Best Internet Providers in St. Petersburg, Florida

What is the best internet provider in St. Petersburg?

If you're looking for the best internet in St. Petersburg, you have a few options. For most households in St. Petersburg, Spectrum is the best internet service provider. This is because the cable provider has the widest coverage across city lines, and offers fast download speeds, unlimited data and no yearly contract. If you're in an area where Spectrum isn’t available, WOW Internet and Frontier are also solid picks for home internet.

We've also found the top options if you're hunting for the cheapest plan or the fastest speeds. WOW Internet offers the most affordable service in St. Petersburg at $25 per month for 300 megabits per second. For folks looking for the fastest internet provider, check out Frontier's 5 gigabit plan, which offers symmetrical speeds up to 5,000Mbps for $130 per month.

Best internet in St. Petersburg, Florida

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in St. Petersburg

The best internet deals and top promotions in St. Petersburg depend on the discounts available during that period. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers. 

St. Petersburg internet providers, such as Spectrum, Frontier and WOW Internet, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Many, however, including Rapid Systems, T-Mobile and Verizon, run the same standard pricing year-round. 

For a more extensive list of promos, 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 Federal Communications Commission. 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 user sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming. 
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and gaming. 
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in St. Petersburg

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike with 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 FCC.gov.

But it doesn’t end there. We use 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 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?

Though 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 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 consider real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and the FCC.

St. Petersburg internet provider FAQs