Best Internet Providers in Fort Wayne, Indiana

What is the best internet provider in Fort Wayne?

Frontier Fiber is CNET's pick for the best internet service provider in Fort Wayne. It offers plans starting at $30 per month for upload and download speeds of 200 megabits per second. Moreover, the best value plan gives you 500Mbps at $30 per month for the first year ($55 per month after this period). That’s not just one of the best values you’ll find in Fort Wayne -- it’s one of the best plans in the entire country.

If you can’t get Frontier Fiber at your address, Xfinity is the cheapest internet provider in Fort Wayne. Prices start at just $20 a month, but that’s only while the promotional period lasts. After a year or two, you’ll pay between $12 and $42 more. If you don’t want to worry about headaches like that, T-Mobile Home Internet offers a more straightforward alternative. Everything you need is included in the base $50 monthly plan, and T-Mobile guarantees it won’t increase your rates, but if you want faster speeds, you can pick its newer but more expensive plans.

Best internet in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Fort Wayne

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

Fort Wayne internet providers, such as Xfinity, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Many, including Frontier, T-Mobile and Verizon, run the same standard pricing year-round. 

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

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, streaming low-quality video.
• 5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
• 40 to 100Mbps should give one person sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming. 
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two people to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming. 
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more people to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Fort Wayne

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 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 the time 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?

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, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, though 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 also take into account real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Internet providers in Fort Wayne FAQs