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EarthLink Internet

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3.0

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LAST UPDATED: March 6th, 2024

More than one million internet users have chosen EarthLink as their internet service provider. EarthLink offers internet and mobile service to residential customers and businesses across the contiguous United States.

Over the last two decades, EarthLink has consistently grown and improved its services. The company was purchased by Trive Capital in 2019. 

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The Good

  • Variety of Network Types
  • Plan Options and Pricing
  • Additional Benefits

Variety of Network Types

EarthLink offers customers fiber internet and wireless home internet. These two options have their advantages and disadvantages, and your best option will depend on availability. The good news is the internet provider may offer more than one option for your area. If you're looking for cutting-edge, high-speed service, ask about fiber. If you're in a rural area where you can't seem to find much more than dial-up service, check out wireless home internet. Looking for something that is a compromise between speed and price? Consider EarthLink's broadband services.

Plan Options and Pricing

EarthLink Internet Experts work with customers to determine the right plan at the right price to create the right connection for customers.

  • Fiber Internet — starting at $59.95 per month, speeds up to 1 Gbps
  • Wireless Home Internet – starting at $59.95 per month, data up to 150 GB per month

The actual speeds may vary based on location, the number of connected devices, and systems used. Prices can also vary based on your location.

The Fiber Internet plan uses fiber-optic technology and has no data caps or credit checks. The starting monthly cost of this plan is $59.95. There are also additional fees:

  • Installation fee — $79.95
  • Modem fee — $12.95 per month

The Fiber Internet plan has a twelve-month contract and an early termination fee of up to $200.

The EarthLink Wireless Home Internet plan uses the same towers as your cell phone and has no annual fee. The starting monthly cost is $59.95.

  • One time setup fee — $79.95
  • Modem fee — $14.95 per month 

Additional Features

EarthLink ISP subscribers have access to several benefits as part of their high-speed internet service plan.

  • MyEarthLink Portal
  • My Account
  • Free Premium Email for Fiber Internet Customers
  • EarthLink Support 

With the MyEarthLink Portal, users can customize their internet browser homepage to stay up to date on the news, sports, social media networks, etc.

Every EarthLink user has access to their account to allow them to manage their internet billing online.

Fiber Internet customers can set up a premium email account with EarthLink which also comes with a mobile app for convenient use. It also includes virus and spam protection and the ability to use personalized email addresses.

Wireless Home Internet customers also have access to an account management portal and a mobile app for their phone.

EarthLink Support provides tech support to customers, as well as assistance with their account. EarthLink’s customer service team is available via chat or phone.

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The Bad

  • Speed Variability
  • Plan Transparency
  • Limited High-Speed Range

Speed Variability

While the customers of EarthLink will be able to choose from a wide variety of different technologies, these options may not be capable of high speed. Every specific location has different speeds based on varying factors, the customer will have to check with customer service agents to get exact speeds for their area.

Upload speed varies by area as well. They are generally slower than the download speeds, but this is fairly standard for the industry. Interested customers should check with EarthLink to see what plans and what speeds are available in their area.

EarthLink's top speed of 1 Gig is fairly competitive for the industry, though there are other internet service providers with download speeds greater than 1000 Mbps.

Plan Transparency

Unless you contact EarthLink directly, it can be difficult to determine whether your location has access to certain plan and what price the plan will be. EarthLink could make information about its plans more easily accessible on its website.

Limited High-Speed Range

EarthLink can help customers in all 50 states because of its EarthLink Connections program with Viasat and HughesNet. The two satellite providers can get almost anyone internet access. 

Additionally, EarthLink is one of the largest DSL providers in the United States. You might have luck finding an EarthLink DSL plan in your area.

But EarthLink's fiber optic internet offerings are much more limited to a select few regions. Fiber internet is one of the fastest and most reliable connection types, so if you have the option to choose fiber, it's worth going for. It's unfortunate that EarthLink doesn't have a more widespread fiber network.

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The Bottom Line

EarthLink is one of the most far-reaching internet service providers in the industry. The company is known for offering its customers friendly support and helping them to find the right speed at the right price. These technologies focus on fiber and wireless home internet. This is the reason that EarthLink can have such a large service area and provide coverage for most of the country.

Just keep in mind that EarthLink's internet speeds can vary by location, the number of connected devices, and systems used. If you don't see exactly what you're looking for then it might be time to start investigating other options.

EarthLink's internet services are at a reasonable price and have added bonus features such as free email addresses and extended hours for customer support via phone or chat. Be sure to investigate the availability in your area and the contract terms and conditions. Read our verified Earthlink reviews to see if this ISP is right for you.

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Star Rating

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1.0

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180 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

9%

4 grade

2%

3 grade

4%

2 grade

4%

1 grade

79%

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stevon ,

I like the fact is that you just get the final rate billed and no "teaser" rate then double the next year like AT&T, COX, etc. What I don't like is that I was told Fiber was available at my street address in Imperial Beach, CA and it is not! Moved furniture, cut holes in my ceiling to make access for the fiber run to my closet in the house. I was billed up front for fiber with an ONT modem monthly fee and a separate fee to install fiber. When the AT&T installation Tech came out he said "fiber? what fiber? there is no fiber anywhere near Imperial Beach. I only have copper to install and max speed is 24 mbps." I asked him to leave and called Earthlink support (in India) they profusely apologized and since they had my money already I went with a 24mbps service at a cheaper rate. Why don't the service reps know if there is no fiber in your area? why do they sell and bill for vaperware? This fraudulent behaviour should be stopped! this is the scamming policies of a lot of companies! which is why I did not buy internet from AT&T in the first place! I have had my battles with them before. Now I have to fix my house, apologize to the family and put my life back together

3 years ago

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Otra Historia New York, NY

Earthlink webmail, at least the service on hosting, is NOT a free service like Gmail or Hotmail. I HAVE PAID for it every month for many years. HOWEVER, their Inbox portal keeps showing me and bothering me with ads, like any other free service., which means their cookies have access to my Inbox. Don't you have enough with the money WE PAY YOU Earthlink? Why do you have to stick us more ads?

3 years ago

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Danitza grimes bowman Hermitage, TN

Unfortunately, I've had to call EarthLink about my internet several calls recently. Each Earthlink rep has been courteous and helpful although unsuccessful in fixing the problem. However the CSR today 7/13/22 was a different story. This rep seemed more interested in passing my issue along to an add-on service at an additional charge of course.

1 year ago

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

Hello Danitza,
So that I can assist you better could you please give me your phone number, email address, or account number so that I look at your account. If you do not mind could you also give me some detail as to what the issue is. Thank you.

Jul. 13th, 2022

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Cam Hall Richmond, VA

We used EarthLinks 75gb/month internet in one of our residences, and it was great and reliable but the limitations via data cap became incredibly frustrating. In our house where we streamed, gamed, and wfh, the GB we used added up quickly often without our noticing (when games, software would update in the background, particularly). Some months we'd use our entire data cap within the first 10 days, and I'd be haggling over overage fees the rest of the month. Good internet product, but data caps should be removed.

1 year ago

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

Thank you for the feedback on our Wireless Home Internet product, we apologize this was your experience with that service. We don't usually recommend that our customers Stream or Game with this device as it's data limit's can't handle the updates that come with gaming, or streaming in any other form than standard definition is not very compatible with this device either. We're sorry if there was any miscommunication at the point of sale, we will take this feedback into account for future training and product purposes. If you need anything please reach out to us, one of our experts would be more than happy to help!

Jul. 20th, 2022

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mark Amarillo, TX

I never received my $100 coupon for being a new customer. I spoke to several people and never got the problem resolved..

1 year ago

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

Hello Mark, my name is Nelson with the Executive Relations Team. Can you please reach out to us at https://www.earthlink.net/customer-review-help/, there you can enter a few bits of account information and a brief description of the issue you're experiencing and one of our experts will be reaching out. Thank you for this feedback.

Sep. 15th, 2022

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Zipper East Aurora, NY

36 years of service with Earthlink and I am being charged for a modem since 2020 or so and the modem has been paid for 4-fold

1 year ago

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

Hello, my name is Nelson with EarthLink's Executive Relations Team. I'm sorry this has been your experience with EarthLink lately, and I'd like to thank for being with us for all these years! In a direct message I've sent you contact information to reach out to my department to see if there's any solution to the issue you're experiencing. Please reach back out we'd love to help!

Aug. 4th, 2022

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Brett Schiftner Weatherford, TX

I looked into it but setup cost is too high an wait time is ridiculous. According to people I've spoken to speed is great. On the other hand they had trouble reaching support

1 year ago Edited July 21, 2022

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

Thank you for the feedback, we will take this into account for future training and product purposes. We strive to provide the best customer experience with our award winning customer service and no hidden fees or promotional pricing. We're sorry that your experience wasn't up to par, however we understand if maybe we weren't the best fit.

Jul. 21st, 2022

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Mike D Lynchburg, VA

Only kept this service for a short period of time. It seemed the service would speed up and slow down, but we could not find a pattern.

1 year ago

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Reply from EarthLink Internet

We're sorry this has been your experience with Earthlink's services. We strive to provide the best customer experience and it's clear that we've fell short of that. Sometimes there are mitigating factors that can affect your speed that are out of EarthLink's control. These include line degradation, weather occurrences, and issues with the equipment. We're sad that you're no longer with us, be we understand if maybe we weren't the best fit for you. We will take this feedback and put it in place for future training and product purposes.

Jul. 20th, 2022