EarthLink offers reliable internet service across the U.S.—but you can find cheaper options that are just as good.
7 min readEarthLink internet stands out due to its availability, plan flexibility, and lack of overage fees. The Atlanta-based company offers internet services using rebranded network space it leases from other providers, so you can get it almost anywhere. EarthLink primarily offers fiber internet plans, with DSL service available in select areas. Plus, some customers we spoke with gave EarthLink a thumbs up.
“EarthLink's dependable service has kept me loyal,” says Kasandra Grant, a casino blogger and EarthLink customer in Las Vegas. “The seamless experience and dependability outweigh the potential benefits of switching.”
Still, EarthLink services cost more than the major internet providers it rents networks from. In most cases, customers could (and should) choose the cheaper, identical options over EarthLink.
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Our breakdown of EarthLink features
For all our internet reviews, we give a rating based on three main criteria—speed and reliability, dollar value, and customer experience—which we then average to make an overall score.
Want to know how EarthLink stacks up? See our full take below.
Speed and reliability
3.6/5
EarthLink covers so much ground with its multiple offerings that it’s hard to gauge speed or reliability. The company offers fiber, DSL, satellite, and fixed wireless, all of which offer vastly different experiences. You get a much faster connection with fiber than with DSL or satellite; and fixed wireless falls somewhere in between.
According to HighSpeedInternet.com’s customer satisfaction survey, EarthLink gets below-average scores for internet speed. The provider tied for last place for speed satisfaction compared to Optimum, CenturyLink, and Frontier. Cable providers like Xfinity and Spectrum scored higher than EarthLink for speed and reliability. Customers that Reviews.org spoke to also say the service isn’t dependable enough. “My son is a gamer, and he said he had issues. It was a slow download speed,” says Leslie Aromy, a nail technician and one-time EarthLink customer in Waveland, Mississippi.
Still, you’re likely going to get excellent performance from EarthLink if you have a fiber internet connection. Kasandra Grant in Las Vegas went with EarthLink's fiber service because she needed internet "that could keep up with the high stakes and fast pace of online casinos." She says her 100Mbps plan isn't the cheapest, but she's okay with paying more for the dependability EarthLink provides her.
Fiber vs. other internet connections
Why does EarthLink speed vary so much based on connection type?
Fiber is the fastest internet connection out there. Its fiber-optic cables allow information to travel much faster than it does through phone lines, radio waves, or satellite signals.
EarthLink uses all four methods, so your speed may be significantly slower or faster depending on which internet type you sign up for.
Dollar value
3.8/5
EarthLink delivers solid services to a lot of customers, and you get solid value thanks to the unlimited data and lack of seasonal price hikes. Grant, who went with the EarthLink Fiber 100Mbps plan at $59.95 per month (at the time), feels she gets her money’s worth: “The plan's unlimited data cap ensures that my extensive online activities remain uninterrupted.”
Still, it’s worth noting that EarthLink usually costs more than other internet options. In fact, EarthLink plans often cost more than the exact same plans offered by the original provider. For example, when you compare AT&T Fiber and EarthLink, AT&T’s 500Mbps fiber plan costs $65 a month, while EarthLink's 500Mbps plan costs $79.95. That’s nearly 25% more per month without 25% more value. As the kids say—oof. (At least there are no automatic price hikes.)
While you get unlimited data for EarthLink’s prices, you don’t get much else extra to make the price tag worth it. You have to pay additional fees if you want to use some of EarthLink’s perks, like its child online monitoring service, EarthLink Guardian. However, you can always check for deals when you sign up.
Customer experience
3.3/5
Based on customer experience and survey results, it seems that EarthLink’s customer service is all right at best, but awful at worst. On the HighSpeedInternet.com customer satisfaction survey, EarthLink tied with Optimum for the lowest-rated customer service and lowest score for overall satisfaction.
Grant says her experience has been mixed, and the quality of the customer service response has varied across different issues she's had. Overall, she feels her interactions with EarthLink are mostly positive, although she believes "the customer service can be more responsive, especially during peak gaming hours."
Former EarthLink DSL customer Jeannie K. in Blue Ridge, Virginia, has a more disappointing story. “They sent me the equipment, I self-installed, and it never worked,” she laments. “It took weeks and many phone calls to cancel and get my charges reversed.”
In the end, the best thing about the EarthLink customer experience is its widespread availability, which allows customers to keep their internet service almost everywhere.
How long it took to get a real human on the phone: My lack of a phone number associated with an EarthLink account foiled my attempt to reach a live human. You need an account to advance through the automated phone tree.
How the chat service is: It quickly became clear that the chatbot couldn't help me. Instead, it connected me with a live agent, Sasha F. Unfortunately, Sasha F. said she couldn't answer basic questions about the service plans. She wanted to connect me to the sales team, which seemed premature. Oh, and I had to give my name and number just to use the chat line.
Overall quality: 3.6/5
Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change. Data verified as of the article's publication date.
EarthLink carries internet all across the country, but it costs so much compared to other services that customers would need a lot more to get their money’s worth.
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Customer Reviews
False advertising
I cancelled my contract after 5 months. I was told I would be billed $200 for canceling my contract early. I did not know that I had signed a contract. I don’t recall ever being told that I was signing up for a 12 month contract. I asked for a
Maria | Wichita, KS
Submitted 6/17/2025
EarthLink vs. the competition
There’s no way around it: EarthLink is more expensive than most of the competition.
EarthLink takes already high internet prices and jacks them up, ostensibly to cover the cost of renting other providers’ networks. And what do you get out of it? Good question. EarthLink offers very little that you don’t already get through its leasing providers.
However, one irreplaceable benefit of EarthLink is its availability. Because EarthLink rents networks from other companies, its presence is widespread. It’s available even in less populated locations, so you can likely take your service with you when you move, even if you go from a big city to a rural area. That's a significant advantage if you want to avoid the hassle of switching internet companies.
EarthLink at a glance
Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change. Data verified as of the article's publication date.
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With a 12 month contract.
Other internet providers
Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change. Data verified as of the article's publication date.
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Plus taxes and fees. Upload/download speed and device streaming claims are based on maximum wired speeds. Actual Internet speeds are not guaranteed and may vary based on factors such as hardware and software limitations, latency, packet loss, etc.
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Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes $ fees. Limited availability. May not be available in your area.
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Limited time offer; subject to change; valid to qualified residential customers who have not subscribed to any services within the previous 30 days and who have no outstanding obligation to Charter.
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w/ Auto Pay. Regulatory fees included in monthly price for qualified accounts. See full terms.
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Plus hardware, shipping & handling fees, and tax. Fully refundable. Depending on location, some orders may take 6 months or more to fulfill.
What we learned from real customers
When we talked to EarthLink customers, here’s what we found out:
- The service works well for some with no issues
- Customers can’t always get the help they need from customer service
In short, EarthLink’s customer experience can be summed up in one word: Inconsistent.
Kasandra Grant is all about EarthLink—she feels it’s an excellent choice to keep her connected in her career in casino blogging. “There's a lot to like about EarthLink, but as an online casino player, the consistent speed and uptime are what set it apart,” she says.
“EarthLink's dependable service has kept me loyal.” —Kasandra Grant
Dan Fugardi, the CEO of beauty company Instyler Brands, also has only good things to say about EarthLink. “I've used EarthLink for one service or another for most of the last couple decades, and it has always served me well,” says Fugardi, who has a 300Mbps+ EarthLink plan at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Marina del Rey. “I can't say I've ever had one of the nightmare stories that I've heard or experienced with bigger service providers.”
But Jeannie K. in Blue Ridge, Virginia, was left frustrated when EarthLink promised her DSL in an area that couldn’t receive it. A retired paralegal, Jeannie signed up for the service a few months ago, but it never worked for her. She had to contact EarthLink several times to have the equipment removed and get her money back.
“It turns out that our overhead telephone lines were no longer operational,” she says. “Shortly after, our telephone lines stopped working too.”
“EarthLink was probably a good experience for some, but not for me.” —Jeannie K.
Leslie Aromy in Waveland, Mississippi had a similarly frustrating experience. She realized after a month with EarthLink that with only one weekday off, she couldn’t reliably contact EarthLink customer support about issues—of which she ran into many.
“I qualified for the ACP discount,” Aromy says. “The first time [EarthLink] charged my bank, they didn’t charge me the right amount, so when I tried to call them, I couldn’t get in touch with a person who could actually help me.”
After months of trying to disconnect the service and disputing post-cancellation charges, Aromy still isn’t sure whether EarthLink will try to charge her again. “So I had to get a disconnect confirmation number. I go to my bank; they put a stop with automatic withdrawal on my account. Hopefully, at least if they do it again, I have the number so the bank can dispute it.”
Need to contact EarthLink? Try one of these:
- Call 1-888-327-8454
- Use this Earthlink's online chat line
- Download EarthLink Wireless Home (not to be confused with myEarthLink, an email app)
Our fact-based research process centers on interviews with internet customers across the country, helping us understand how internet services hold up against diverse needs and challenges.
To put together this review, we spoke to three EarthLink customers, tracked down an EarthLink pricing sheet, and painstakingly pored over Reddit, BBB, and ConsumerAffairs comments. For a deeper look at our review process, check out how we test internet providers.
What network is EarthLink on?
EarthLink Internet has an unusual setup. It’s like an MVNO for internet service. It pays other internet companies so it can use their infrastructure to offer plans in EarthLink’s name. EarthLink uses AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, and Verizon, with T-Mobile listed on EarthLink’s website as an additional “provider we trust.”
This unusual approach allows EarthLink to offer a wide range of plans, including several fiber options, DSL, satellite, and fixed wireless. There are also satellite and 5G/4G LTE plans available, but you need to call to inquire.
Unlike an MVNO, EarthLink usually costs more than the networks it uses. You typically get a better deal from the leasing providers themselves.
Where is EarthLink available?
Because EarthLink piggybacks off existing networks, it has more location leeway than other services. You can find it throughout the Lower 48 (although not in every city).
If you’re not sure whether you live in an EarthLink area, you can check this list of EarthLink's top cities or use our zip finder below.
Ready to sign up for EarthLink Internet?
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FAQ
EarthLink’s fiber plans are good for streaming. While EarthLink’s 100Mbps fiber internet plan is fast enough for streaming shows, the 300Mbps fiber internet plan and higher are even better, enabling you to watch HD streaming without buffering.
EarthLink’s DSL plans are also good enough for streaming, but you might find it slows down or buffers if you have multiple users streaming at the same time. An SD video (480p) only requires 5Mbps, an HD video (1080p) requires 10–25Mbps, and 4K video (2160p) requires about 25–100Mbps download speed.
EarthLink’s fiber internet is good for gaming, according to online casino blogger Kasandra Grant. On the other hand, EarthLink’s DSL plans are fairly slow and may not keep up with high-resolution games.
EarthLink Internet is not owned by AT&T; it’s owned by Trive Capital (and was previously property of Windstream). However, EarthLink does pay other internet companies like AT&T to use their infrastructure and offer plans in EarthLink’s name.
Yes, people still use EarthLink. Supposedly, EarthLink offers various services to nearly 100 million customers in the U.S.
We get mixed reviews from EarthLink customers about EarthLink’s customer service. Some customers tell Reviews.org that they have mostly positive interactions with EarthLink, while others feel that it is difficult to get issues resolved in a timely manner.
Your EarthLink internet may be slow depending on the internet connection type you signed up for. Fiber is the fastest internet connection, while DSL is the slowest.
EarthLink also rents its bandwidth from other providers, so your speed may be slower depending on the area.
Check your internet speed using our speed test. On the same webpage, we also share tips for how to speed up your internet.
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Chad | Owasso, OK