Best Internet Providers in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee, will always be known for country music, but it’s not just rhinestone cowboys that give the city its shine. It’s building its reputation as a technology hub thanks to entrepreneurial startups and a growing presence from big names like Oracle, Amazon and Meta. Whether you’re a guitar slinger or a coder (or both), you’ll want a fast, reliable home internet provider for remote work, gaming or streaming your favorite hot country hits. 

Nashville has a host of internet providers competing for your attention with plans to fit your budget and connection needs. We think AT&T Fiber is the best choice for most people, with a wide coverage area and speeds faster than a banjo roll. But if a low price is your top priority, T-Mobile and Verizon offer competitive fixed wireless, especially when you bundle cellular phone and internet service. 

Our team considers speeds, pricing, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Nashville in a variety of categories. Xfinity’s cable service is the cheapest option, offering a 200-megabit-per-second connection for $20 per month for the first two years. AT&T offers the fastest available internet speeds in Nashville, with a 5-gigabit fiber connection available at eligible residential locations.

Now cue up some Dolly Parton, kick back and take a tour through our roundup of Nashville’s best internet service providers. 

Best internet providers in Music City

From fast fiber to fixed wireless, you’ve got options for getting connected in Nashville. There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to ISPs, so we’re highlighting our pick for the best overall provider alongside other top choices for cable and 5G connections. All prices listed on this page reflect available discounts for setting up paperless billing. If you decide not to go with automatic monthly payments, your price will be higher.

Note: The prices, speeds and features detailed in the article text may differ from those listed in the product detail cards, which represent providers’ national offerings. Your particular internet service options — including prices and speeds — depend on your address and may differ from those detailed here.

Overview of internet providers in Nashville

Provider	Internet technology	Monthly price range	Speed range	Monthly equipment costs	Data cap	Contract	CNET review score
AT&T Fiber	Fiber	$55-$180	300-5,000Mbps	None	None	None	7.4
Google Fiber	Fiber	$70-$100	1,000-2,000Mbps	None	None	None	7.4
T-Mobile Home Internet	Fixed wireless	$50	72-245Mbps	None	None	None	7.4
Verizon 5G Home Internet	Fixed wireless	$50-$70	85-1,000Mbps	None	None	None	7.2
Xfinity	Cable	$30-$90	75-1,200Mbps	Varies	1.2 TB	Varies	7

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Source: CNET analysis of provider data

All available Nashville residential internet providers

• Google Fiber: Google Fiber is expanding its presence across Nashville, but availability is still limited. Residents of neighborhoods like Edgehill, Melrose and West End may be in luck, and Google has announced plans to service Smyrna in 2023. Customers can sign up for speeds as high as 2,000Mbps (for $100 per month), but Google doesn’t yet offer its fastest 5-gigabit plan in Nashville. 
• Satellite internet: If you’re covered by fiber, cable or fixed wireless, those are likely to be your first choices for getting connected. But if you’re in a remote area around Nashville and don’t have a good ISP option, look into satellite internet service from Starlink, Viasat or HughesNet. 
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Verizon’s coverage map shows most of Nashville is blanketed by its 5G Ultra Wideband service that delivers speeds of up to 300Mbps, but your real-world speed will vary. It’s a tough competitor for T-Mobile Home Internet. If you’re a Verizon phone customer, you can bundle your services and get your 5G internet for as low as $25 per month with autopay and select mobile plans. That’s quite a bargain if you’re in a strong service area.

Nashville broadband at a glance

Finding the right internet provider is a bit like dating. Who’s in your area? Are you on the same page financially? Are your internet demands pretty chill, or do you crave a high-bandwidth lifestyle with a need for speed? For Music City residents, AT&T or Google fiber will fulfill your speed requirements, but you may find better budget options and availability via Xfinity’s cable service or Verizon or T-Mobile’s fixed wireless. 

Pricing info on Nashville home internet service

Nashville can be an affordable place to get hooked up to home internet. The average starting price for the city’s ISPs works out to $50, but Xfinity offers up some bargains and T-Mobile or Verizon customers with select plans can add 5G home internet (where available) for discounted rates. 

Cheap internet options in the Nashville metro area

You may be eligible for federal assistance with the cost of your internet service through the Affordable Connectivity Program. The program is designed to get low-income households connected to the internet for free or at a reduced rate. A good example of this is Xfinity’s Internet Essentials option. You’ll need to check that you qualify based on income and participation in certain federal assistance programs.

What’s the cheapest internet plan in Nashville?

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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.

• 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 engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming simultaneously. 
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming simultaneously.

Fastest internet providers in Nashville

Ookla, the provider of the Speedtest.net service, places Nashville at number 45 in its ranking of internet speeds for the 100 most populous US cities. The Music City weighs in with a median download speed of about 210Mbps and a median upload speed of nearly 29Mbps. That’s pretty respectable, especially if you look west to Memphis, which sits at number 100 with a median of just over 45Mbps for downloads. Nashville’s fiber options from AT&T and Google help push its numbers up, and those will be your best bets for high speeds.

AT&T Fiber reigns as the fastest internet provider in Nashville by a long shot. Its $180-per-month 5-gigabit plan is your fastest residential option, so long as it’s available at your address. Google Fiber’s $100 2-gigabit plan is the next closest competitor. Google has rolled out 5-gig plans in other markets, but those speeds have yet to reach Nashville. Here’s our rundown of the best multi-gigabit internet plans. 

What are the fastest internet plans in Nashville?

Provider	Max download speed	Max upload speed	Starting price	Data cap	Contract
AT&T Fiber 5000	5,000Mbps	5,000Mbps	$180	None	None
AT&T Fiber 2000	2,000Mbps	2,000Mbps	$110	None	None
Google Fiber	2,000Mbps	2,000Mbps	$100	None	None
Xfinity Gigabit Extra	1,200Mbps	35Mbps	$80	1.2 TB	2-year
Xfinity Gigabit	1,000Mbps	35Mbps	$75	1.2 TB	2-year
AT&T Fiber 1000	1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps	$80	None	None
Google Fiber	1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps	$70	None	None

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Source: CNET analysis of provider data

What’s the final word on Nashville internet providers?

Nashville is well covered by ISPs with options ranging from fast fiber to convenient cable to no-fuss 5G. AT&T Fiber and Google Fiber deliver the goods when it comes to sheer speed, but availability may be limited. Xfinity covers most of the area, but with slower max speeds and a data cap (which you can pay to get around). T-Mobile and Verizon both offer 5G home internet, which is easy to set up, but may not be open to new customers in some areas. This all means you’re likely to find a Nashville ISP that will work for your location, your budget and your needs.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Nashville

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. So 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.

But it doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of publication. 

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. 

When it comes to selecting the cheapest internet service — the criteria are relatively simple. We look for the service package with the lowest monthly fee, though we also take into consideration promotional rates and price per megabit. 

When it comes to choosing the fastest internet service, we look at provider throughput. Most often, that means a fiber-optic service. That noted, fiber availability may be limited to a smaller percentage of addresses.

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

Internet providers in Nashville FAQs