Best Internet Providers in Scottsdale, Arizona

Fiber rollout is limited in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to CNET, your best pick will be to get a fiber connection from CenturyLink, also known as Quantum Fiber. If the operator doesn't service your address, Cox will be your next best bet. It's got fast download speeds, but upload speeds suffer as it is a cable operator.

Our team considers speeds, pricing, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Scottsdale across a variety of categories. Our evaluation includes referencing a proprietary database built over years of reviewing internet services. We validate that against provider information by spot-checking local addresses for service availability. We also do a close read of providers' terms and conditions and, when needed, will call ISPs to verify the details.

Despite our efforts to find the most recent and accurate information, our process has some limitations you should know about. Pricing and speed data is variable: Certain addresses may qualify for different tiers of service and monthly costs may vary, even within a city. The best way to identify your particular options is to plug your address into a provider's website. 

The prices referenced within this article’s text come from our research and include applicable discounts for setting up automatic payments each month -- a standard industry offering. Other discounts and promotions might be available as well, for things like committing to a contract or bundling with a cellphone plan. 

We cover our exhaustive process of reviewing broadband service providers on our methodology page.

Best internet options in Scottsdale

Scottsdale residents have three main options when it comes to internet: CenturyLink (now known as Quantum Fiber), Cox and T-Mobile Home Internet. We’ve also outlined some other providers below, but they’re only worth considering if you can’t get one of the top three.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Other available Scottsdale residential internet providers

While we think CenturyLink, Cox and T-Mobile are your best bets for internet in Scottsdale, there are a few other options worth considering:

• BAM Broadband/Desert iNet: Available only to 8% of Scottsdale residents, BAM Broadband, previously known as Desert iNet, offers fixed wireless plans and limited fiber service in the northern suburbs of Scottsdale. In most areas, plans top out at 100Mbps, but the company says it offers speeds up to 2,400Mbps in some areas. Prices start at $80 monthly for 600Mbps, and go up to $99 for 1,200Mbps. The top-tier 2400Mbps plan will run you $120 monthly.
• Phoenix Internet: Available to around 10% of Scottsdale households, Phoenix Internet offers fixed wireless connections. Plans start at $75 per month for just 50Mbps and go up to $95 for 100Mbps. Faster 300Mbps and 1000Mbps plans are available for $115 and $140 respectively. However, availability for the high-speed plans is very limited. It’s only worth considering if your only other options are satellite or DSL.
• Satellite internet: Satellite internet should only be a last resort. The list of downsides is long, including lengthy contracts, slow speeds, low data caps and high latency. HughesNet and Viasat are the longest-running satellite providers in the country, while Starlink has offered another option in recent years. All of them come with high upfront costs for equipment.
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Like T-Mobile, Verizon uses its extensive cellular network to provide home internet in the Scottsdale area. Although it's only available to about half of the households in the city, some homes may be eligible for gig speed plans (1,000Mbps or higher).

Pricing info on Scottsdale home internet service

The starting price for internet in Scottsdale averages around $52 per month, which is on par with nearby cities like Mesa and Phoenix. CenturyLink’s fiber plan is the cheapest option in terms of value, starting at $50 per month but with a higher-than-average starting speed of 500Mbps, although availability may be limited. You can get a comparable monthly price from T-Mobile and Verizon if you bundle home internet service with an eligible cellphone plan.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Scottsdale broadband speeds

Three providers in Scottsdale offer gig speeds. 1,000Mbps is more than enough download speed for most households, but people who do a lot of online gaming or work from home might run into issues with the lower upload speeds from Cox and Verizon.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What’s the final word on internet providers in Scottsdale?

Scottsdale has fewer options for high-speed internet than many other cities of its size. Cox is available virtually everywhere -- more or less guaranteeing you’ll be able to get a solid internet connection -- but it’s the only choice in many parts of the city. Fiber internet remains relatively sparse in Scottsdale, with CenturyLink being the only provider that offers symmetrical speeds.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Scottsdale

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. What's our approach? For starters, we tap into a proprietary database of pricing, availability and speed information that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov. 

This guide leverages an in-house artificial intelligence tool called RAMP, which is trained on our own writing and uses our database to generate content about specific internet service providers that our writers can use in determining and presenting our picks for a given guide. Check CNET’s AI policy for more information about how our teams use (and don’t use) AI tools.

Because our database is not exhaustive, we go to the FCC’s website to check the primary data for ourselves and make sure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. Plans and prices also vary by location, so we input local addresses on provider websites to find the specific options available to residents. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP's service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of our prepublication fact-check.

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. To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

Scottsdale internet FAQs