Internet Providers in
Baltimore, MD

Compare Top Providers in Your Area

Spectrum - Fastest Provider
Spectrum - Cheapest Provider
Viasat - Widely Available
Viasat - Great for Rural Areas
T-Mobile - Offers 5G Home Internet
Spectrum - Great Value

Fastest Internet Providers in Baltimore, MD

Spectrum is the fastest provider in Baltimore, with speeds up to 2 Gbps.

There are several fast internet service companies in Baltimore, but your No. 1 fastest option is Spectrum, which can attain speeds of up to 2 Gbps on its fastest plans.

Fiber connections are always the best for speed, even when cable competitors offer similar download speeds. That’s because fiber internet has “symmetrical” speeds, or equal upload and download speeds, which can be the difference between night and day when gaming or making video calls. The biggest fiber provider in Baltimore, Verizon Fios, offers upload speeds the same as its download speeds, 2 Gbps, but the city’s biggest cable provider, Xfinity, only has upload speeds of 10 Mbps. Fiber networks are also less susceptible to traffic overload during busy periods.

For most households, 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps will feel fast. Past 1 Gbps speed differences are harder to detect unless you are doing data-heavy work. With the fastest internet speeds, remember to make sure that your Wi-Fi router is fast enough to handle your plan or you may end up with much slower speeds than advertised.

Data caps can also affect your internet speed or trigger extra charges when you exceed your downloads. Choosing a fiber plan means you don’t have to worry about caps, because fiber providers don’t have them. Xfinity customers, however, will be subject to data caps unless they pay extra for unlimited data.

What’s a Good Internet Speed?

Internet Speed	Appropriate For	Providers in your Area offering this Speed	Availability in your Area
25 Mbps	Email Web browsing Light streaming Smaller households	Quantum Internet & Telephone	4.4799999999999995%
100 Mbps	Streaming Video chat Online gaming Larger households	Viasat T-Mobile EarthLink Hughesnet BridgeMAXX Wireless Starlink	99.99%
1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)	Heavy streaming (4K video multiple devices etc.) Video chat Lag-free gaming Large households	Spectrum Verizon Xfinity XNET WiFi Believe Wireless Broadband	95.67999999999999%

Learn more about internet speeds:

Internet Availability in Baltimore, MD

Baltimore is a big city, and where you live within its borders will impact which internet service companies you can sign up with. For most shoppers, this will be especially relevant in the context of fiber internet. The city’s cable provider (Xfinity) is available virtually everywhere in town, while fiber providers vary by neighborhood.

Getting the city’s top provider, Verizon Fios, can be pretty tough. Though it technically covers 51.1% of Baltimore, that number is a bit inflated. The company’s presence in Point Breeze and Druid Hill Park (with institutions like the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore) means the city’s coverage includes large areas of land without residential addresses. The reality is that a relatively slim portion of residential Baltimore is served by Verizon Fios.

You’ll find Verizon Fios in some areas near Druid Hill Park and Cold Spring Park, like Medfield. It covers some blocks near Johns Hopkins University, too. And you’ll find a hodgepodge of residential blocks covered by Verizon Fios in between that area and downtown, scattered throughout neighborhoods near I-83 as it enters Batlimore’s Inner Harbor.

The situation with Earthlink isn’t much better — it covers just over a tenth of Baltimore. Both of these providers are great, so it’s worth checking your address to see if you have the option to sign up with them. The odds are, unfortunately, pretty long. Fiber infrastructure is great just across the city line in Baltimore’s suburbs, but Baltimore proper is still not very well served by fiber internet options.

Provider Connection Types in Baltimore, MD

Connection Type	About this Connection Type	Availability in Baltimore, MD
Satellite	Available even in very rural areas Typically has high latency (lag)	100%
Cable	Typically 250 Mbps - 1 Gbps Widely available A good choice for most users	97.45%
Fiber	Typically 1 Gbps or faster Upload speeds match download speeds	9.65%