Best ISPs in Scottsdale, Arizona

Fiber optic deployment is limited in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to CNET, your best bet will be to get a fiber connection from CenturyLinkalso known as Quantum fiber. If the operator does not serve your address, Coke will be your next best bet. It has high download speed but upload speed suffers as it is a cable operator.

Our team considers speeds, prices, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Scottsdale in a variety of categories. Our evaluation includes a reference to our own database built up over years of reviewing Internet services. We confirm this against the provider information by checking local addresses for service availability on site. We also carefully read the terms and conditions of the providers and, when necessary, we will call the ISPs to check the details.

Despite our efforts to find the most current and accurate information, our process has some limitations that you should be aware of. Pricing and speed data are variable: certain addresses may qualify for different levels of service, and monthly costs may vary even within a city. The best way to identify your specific options is to include your address on the provider’s website.

The prices shown in the text of this article come from our research and include applicable discounts for setting up automatic payments each month – an industry standard offering. Other discounts and promotions may also be available for things like being tied to a contract or bundled with a cell phone plan.

We cover our comprehensive broadband provider review process on our methodology page.

The best internet options in Scottsdale

Scottsdale residents have three main options when it comes to Internet: CenturyLink (now known as Quantum Fiber), Cox, and T-Mobile Home Internet. We’ve also outlined some other providers below, but they’re only worth looking into if you can’t get your hands on one of the first three.

Source: CNET analysis of vendor data.

Other Scottsdale residential internet providers available

While we think CenturyLink, Cox and T-Mobile are your best bet for internet in Scottsdale, there are a few other options worth considering:

• Phoenix Internet: Available to about 11% of Scottsdale households, Phoenix Internet offers fixed wireless connections. Plans start at $75 per month for just 50Mbps and go up to $95 for 100Mbps. Faster 300Mbps and 1000Mbps plans are available for $115 and $140 respectively. However, availability for the high-speed plans is very limited. Worth considering only if your only other options are satellite or DSL.
• Satellite internet: Satellite Internet should only be a last resort. The list of disadvantages is long, including long contracts, slow speeds, low data caps, and high latency. HughesNet and Viasat are the longest running satellite providers in the country while Starlink offered another option in recent years. All of these come with high initial equipment costs.
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Like T-Mobile, Verizon uses its extensive cellular network to provide home Internet in the Scottsdale area. Although it’s only available to about half of the city’s households, some homes may be eligible for gig speed plans (1000 Mbps or higher).

Scottsdale home internet service pricing information

The starting price for internet in Scottsdale averages around $52 per month, which is on par with nearby cities like Mesa and Phoenix. CenturyLink’s fiber plan is the cheapest option in terms of value, starting at $50 per month, but with higher-than-average starting speeds of 500Mbps, though availability may be limited. You can get a comparable monthly price from T-Mobile and Verizon if you combine home internet service with an eligible cell phone plan.

Source: CNET analysis of vendor data.

Scottsdale broadband speeds

Three providers in Scottsdale offer gig speeds. 1,000 Mbps is more than enough download speed for most households, but people who play a lot of online games or work from home may run into problems with slower upload speeds from Cox and Verizon.

Source: CNET analysis of vendor data.

What’s the final word on Scottsdale ISPs?

Scottsdale has fewer high-speed Internet options than many other cities its size. Cox is available almost everywhere – more or less guarantees you’ll be able to get a solid internet connection – but it’s the only choice in many parts of town. Fiber internet remains relatively rare in Scottsdale, with CenturyLink the only provider offering symmetrical speeds.

How CNET chose the best ISPs in Scottsdale

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest ones smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen toolit is not practical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What is 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 FCC.gov mapping information.

This guide uses an in-house artificial intelligence tool called RAMP, which is trained on our own writing and uses our database to generate ISP-specific content that our writers can use in determining and presenting our choices for given guidance. Check it out CNET’s AI policy for more information on how our teams use (and don’t use) AI tools.

Since our database is not exhaustive, we go to the FCC website to check the primary data for ourselves and make sure we are considering every ISP that provides service in an area. Plans and prices also vary by location, so we enter local addresses on provider websites to find the specific options available to residents. To gauge how satisfied customers are with an ISP’s service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and JD Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent change; All information provided is accurate at the time of our fact checking prior to publication.

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

1. Does the provider offer access to relatively fast internet speeds?
2. Are customers getting decent value for what they pay?
3. Are customers satisfied with their service?

While the answer to these questions is often layered and complex, the vendors that come closest to saying yes to all three are the ones we recommend. To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

Scottsdale Internet FAQ