Best internet providers in Burlington, North Carolina

Choosing home internet in Burlington depends on your monthly budget, whether you can get fiber internet, and whether you want to bundle with TV or your mobile phone plan.

#1: AT&T fiber internet

AT&T provides both fiber internet and DSL internet in the Burlington area. Whether this provider is right for you depends on which network you can get on. If you can get fiber, you’ll benefit from fast, reliable speeds with plans starting at $55. You won’t have to worry about contracts or monthly equipment fees, and installation costs are about average.

If you are still in one of AT&T’s DSL areas (which is common if you get very far south or north of the town center), you’re in for much slower speeds and worse pricing per megabit. AT&T isn’t selling new DSL plans any longer, though, so if you’re getting new AT&T internet, you’ll be getting fiber.

Read our full AT&T internet review.

#2: Spectrum internet

Cable internet from Spectrum is available to virtually every home in Burlington and the wider Greensboro area (1), and plans start as low as $30 per month for 100 Mbps. We more often recommend speeds in the 200 Mbps or 300 Mbps range for connected families, and both are available from Spectrum. If you don’t already have your own router, you’ll need to rent one from Spectrum for $5 per month. However, there are not contracts or data caps to worry about. Prices may go up after your first year, so we recommend setting yourself a calendar reminder to call customer service and negotiate.

Read our full Spectrum internet review.

#3: T-Mobile 5G internet

T-Mobile offers home internet that works by way of a single piece of equipment you plug into the wall and manage with a mobile phone app. It’s easy to use and faster than ever. The best coverage from T-Mobile, 5G Ultra Capacity, is available throughout Burlington. (2) It doesn’t drop down to 5G Extended Range until you get west of Gibsonville or down into the Swepsonville area. It is the nature of 5G to be less reliable than cable or fiber internet due to network congestion and other factors, so be sure to plug in your shiny new T-Mobile equipment as soon as it arrives. That way, if it’s not fast enough, you can return it within the 15-day trial period.

Read our full T-Mobile 5G internet review.

Internet options in Burlington are similar to what you’ll find throughout the Piedmont Triad, but with some differences. Our top three picks are AT&T, Spectrum, and T-Mobile in most areas, and they are decent choices almost anywhere in the state. You can also get internet from satellite internet providers, a DSL provider, and other 5G fixed wireless providers.

Verizon is one of T-Mobile’s biggest competitors for 5G in North Carolina, but it offers just 4G LTE in downtown Burlington. That means max speeds of just 50 Mbps, and that’s in 100% ideal conditions. Further out of the town center, you might get 5G Ultra Wideband or 5G Nationwide.

Brightspeed, which recently bought CenturyLink’s network in the area, offers slow DSL plans of about 20 Mbps, which is slower than even the cheapest plan from Spectrum and not fast enough for most modern households.

Satellite internet is available throughout Burlington, too, but we rarely recommend even the best satellite internet providers if you have any other option because it’s hard to get, expensive, and much slower than virtually any cable or fiber internet plan.

If you have your own compatible router already, Spectrum offers the cheapest internet plans in Burlington. For just $30 per month, you can get speeds fast enough for a small household. Prices go up after a year, though, and there’s an additional $5 monthly charge if you need to rent a Wi-Fi router. T-Mobile and Verizon also offer plans for about $25 in Burlington if you bundle with cell service, and they’re fast enough for most applications if you’re in a 5G area.

If you’re in a low-income household with students or seniors, you may be able to get internet for zero cost (or very cheap) by accessing the taxpayer-funded Affordable Connectivity Program. Get the details about the federal initiative and see if there are any other ways to save on your internet bill.

Lumos fiber is the most popular internet provider in cities that surround Burlington, NC, but it may not yet be available to many homes in Burlington proper. Throughout North Carolina, people say they prefer fiber internet over any other connection type and have complaints about customer service from both Spectrum and AT&T.

There hasn’t been a lot of recent news about internet infrastructure in Burlington specifically, but state and federal governments are working with a private company to build out fiber internet access in many parts of the Piedmont Triad, and parts of Burlington may benefit.

Lumos (formerly NorthState Communication), built an early fiber-optic network in Burlington and nearby cities to serve businesses and city governments. The company has since changed hands but continues to work with local governments. Under it’s new name, it has won the lion’s share of these governmental contracts to build out its fiber networks. (3)

Lumos has also pledged to invest millions of its own dollars to build out fiber infrastructure in the area. Visit the corporate site to check if Lumos is available at your address or get on the waiting list.

Meanwhile, Alamance County is working with the state of North Carolina to better understand how many of its residents have access to the internet. In March 2022, the county issued a press release that reported nearly 30% of residents didn’t have internet access, and more than 50% could access max speeds of 39 Mbps or less. Those figures appear to be out of date, if you trust a different mapping effort from the Federal Communications Commission that was released at the beginning of 2023. (1) However, it’s likely that many families still don’t have great ways to get online.

If you don’t have good home internet, you can try visiting one of the public libraries in Alamance County. Its Mobile Cafe’s are a great way to work or study remotely.