Best Internet Providers in Elmira, New York

What is the best internet provider in Elmira?

Once home to Mark Twain, this town in the Finger Lakes region offers access to several of the nation’s top internet providers. With so many options available, you might feel overwhelmed while searching for the right provider for you. CNET has reviewed the available ISPs to help you find the best internet provider in Elmira. As of right now, Spectrum is CNET’s pick for Elmira’s best internet service provider due to its available gigabit speeds and coverage reaching over 92% of households in the city, per the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission. A cable connection is no match for fiber, but Spectrum still took home the fastest average download speeds in the country, topping providers like Xfinity, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

The starting monthly cost for internet in Elmira is $47 on average. A few ISPs offer more affordable plans. Zeta Broadband, which offers fixed wireless plans in the city, has a cheap $35-a-month plan for 7 megabits per second download speed. For $5 less, you can get speeds of 100Mbps with Spectrum. Spectrum is notorious for increasing its prices, and you can certainly expect your bill to go up after a year or two.

Regional fiber provider Empire Access boasts the fastest plan in the area, offering speeds of 2,000Mbps for $100 monthly. $100 a month is not cheap, but the cost per Mbps works out to a cheap 5 cents per Mbps. Empire Access features symmetrical download and upload speeds, which isn’t the case for Spectrum or T-Mobile.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What’s the cheapest internet plan in Elmira?

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Elmira?

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

Elmira internet providers, such as Spectrum and Verizon, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, including Empire Access and Zeta Broadband, Inc., run the same standard pricing year-round.  

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

Fastest internet plans in Elmira

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 and 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 Elmira

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information, drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

It doesn’t end there: We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for 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 publication.

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?

The answer to those questions is often layered and complex, but 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, although 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. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

Internet providers in Elmira FAQs