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According to a recent Pew Research Center report, 35% of US workers who have jobs that can be performed remotely work from home full time. That number has dropped since 2020, of course, but it's still up 7% from the years before the pandemic. The number of hybrid workers who only go to the office occasionally is 59% (and about a third of those folks want to stay home all the time).
The work is getting done, either at home or the office. For that to happen, both places need great internet connections. But which ISP is the best choice?
As part of our annual ISPs survey, we asked which provider you use at home or, if you're an IT professional, what you deploy in an office, and how you feel about them. From the results, we pick multiple winners because not everyone has a choice of ISPs. In some places, there's a single provider available. If you are able to choose, however, it may behoove you to know your options and how they stack up.
The Top Business ISPs in the US for 2024
A work-from-home ISP is typically just your standard consumer-oriented ISP used for web surfing, online gaming, streaming, smart home monitoring, etc. But when you're working at home, it's important to have a reliable broadband connection, that offers solid speed, so you never have to think about it.
When we drill into the results of our annual survey, the top pick among those who work from home is clear. Fiber-to-the-home provider Verizon Fios has the best scores for reliability, speed, and ease of use by a wide margin. It also happens to be the top-rated work-from-home for overall satisfaction, plus is the most likely ISP be recommended to friends and colleagues. Fios has won the Business Choice award several times in the past, but this year it truly stands out.
(Note: Click the down, left, and right arrows in our interactive charts to view the various elements of our survey results.)
Our second winner is T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet, which manages good scores for overall satisfaction, and rates much higher for value than any other ISP on the list this year. T-Mobile offers fixed wireless using 5G signals to connect your home office to the internet. It's one of the fastest-growing in the country. According to Leichtman Research Group, T-Mobile Home Internet added more than 2 million Home Internet customers in 2023. T-Mobile can't match Fios for reliability or speed of course, but bests many others on the list—especially the cable-based ISPs.
Except for AT&T Fiber midway down the list, most of the other entries are cable-based ISPs (we still label them as such even if many incorporate some fiber optic networks these days). The top-rated cable ISP and our third work-from-home ISP award winner, is Astound Broadband, especially for those who use the Astound lines that once powered RCN. (Astound is the umbrella brand now for RCN, Wave Broadband on the West Coast, and Grande Communications in Texas.) Astound/RCN lands high scores for tech support and repairs, and ties with T-Mobile 5G on ease of use and likelihood to recommend.
The other type of internet for business is installed at the office and typically controlled by the information technology department. We asked survey respondents to rate their ISP choices if they worked in IT specifically. The top choice was Astound Broadband. It has the top (or tied for top) score in every single category, with particularly high ratings on setup, reliability, speed, and ease of use.
For those who have the option and prefer a fiber optic connection at the office (usually with that symmetrical speed so uploads are as fast as downloads), IT managers also give Verizon Fios scores good enough to earn another Business Choice award. Fios equals Astounds on the ease of use and comes close regarding setup, speed, and our two most important measures: overall satisfaction and recommendation.
The Top Business ISPs in Canada for 2024
While most Canadians use one of the three big ISPs—namely Bell Canada, Rogers, and Telus—those three ISPs also own and operate many smaller networks to try and target different audiences. Fido is such a company (run by Rogers), which operates as both a wireless MVNO for phones and an internet provider. As you can see in the chart below, customers like it as an ISP—but not enough to sign up. It turns out that Rogers quietly shut down Fido signups in late 2023, though it will continue as an MVNO. IF you go to Fido.ca for internet, you'll be directed to Rogers Internet.
Stepping into the spotlight instead is Videotron, the big phone and internet player in Quebec. It has been slowly expanding coverage in Canada. That pays off this year, with Videotron landing in our business-side survey results for the first time and taking home the work-from-home trophy to boot. Its numbers are second only to the sort-of-defunct Fido ISP in most categories, and better than Fido for ease of use, tech support, and customer service. It's a worthy champion.
The other winner on our list is Bell Canada. We pick a winner among the big three and a known fiber-to-the-home option; Bell happens to be both of those. Bell's numbers aren't all in the same territory as Fido's this year, but it does have the highest ratings for customer service and tech support, so consider that if you believe you'll have trouble using an ISP (and if you have a choice).
Where do IT managers turn when it comes to getting an office ISP in Canada? Last year's winner, Rogers, doesn't make the list this time. It is instead replaced by Telus, which is on top for 2024 with best or tied-for-best scores in every category, and stands far ahead of the competition when it comes to ease of use.
Despite being on top among the big three above, and in our Readers' Choice survey for consumer ISPs, Bell Canada doesn't receive the same love from IT managers. This is despite its overall satisfaction score increasing slightly since last year, when it also earned a second place spot.
Full Results
The PCMag Business Choice survey for ISPs in the USA was in the field from March 18 to April 22, 2024; the Canadian version was conducted via a panel from March 19 to March 26, 2024. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our survey methodology.