The Best Cable Internet Providers for Rural Areas

If you live in a rural area, your internet options are probably limited. You likely have access to satellite internet, and you may be able to use your phone’s hotspot (though it’s not ideal). You might have DSL service available. However, cable access is often a little more limited. If you do have cable available, it may only be through a single provider.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, rural areas may be quite far from existing infrastructure, which means cable companies will need to build new networks to bring service to the area. When they do, the greater distance between homes can mean it’ll be more complicated.

Combine these infrastructure challenges with the typically smaller populations over any given area and you start to see the problem: bringing cable to rural areas requires a significant investment that may not yield much (if any) payoff due to a lack of customers.

If cable internet isn’t available at your current address, you might not be entirely out of luck. Cable companies sometimes operate in a broader area but don’t install wiring to a home until it’s requested. For this reason, it’s always worth calling local internet service providers (ISPs) and asking if it’s possible to get service at your residence.

Spectrum is our pick for the best rural cable internet. It’s a solid provider that offers wide availability, good prices, and fast speeds. In particular, we’re impressed with Spectrum’s broad rural coverage—it’s the main reason we chose it over its main competitor, Xfinity.

Spectrum offers 500Mbps or 1,000Mbps plans. This makes it easy to choose a package—simply decide how much speed you need. The prices are competitive, and the performance generally lives up to its advertised speeds (though we have seen a few complaints in this area). Best of all, there is no data cap, so you can set up a home Wi-Fi network to stream all your favorite shows and never have to worry about how much bandwidth you’re using.

Spectrum is one of the most widely available cable companies in the country. While California, Texas, and New York have the most coverage, Spectrum offers coverage in 44 states. And its rural availability is impressive. Midwestern customers, in particular, can appreciate the wide availability of speedy cable.

We recommend Spectrum for rural customers who need speedy, affordable cable broadband with no data caps.

Xfinity is a close runner-up for best rural cable internet. This provider offers a wide selection of plans to suit any budget and need, whether that be super-affordable or superfast. It also offers some of the widest availability of any ISP. Xfinity has a reputation for highly reliable service—the author had Xfinity internet for several years and doesn’t recall any notable issues. 

Xfinity offers coverage in a whopping 48 states, with a strong presence in California, Florida, and Illinois. Its rural coverage is also excellent, though it’s a bit less spread out than top pick Spectrum—particularly in the Midwest. This means residents of these states may need to be closer to large population centers to get service.

There is surprisingly little overlap between Spectrum and Xfinity, so your choice ultimately comes down to which is available at your location. Overall, we think it’s hard to go wrong with Xfinity or Spectrum internet.

Cox offers plans from a basic 100Mbps up to 2,000Mbps (named Cox Go Beyond Fast). These speeds put it right in line with other cable providers like Spectrum and Xfinity, and there’s enough variety in the plan selection to cover nearly any need.

Cox’s plans also offer competitive prices. For example, 1,000Mbps costs $60 per month with Cox, whereas the same plan runs $70 per month with Spectrum and $80 per month with Xfinity.

However it’s not nearly as widespread as Spectrum or Xfinity. Cox offers service in 19 states around the country, which is good in isolation. However, compared to the 40+ states covered by other ISPs, it suddenly seems a little lacking. Residents in the rural Southeast are especially out of luck—Cox has little presence there. 

Overall, Cox is a decent choice if it’s the only cable provider you have available. The service isn’t bad by any means. However, if you have either Spectrum or Xfinity in your area, we think you’d be better off with one of them.

Our final pick, Frontier, offers something a bit different. Rather than cable internet, Frontier offers ultra-fast fiber service in select markets and DSL over a wide coverage area. Frontier's fiber service can get up to 7Gbps. The 1,000Mbps service costs just $70 per month, which makes it a much better deal than even the most affordable cable providers.

Frontier covers a wide area with service in 25 states. The majority is DSL, the less exciting type of service most rural customers can access. Frontier offers coverage in a number of areas that our other picks don’t, so it may be the only option for many. 

If you’re stuck without any of our top cable picks but don’t want satellite service, Frontier’s DSL is a solid option. And if you happen to live in one of Frontier’s fiber markets, we highly recommend checking it out.

Yes, cable internet is great for rural areas—especially compared to the other options normally available in these spots. Cable options are likely to be much faster, more reliable, and more affordable  than satellite or DSL. Cable also tends to offer either very high data caps or unlimited data, which gives it a major advantage over satellite.

The tradeoff is that cable requires more infrastructure than DSL and satellite internet, so it isn’t as widely available.

In terms of speed, reliability, and overall value, fiber-optic internet is almost always the best option, followed by cable. Unfortunately, rural customers often don’t have access to either of these. DSL is more common in rural settings, but it tends to be slow and expensive.

Satellite internet is a solid choice, and it’s available pretty much anywhere. Fixed wireless is also becoming more common and can be a great alternative to satellite. Finally, some mobile internet providers, like Verizon and T-Mobile, offer home internet via wireless hotspots.

Yes, cable internet is excellent for rural areas. It’s usually much faster and often more affordable than rural alternatives like satellite or DSL. Cable speeds can reach up to 1,000Mbps or more, and the service is often highly reliable.

Yes, Spectrum Internet works in rural areas. In fact, it’s one of the largest cable providers in the U.S. However, rural coverage can be tricky and may depend on how rural you’re thinking—a small town may have a better shot at getting Spectrum than a single residence in the middle of open farmland.

The easiest way to determine if Spectrum is available in your area is to use our zip code tool. Simply enter your zip code and we’ll show you all the internet service providers available in your area.

Yes, Xfinity offers service in rural areas. However, options in small towns and rural areas are often limited. The best way to determine your internet service options is to use our zip code tool.

If you need internet in a rural area, you can start by checking out available cable providers. You may have one (or more) available and just need the cable run to your home. If that’s not an option, we recommend a wireless internet service like Hughesnet (satellite) or Rise Broadband (fixed wireless). These providers can get a signal to your home without complex infrastructure in place, so they tend to be more available in rural areas.

The fastest and simplest way to know if Cox is available in your area is to use our zip code tool. Just enter your zip code to get a list of every internet provider in your area.

Cox provides wireless hotspot access at no additional cost to all Cox internet customers. This means you can make use of over four million hotspots around the country—very handy for travel or getting some work done at the coffee shop.