Earthlink cable

*Est. $30 to $75 per month

Available in much of the U.S.
High customer satisfaction
Faster than dial-up and most DSL

Call center is mostly outsourced
Not as fast as some cable ISPs

Our Analysis

March 2009. As a cable ISP, EarthLink doesn't rank at the very top in reviews, but it's consistently above average. This makes it worth considering if one of the very top-ranked cable ISPs isn't available where you are. EarthLink is available in most areas served by Time Warner, and it outperforms rivals in independent customer-satisfaction surveys. Speed ranges from 3 Mbps to 10 Mbps, and the price includes Internet security features. The main drawback is that EarthLink has outsourced most of its call-center operations, and user reviews say customer service can be disappointing. Our Full Report recommends the top-ranking cable ISPs for different geographic areas, but if it's available in your area, reviews say fiber-optic Verizon FiOS (*est. $50 to $145 per month) earns the highest praise from customers.

In the 17,000-respondent survey conducted by research firm J.D. Power and Associates, ratings for reliability and customer service are broken down by region. PC World magazine and PC Magazine also have extensive surveys, and PC Magazine offers speed ratings based on tests conducted with 40,000 users. Consumer Reports rates ISPs based on a poll of 34,000 readers, comparing EarthLink cable with 11 other cable ISPs. We found some user reviews at BroadbandReports.com and Epinions.com.

Our Sources

1. J.D. Power and Associates

In this survey of 17,000 people, EarthLink DSL ratings are lumped together with EarthLink cable ratings, making the results ambiguous. Overall, EarthLink broadband gets excellent ratings in the East, and "better than most" elsewhere -- certainly well above average.

Review: High Speed Internet Service Provider Ratings, Editors of J.D. Power and Associates, Oct. 2008

2. PCMag.com Details/Subscribe

In this detailed survey of about 6,000 broadband users, EarthLink is ranked third among cable ISPs. It loses a point or two when it comes to customer service but gives Bright House and Cablevision Optimum Online a run for their money.

Review: The Best (and Worst) Tech Support in America: ISPs, Eric Griffith, July 29, 2008

3. PC World Details/Subscribe

PC World surveys 6,463 readers to measure customer satisfaction about ISPs. There are eight specific categories plus overall satisfaction. EarthLink cable is rated average in all of them except overall satisfaction and spam blocking, in which it is above average (the highest rating).

Review: The Best and Worst ISPs, Jeff Bertolucci, June 20, 2007

4. PCMag.com Details/Subscribe

More than 40,000 people used an applet to help PC Magazine measure ISP speeds. EarthLink ranks seventh among cable services. EarthLink isn't the fastest or the slowest cable ISP, but it's solidly in the middle.

Review: Real World Testing: The Best ISPs in America, Jeremy Kaplan, May 30, 2007

5. ConsumerReports.orgDetails/Subscribe

Based on ratings from over 34,000 readers of Consumer Reports, EarthLink is ranked here in comparison with 11 other cable ISPs. Editors base these ratings on speed, reliability and technical support.

Review: Internet Service: Fiber Joins the Fray, Editors of Consumer Reports, Feb. 2007

6. BroadbandReports.com

EarthLink cable seems to have fallen off the chart of cable ISPs here, but earlier, more than 300 user reviews gave EarthLink cable ISP service good scores overall, especially on reliability. Its lowest grade is a B-minus for tech support, which users say is outsourced.

Review: Charts - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Contributors to BroadbandReports.com

7. Epinions.com

There are more than 600 user reviews at Epinions.com, but they concern all kinds of EarthLink services, not just cable, and it's not always clear which service the reviewer is discussing. For what it's worth, the average score is middling.

Review: EarthLink, Contributors to Epinions.com