular network to offer home internet services. It has faster speeds than T-Mobile but is not as widely available in Birmingham. Bundling with an eligible Verizon Wireless plan can save an extra $15 to $25 each month. 

Cheap internet options in Birmingham

Birmingham residents only have one truly cheap internet option available: Spectrum’s 100Mbps plan for $30 a month. That said, if you’re a T-Mobile or Verizon cellphone customer, you may be eligible for a monthly discount on their home internet plans.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Birmingham

The best internet deals and top promotions in Birmingham depend on what discounts are available during that time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers. 

Birmingham internet providers, such as Spectrum, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Many, including AT&T Fiber and T-Mobile Home Internet, run the same standard pricing year-round. 

For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals. 

How fast is Birmingham broadband?

With five internet plans in the area offering speeds above 1,000Mbps, Birmingham residents have plenty of options for fast internet. That said, the only provider that offers upload speeds as fast as download speeds is AT&T Fiber. If you do a lot of upstream activities like videoconferencing or online gaming, it’s worth prioritizing AT&T Fiber over your other options.

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.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

• 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 Birmingham

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 our pre-publication fact-check.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions: 

1. Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds? 
2. Do customers get decent value for what they're paying? 
3. 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, you can visit our how we test ISPs page.

What’s the final word on internet providers in Birmingham?

There are a few good options for internet in Birmingham, but AT&T Fiber is the clear standout. It provides the fastest speeds, its prices don't automatically increase after a year or two, and it has the highest customer satisfaction scores of any ISP in the country. The main drawback is that it's only available to one in three Birmingham households. If you can't get AT&T Fiber, Spectrum and T-Mobile Home Internet are good backup options, but both have their own downsides.

Internet providers in Birmingham FAQs