Best Internet Providers in Kingsport, Tennessee

What is the best internet provider in Kingsport, Tennessee?

Located along the Holston River and nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, Kingsport, Tennessee is a quiet country town with a limited selection of internet providers. Residents of this scenic mountain town can still be assured of high-speed internet access, with some neighborhoods in the southern parts of Kingsport even offering fiber optic internet access. Spectrum Internet is Kingsport’s best internet provider for most residents, thanks to its wide availability and solid speeds. It’s especially noticeable when compared to the average speeds of local cable and fixed wireless providers.

If Spectrum is not available to you or you would prefer to avoid it sharp price increases after one to two years of service, it is better to turn to the internet service of the local provider BrightRidge Broadband or Verizon’s 5G home internet employ. BrightRidge offers fiber internet plans starting at $60 per month, and Verizon offers plans starting at $50 per month. Most internet plans in Kingsport start at $50, so there isn’t exactly a “cheap” internet plan. BrightRidge offers a fixed wireless plan for $40 per month for 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up, but thanks to an updated definition of the Federal Communications Commissionthat no longer qualifies as one broadband connection, so we don’t recommend it unless that’s all you can get.

The fastest internet in Kingsport is BrightRidge’s fiber plans, which offer speeds up to 10,000 Mbps. BrightRidge is mostly limited to the southern neighborhoods of Kingsport, around Summer Hills, Deerfield, and Lake Crest, but if you qualify for fiber internet, you won’t find faster speeds in the area.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to Find Internet Deals and Promotions in Kingsport

The best internet deals and top promotions in Kingsport depend on what discounts are available at a given time. Most offers are short-lived, but we regularly review the latest offers.

Kingsport internet providers such as Spectrum and Verizon may offer lower introductory prices or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, including Brightspeed and BrightRidge Broadband charge the same standard prices all year round.

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

What is a good internet speed?

Most internet plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you’re looking for an internet plan that’s suitable for video conferencing, video streaming, or gaming, you’ll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here you will find an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for different applications, according to the FCC. Please note that these are guidelines only and internet speed, service and performance will vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, see our guide to how much internet speed you really need.

• With 0 to 5 Mbps you can handle the basics: surfing the web, sending and receiving email, and streaming low-quality video.
• 5 to 40 Mbps gives you higher quality video streaming and video conferencing.
• 40 to 100 Mbps should give a single user enough bandwidth to meet the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming.
• With 100 to 500 Mbps, one to two users can simultaneously participate in high-bandwidth activities such as video conferencing, streaming and online gaming.
• With 500 to 1,000 Mbps, three or more users can perform high-bandwidth activities simultaneously.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Kingsport

Internet 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 is our approach? For starters, we use a proprietary price, availability, and speed database that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data, and Federal Communications Commission mapping information at FCC.gov.

It doesn’t stop there: we go to the FCC’s website to check our data and make sure we’re taking into account every ISP that provides service in an area. We also enter local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look to sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and JD Power, to evaluate how satisfied customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate at the time of publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

1. Does the provider offer access to reasonably high internet speeds?
2. Do customers get a good price for what they pay?
3. Are customers satisfied with their service?

The answers to these questions are often layered and complex, but the providers that come closest to ‘yes’ to all three questions are the ones we recommend. When selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the subscriptions with the lowest monthly amount, but we also take into account things such as price increases, equipment costs and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively easy. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and take into account real-world speed data from sources such as Ookla And FCC reports. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Visit our page on how we test ISPs to explore our process in more depth.

Internet Service Providers in Kingsport FAQs