Best internet providers in Kannapolis, North Carolina
Choosing a great home internet provider starts with finding out what’s available for you. There can be some variation based on your specific address, but the best providers are Kinetic by Windstream and Spectrum. If those aren’t available, or if you want to pay just one bill for your mobile phone and home internet every month, our team of expert reviewers recommends T-mobile.
Read below about the speeds available, differences in plan options, and perks from each of the top three internet companies in Kannapolis.
- Plans starting at $39.99 - $89.99
- Download speeds up to 100 Mbps
- Upload speeds up to 500 Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply. For offer details, view disclaimers
- Plans starting at $29.99 - $169.97
- Download speeds up to 1 Gbps
- Upload speeds up to 35 Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply. For offer details, view disclaimers
- Plans starting at $50.00
- Download speeds up to 182 Mbps
- Upload speeds up to 23 Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply.
Our top 3 ISP choices in Kannapolis, NC
You’ll get top speeds from Kinetic fiber internet or Spectrum internet in Kannapolis, but new 5G tech from T-Mobile means faster speeds on fixed wireless than ever before.
#1: Kinetic internet
Kinetic internet by Windstream offers fast fiber speeds with affordable monthly costs, no data caps, and no contracts in the Kannapolis area. There is a $10 monthly charge to rent the modem-router gateway, but you can bring your own equipment if you want. If you’ve had Kinetic at your home before, you may be able to install the service yourself for free, but Kinetic doesn’t list installation prices without a credit check. That’s a bummer, but we like that new subscribers are often eligible for a prepaid Visa gift card when they order.
In areas without fiber internet, Kinetic may still offer DSL internet. Those plans are much slower and not as good a deal, but they’re better than even the best satellite internet providers and comparable to some of the fixed wireless options available.
Read our full Windstream review.
#2: Spectrum internet
Spectrum offers cable internet to 94% of homes in Kannapolis, and its prices are very reasonable. If you live alone and don’t need to connect multiple devices at once, you can probably get away with its slowest plan for $20 per month. You can also get speeds as fast as 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps), with options in between. There’s an installation charge of $25–$60, depending on whether you do the work yourself, and you’ll pay $5 per month if you want to rent the Spectrum Wi-Fi router. You’ll benefit from zero contracts and zero data caps, which is great, but watch out for third-year price hikes and a spotty reputation for customer service. (1)
Read our full Spectrum review.
#3: T-Mobile internet
Home internet from mobile phone companies is getting better and better, and T-Mobile is our top pick for this internet type in Kannapolis. You can get what the company calls 5G Ultra Capacity almost anywhere in the city. (2) You can pay as little as $25 per month if you also use T-Mobile for your cell phone. You get free equipment, and it’s super easy to install by way of a mobile app on your phone. Our expert reviewers rate the provided equipment highly but say you should plug it in as soon as you get it because the free trial period is only 15 days long (and that includes the time it takes for T-Mobile to ship your package). It is the nature of fixed wireless to slow down the farther you are from the nearest cell tower and to experience delays if there’s heavy network traffic, so we agree that trying out your T-Mobile equipment ASAP is wise.
Read our full T-Mobile review.
All internet providers in Kannapolis
Kinetic, Spectrum, and T-Mobile are each great providers, and they cover a big portion of Kannapolis. If you can’t get coverage, though, you may want to try Verizon fixed wireless or Fision home internet by Hotwire. They each cover about 2% of the city, according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). (3)
Satellite internet is also available in Kannapolis, but we rarely recommend it if you can get home internet any other way. Download speeds are much slower, ping is atrocious, and upload speeds are about as fast as cold tar headed uphill in January. It might be your only option in really remote areas, but the FCC reports that 99% of Kannapolis can already get internet speeds of 100 Mbps or faster, and nearly 70% can get speeds of at least ten times that. (3) That means satellite internet will probably never be your best bet in the area.
Fastest internet providers in Kannapolis
Fision by Hotwire offers the fastest internet in Kannapolis, with available speeds up to 2 Gbps. The bad news is that Fision is available to only about 2% of homes in the area. But don’t despair! You can get speeds of up to 1 Gbps from either Spectrum or Kinetic in many parts of the city. That’s still faster than most homes need, but it’s nice to have an option.
With Kinetic, you’ll benefit from fast upload speeds in addition to fast download speeds, but Spectrum has a bigger network on the ground, so it might be easier to get where you live.
How much speed do you need?
Cheapest internet providers in Kannapolis
Cable internet from Spectrum is technically tied with fiber internet from Kinetic for cheapest home internet in Kannapolis, but both companies have price hikes down the road. Taking that into account, Spectrum is the winner because its low price of $20 per month lasts two full years, compared to the six months you’ll get with Kinetic. For about $5 more each month, assuming you bundle with your cell provider, you can get T-Mobile fixed wireless internet, which can serve up faster speeds but is a little less reliable throughout the day.
Internet options in nearby cities
Some areas in the greater Piedmont area benefit from fiber internet competition between Google Fiber and AT&T, but neither is widely available yet in Kannapolis. Other areas have access to Fision from Hotwire.
Nearly all areas in the region, though, have plans available from cable internet provider Spectrum and fixed wireless plans from the mobile phone providers T-Mobile and Verizon. Xfinity, though, isn’t available anywhere.
Dive in to find out more about what’s available in cities around Kannapolis:
What Kannapolis residents are saying on Reddit
Kannapolis residents love fast, reliable internet, and the vast majority recommend fiber internet over other options. In Kannapolis, fiber internet is most widely available from Kinetic by Windstream, but the company also offers slow DSL plans.
If you can’t get fiber internet in Kannapolis, you may be able to get cable internet from Spectrum. Lots of people complain about it online, though, and the gripes go back years and years.
I'm moving the family to the Charlotte area in two months. What's the best internet/TV combination to go with? We currently have Xfinity (Comcast). Anything comparable? TIA
Honestly, I just have ATT Fiber with Sling TV.
No contracts, internet that isn't shitty or ever gone out since I switched over, and no internet data caps.
As my internet goes out again, and just so fed up with the internet provider bs that's just omnipresent everywhere, is there a tax bracket where you just put a satellite in the air for yourself, call it "MyG"
Network engineer here. Your experience with internet is subjective to the zip code you live in. Depending on what street your on, how recent the lines were laid, and where your connection actually comes from are all going to play into the quality of your service. Many older areas are failing due to disrepair or lack of budget in the ISP to issue maintenance for the area. Before you wonder why a lack of budget would be an issue, remember that if the lines have to be relaid, conduit reworked, or a plethora of other major expensive labor that these costs can add up extremely fast.
You will always get REALLY mixed responses on this question because of this. A lot of this has to do with the fact the ISPs themselves have a lot of contracts with cities (such as charlotte) that allows them to have a monopoly on the local physical lines. New York is an excellent example of this. All lines are basically owned by Verizon (with some exceptions) and all other internet service ride over their stuff no matter who you pay for.
The same applies here in NC. All the fiber is basically owned by about 3-5 major companies, with some minor ones in between handling some smaller rural areas.
The best thing you can do is attempt to rotate between your available local providers until you find the one with the most stable service. What may work for someone down the road from you could be the worst thing for your house. It really just depends on how well maintained the infrastructure is, and what other things are riding on it.
Moving into a new house soon. Unfortunately my only options for Internet providers are Spectrum, Earth Link and Hughes Net. Anyone have any feedback or opinions on which provide the most reliable internet for price? No TV/cable - I only use internet for streaming (Netflix, gaming, video conferences for work).
I just went through this. Consensus seems to be Google Fiber >>> ATT Fiber > Spectrum >>>> anything else.
I only have Spectrum available where I am as well but I think their head and shoulders above any of the “other” options
Internet news and infrastructure in Kannapolis, NC
High-speed internet is widely available in Kannapolis, with speeds of 100 Mbps or faster available to all but a very few homes. (3) For 68% of homes, speeds of 1 Gbps or more are available.
Kannapolis is one of the best-connected cities in the region, but we haven’t seen any recent announcements about planned buildouts in the area. That makes sense, because speeds of 100 Mbps are fast enough for most home internet users, as long as you don’t have multiple gamers or multiple adults working or schooling remotely.
If you can’t get internet wired directly to your home, more than half of Kannapolis is served by fixed wireless internet from mobile phone providers T-Mobile and Verizon, according to the FCC. Maps from providers themselves, though, show greater availability. (2, 4) With T-Mobile, you’ll get its fastest available coverage, but Verizon subscribers may be limited to 4G LTE service, which only reaches about 12 Mbps. That’s too slow for almost any home, so we tend to recommend against it if you have other options.
Frequently asked internet questions in Kannapolis
Our expert team of reviewers thinks AT&T fiber is the best home internet in North Carolina, but it’s not widely available in Kannapolis. Instead, you can usually choose between Kinetic internet or Spectrum internet. If you can get Kinetic, you’ll benefit from more reliability. However, prices jump after six months, and you have to pay for your router starting in month four.
Spectrum internet suffers from a relatively poor reputation in North Carolina, but we like that you can choose from a range of speeds and never have to worry about data caps.
Kinetic offers DSL internet in a lot of rural areas in North Carolina, and it’s better than most fixed wireless networks and satellite internet providers in the region. If you can get DSL, you’ll connect using a modem and router. To get Wi-Fi on your devices, you’ll need to make sure the router is Wi-Fi-enabled. We recommend using both the modem and router provided by Kinetic, since the company can be picky about which equipment it supports.
You can also technically get Wi-Fi from satellite providers with the right router setup, but we almost never recommend it in the Kannapolis area because DSL and cable internet are so widely available.
The fastest home internet speed in the Kannapolis region is Fision by Hotwire, but it’s only available to a tiny percentage of homes. The fastest internet you can reasonably expect to get is 1 Gpbs, and you can find it from either fiber provider Kinetic or cable provider Spectrum.
If you go with Kinetic, you’ll benefit from faster upload speeds, but watch for price hikes and equipment fees after a few months. Spectrum doesn’t hike prices for one or two years, which is great, but doesn’t offer upload fees that keep pace with what Kinetic has on offer.