AT&T vs. EarthLink: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?
Speed Pricing, Features and Availability
Feb 1, 2024 | Share 
Provider Comparisons (Versus)
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Best fiber options
- Price: $55.00–$225.00/mo.*
- Customer rating: 3.9
- Speed: 25–5,000Mbps
- Internet type: Fiber, DSL, Fixed wireless
- Data cap: Varies
- Contract: No contract
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Best customer service
- Price: $49.95–$189.95/mo.**
- Customer rating: 3.3
- Speed: 10–5,000Mbps
- Internet type: Fiber, DSL, Fixed wireless
- Data cap: Varies
- Contract: 1 year
Data as of 01/04/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
*Plus taxes. Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Monthly State Cost Recovery Charge in TX, OH, NV applies.
**with a 12 month contract.
Compare AT&T and EarthLink head to head
AT&T and EarthLink are both internet providers that reach a huge amount of the population. AT&T’s plans have lower costs than comparable plans from EarthLink, and its high-end plans reach much faster speeds. EarthLink’s biggest strength is customer service, which is the provider’s main focus.
Pros:
Cons:
Want to know if AT&T or EarthLink are in your area? Take a look by typing in your zip code below.
Plans and pricing: AT&T vs. EarthLink
Both EarthLink and AT&T have large coverage areas and lots of options, many of which depend on your location. Both offer fiber and fixed wireless connections in some areas, but most of their networks are DSL.
AT&T plans and pricing
| Package | Price | Speed | Type | Order online |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T Internet 300 | $55.00/mo.** | 300 Mbps | Fiber | |
| AT&T Internet 500 | $65.00/mo.** | 500 Mbps | Fiber | |
| AT&T Internet 1000 | $80.00/mo.* | 1,000 Mbps | Fiber | |
| AT&T Internet 2000 | $125.00/mo.* | 2,000 Mbps | Fiber | |
| AT&T Internet 5000 | $225.00/mo.# | 5,000 Mbps | Fiber | |
| AT&T Internet Air | $55.00/mo.* | 75–225Mbps | Fixed Wireless/5G |
Data as of 6/16/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
**Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes & fees. Monthly State Cost Recovery Charge in TX, OH, NV applies. One time install chrg may apply. Ltd. avail/areas. Call or go to www.fiber.att.com to see if you qualify.
#Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes & fees. Monthly State Cost Recovery Charge in TX, OH, NV applies. Ltd. availability/areas.
AT&T offers mostly fiber-to-the-home internet. Currently, its fastest plan is 5,000Mbps (5Gbps), which you’ll probably never use in its entirety, even if you invite your entire neighborhood over to watch different 4K movies on their laptops all at once. You probably get just as much use out of AT&T’s 1Gbps plan, which is reasonably priced compared to other gigabit plans.
If you can’t get fiber, Internet Air is your next best bet from AT&T–especially if you live in a rural area. It’s a 5G home wireless service with speeds up to 225Mbps, making it faster than satellite and DSL. AT&T still has DSL, but it’s not offered to new customers.
EarthLink plans and pricing
| Package | Price | Speed | Order online |
|---|---|---|---|
| EarthLink 45 Mbps Internet (DSL) | $64.95/mo.* | 45 Mbps | View Plan |
| Fiber 300 | $54.95/mo.* | 300 Mbps | View Plan |
| Fiber 500 | $79.95/mo.* | 500 Mbps | View Plan |
| Fiber 1 Gig | $89.95/mo.* | 1,000 Mbps | View Plan |
| Fiber 2 Gig | $129.95/mo.* | 2,000 Mbps | View Plan |
| Fiber 5 Gig | $189.95/mo.* | 5,000 Mbps | View Plan |
Data as of 01/04/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
*with a 12 month contract.
EarthLink offers service in all 50 states. It is able to do this by renting space on other service providers’ networks. Using all these different networks means that connection speeds and reliability vary by location. Fortunately, EarthLink’s focus on customer service makes it easy to get outages and other issues resolved quickly.
EarthLink fiber plans offer the provider’s best value for speed and reliability, plus they go all the way up to 5 Gig speeds, just like AT&T. Earthlink fiber is slightly more expensive than the DSL options, but it offers up to 20 times the speed. EarthLink also stands out from other fiber providers with its lower fiber-optic speeds than most ISPs, which is great if you want fiber reliability without paying.
Deals and promotions: AT&T vs. EarthLink
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Extra fees: AT&T vs. EarthLink
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Both AT&T and EarthLink have pretty reasonable fees. The only ones that really stand out are installation fees, which are a bit high, especially for AT&T. Since EarthLink plans require one-year contracts, they also come with early termination fees if you cancel before the end of your agreement, which can get expensive.
Customer ratings: AT&T vs. EarthLink
| Overall | Speed | Price | Reliability | Customer service | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 3.9/5 | 3.9/5 | 3.7/5 | 3.7/5 | 3.8/5 |
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| 3.3/5 | 3.6/5 | 3.2/5 | 3.3/5 | 3.3/5 |
EarthLink placed last among nationwide providers in our annual customer satisfaction survey, which was unfortunate due to its focus on customer service. Although it has been rated highly in customer satisfaction surveys across multiple years, Earthlink dramatically underperformed this year.
AT&T improved its marks in every category compared to last year and is ranked fourth overall in our survey. It also performed well in the speed category. AT&T has focused on expanding the availability of its fiber plans to give its customers faster and more reliable connections.
Internet types: AT&T vs. EarthLink
| Internet type | Order online | |
|---|---|---|
| | Fiber, DSL, Fixed wireless | |
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| Fiber, DSL, Fixed wireless | VIew Plans |
Both AT&T and EarthLink use multiple technologies to deliver internet to customers across their network footprints. DSL is the most widely available, and though it’s slow, it often has the lowest prices. Fiber plans are the fastest and most reliable, and they usually offer the best value for the monthly cost.
Fixed wireless plans reach into areas that don’t have the infrastructure for wired connections, but they have severe limitations, especially with monthly data caps. We suggest choosing a wireless plan only if it’s the sole option available in your area (other than satellite).
Data caps: AT&T vs. EarthLink
| Data Cap | Order online | |
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| View Plans |
Most plans for AT&T and EarthLink have unlimited data, so you never have to worry about hitting a cap before the end of the month. We’re big fans of unlimited data, so this is a big plus for both providers.
The major exceptions are the fixed wireless plans, which all have relatively low data allowances. AT&T offers the most data with 350 GB, while EarthLink offers several different plans with 25 GB to 150 GB of data. We recommend avoiding plans with low data caps like those with just 25 GB of data. For reference, you can burn through 25 GB by streaming one movie in 4K, so stretching that data out for a month’s worth of internet use is pretty tough.
Contracts: AT&T vs. EarthLink
| Contract length | Order online | |
|---|---|---|
| | No contract | |
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| 1 year No contract for fixed wireless | View Plans |
AT&T is the clear winner here, as it doesn’t tie you down with a long-term contract. Contracts are a sore spot for many customers, so it’s nice that most providers are starting to do away with them.
EarthLink requires a 12-month contract for all its fiber and DSL plans. Its wireless plans, however, are contract free. That’s not a good enough reason to choose a wireless plan over DSL or fiber unless you already know for a fact that you’re going to be switching providers or moving within the next year.
Installation: AT&T vs. EarthLink
| Installation options | Order online | |
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| View Plans |
Both AT&T and EarthLink offer professional installation, though EarthLink’s fee is slightly cheaper. Both are on the high end for professional installation costs, especially now that several providers offer free installation for at least some of their plans.
Availability: AT&T vs. EarthLink
AT&T has one of the largest networks in the US, but EarthLink manages to cover even more people. It does this by renting out infrastructure from other providers, including AT&T. EarthLink is present in all 50 states, so regardless of where you live, there’s a good chance you can get EarthLink internet.
Final call: AT&T vs. EarthLink
Our first choice is AT&T’s fiber, if you have access to it. The fiber plans are cheaper than those offered by EarthLink, which makes it an easy decision.
With so many plans from each provider, it’s hard to compare every possible combination, but if you’re looking to avoid hassle with your internet service, EarthLink’s top-notch customer service could be the tiebreaker you’re looking for.
Methodology
Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.
More about AT&T and EarthLink
Author - Peter Christiansen
Peter Christiansen writes about satellite internet, rural connectivity, livestreaming, and parental controls for HighSpeedInternet.com. Peter holds a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years as a computer programmer, game developer, filmmaker, and writer. His writing has been praised by outlets like Wired, Digital Humanities Now, and the New Statesman.
Editor - Rebecca Lee Armstrong
Rebecca Lee Armstrong has more than six years of experience writing about tech and the internet, with a specialty in hands-on testing. She started writing tech product and service reviews while finishing her BFA in creative writing at the University of Evansville and has found her niche writing about home networking, routers, and internet access at HighSpeedInternet.com. Her work has also been featured on Top Ten Reviews, MacSources, Windows Central, Android Central, Best Company, TechnoFAQ, and iMore.
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