A new 2026 reader survey ranks internet service providers across the US and Canada, with satellite and fixed wireless now part of the fight.
The survey asks readers to rate their broadband providers, then ranks the best and worst performers based on those responses. That means traditional cable and fiber providers are being judged alongside satellite internet and fixed wireless, where a home gets broadband over a wireless connection instead of a buried line. The mix matters because broadband is no longer just a choice between the phone company and the cable company in some markets. Reader surveys are not lab tests, but they do capture something lab tests often miss: the slow irritation of paying a monthly bill for service that may or may not behave.
The useful part is not just who landed on top. It is that newer categories are now credible enough to be compared with the incumbents by actual customers, not just advertised as alternatives. For rural and underserved areas, that can turn “no good options” into at least a few imperfect ones, which is still a material upgrade.
Broadband competition remains deeply local, so a national ranking can only tell you so much. But if your provider shows up near the bottom, it is at least nice to know the misery has been peer-reviewed by other subscribers.