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Delaware's average speeds are strong, but your options depend on where you live. Compare fiber and cable competition around Wilmington and Newark, or fixed wireless and satellite in the rural south, to find what's best for you.
85.5%
Use Internet at Home
Delaware residents rely heavily on broadband internet for data-intensive activities like streaming, gaming, and remote work.
303.89 Mbps
Average Download Speed
Delaware's average internet speed ranks among the fastest in the country, which shows strong infrastructure growth.
$60/mo.
Average Monthly Cost1
An affordable average monthly internet cost suggests a competitive local market, allowing more people to stay connected.
92.4%
Broadband Internet Subscription
With more than 9 out of 10 people having internet access, these figures highlight the wide variety of broadband options available across the state.
1. Average cost of top providers' middle tier plans
Delaware has pretty decent broadband numbers overall, showing that internet adoption is already high across the state. But statewide averages don't tell you what you'll actually get at home. Availability and provider choices can still vary significantly by location.
Northern Delaware has the strongest concentration of options. Wilmington, Newark, and surrounding New Castle County communities have the most wired providers and higher-speed plans, led by Verizon Fios and Xfinity.
Kent and Sussex Counties have more variation in availability. Outside the state's population centers, some addresses have fewer wired choices. Providers such as T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon 5G Home, Starlink, and Viasat can help fill those coverage gaps.
Speed isn't Delaware's biggest statewide problem. Delaware has the capacity for demanding uses such as remote work, streaming, and online gaming. The bigger question is whether your address can access those speeds, and whether you have multiple providers to choose from.
The 92.4% household broadband subscription rate means roughly one in thirteen Delaware households still does not have a broadband subscription. Cost, availability, and household circumstances can all contribute to that remaining gap.
Size doesn't predict broadband quality in Delaware. Wilmington, the largest, ranks last of the five on connection rate and speeds, while Middletown leads on connection rate and uploads. Here's how the five biggest communities compare on connectivity, speeds and provider choice.
Wilmington ties with Middletown for the most provider options of the five, yet it has the lowest connection rate, so having choices doesn't mean every household is connected. Xfinity and Verizon reach the vast majority of New Castle County, giving most residents access to both high-speed cable and fiber. But checking which providers reach your specific address can make a meaningful difference.
Dover's wired options are narrower but its speeds figures are the highest of the five suggesting high-speed fiber and cable coverage. Xfinity covers over 90% of Kent County, while Verizon Fios reaches about 39% of the county. Residents outside those regions are more likely to need fixed wireless than elsewhere in the state.
Home to the University of Delaware, Newark has dense infrastructure and excellent internet performance. Low 9 ms latency and high upload speeds make it particularly well suited for high-demand and multi-device households, while multiple providers create meaningful competition.
Rapid growth has brought Middletown a highly competitive internet market. Its standout upload speeds suggest a particularly capable broadband environment for households that work from home, upload large files, or rely heavily on cloud services.
Bear residents can choose from cable (Xfinity), fiber (Verizon Fios), and fixed wireless (T-Mobile Home Internet), depending on address. Its 325.36 Mbps average download speed and 10 ms latency support demanding activities such as 4K streaming and video conferencing.
Internet providers in Delaware may vary in availability depending on your address. Enter your ZIP code to explore your nearest options.
Fiber reaches about 60% of Delaware locations, and Verizon accounts for the large majority of that footprint, with max speeds reaching up to 2.3 Gbps.
Best for: Widest availability statewide
Verizon Fios covers the large majority of Delaware's fiber-connected locations, concentrated in New Castle county, with symmetrical speeds up to 2.3 Gbps for households running multiple devices at once.
Check AvailabilityBest for: Fiber access in Sussex County
Glo Fiber is Sussex County's dedicated fiber option, delivering symmetrical upload and download speeds up to 8 Gbps with no long-term contracts.
Check AvailabilityFixed wireless is more widely available across Delaware, and reaches nearly as many locations as cable. T-Mobile has the widest reach, followed by AT&T, Bloosurf, and Verizon. Speeds are the trade-off, since fixed wireless at 100/20 Mbps or faster is available at only about 38% of locations.
Best for: Value and wide availability
T-Mobile covers the largest fixed wireless footprint in every Delaware county, from 74% of Sussex locations to 84% of New Castle. Unlimited data and no contracts make it a realistic option where fiber and cable don't reach (though actual speeds still depend on tower distance).
Check AvailabilityBest for: Sussex County residents
Verizon's fixed wireless availability is strongest in Sussex County, covering 59% of locations there, compared with just 11% in New Castle. Check availability at your specific address before counting on it.
Check AvailabilityBest for: Backup wireless option in Northern Delaware
AT&T Internet Air also covers a large share of the state. Its speeds may not be the best, but the flat pricing and no contract make it worth checking if you're already an AT&T Mobile customer.
Check AvailabilityCable internet is widely available across Delaware (~94% of locations), and Xfinity holds the large majority of that footprint (~83% of all cable locations statewide).
Best for: Widest selection of plans
Xfinity is available across majority of New Castle and Kent counties and most of Sussex. It offers more speed tiers than any other cable provider, with plans up to 2 Gbps.
Check AvailabilityBest for: A second option in New Castle County
Breezeline covers about 9% of New Castle County, giving residents there a wired alternative to Xfinity where it's available.
Check AvailabilityBest for: Alternate option in Central and Southern Sussex County
Mediacom's Delaware footprint is limited to Sussex County, where it covers close to 39% of all locations, offering an alternative to Xfinity for households in that area.
Check AvailabilityFor the state's most rural areas, satellite closes gaps that fiber, cable, and even fixed wireless haven't reached yet.
Best for: Rural homes needing faster internet
Starlink stands apart from traditional satellite internet by targeting households that need more performance than older satellite services can typically deliver. Its near-universal availability makes it particularly valuable in Delaware's rural areas.
Check AvailabilityBest for: A satellite plan with a longer track record
While it generally isn't the first choice for households with access to fiber or cable, Viasat provides a backup option for rural homes that would otherwise have very limited options.
Check AvailabilityUse our provider comparison tool for a side-by-side comparison of popular internet providers in Delaware against multiple performance metrics.
Compare NowProvider marketing tells one story. Delaware residents on Reddit tell another. Here's what showed up across recent r/Delaware and r/WilmingtonDE discussions.
Get detailed insights into how the leading internet providers in Delaware stack up against each other in terms of rating, speed, and pricing.
| Provider | Pricing | Speed Range | Features | Call to Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
$45/mo.1 | 300 Mbps – 2 Gbps |
|
(888) 836-6019 |
|
$35/mo.2 | 100 Mbps – 300 Mbps |
|
(833) 284-3070 |
|
$24.95/mo.3 | 100 Mbps – 5 Gbps |
|
(844) 413-8999 |
|
|
$49.95/mo.4 | Up to 400 Mbps |
|
(844) 413-8999 |
|
$30/mo.5 | 300 Mbps – 1 Gig |
|
(833) 389-1850 |
By Jake Henderson, Senior Telecom Copywriter
Delaware's compact size gives it an advantage most states don't have. Nearly every address, particularly near the New Castle County corridor or the towns in between, can get a solid connection, so the real question is which provider is the best fit, not whether you can get online.
Our recommendation leans toward Verizon Fios where it's available. Its upload speeds are far above anything cable offers. You'll notice that when you're uploading a large file or stuck on a laggy video call. And Reddit sentiment backs this up. Fios shows up as the provider people stick with even through an outage.
Xfinity is the best all-around alternative. It's the most widely available wired provider in the state, with high download speeds, though uploads are much lower. In the Wilmington, Newark and Middletown corridor either provider is a defensible pick, with Fios winning on uploads.
And if you're settling in Sussex County, start with cable, even south of Georgetown. Which provider you get changes by area, with Xfinity serving most of the north and Mediacom taking over in the central and southern parts. Whichever one reaches your address is our pick, since cable still beats the alternatives on speed.
If you're outside both cable footprints, go with T-Mobile Home Internet, which has the widest fixed wireless reach in the county. Verizon 5G Home is worth checking too, with plans up to 300 Mbps at many addresses. Bloosurf is the slowest option here, with plans topping out at 50 Mbps, so treat it as a fallback. If none of these reach you, satellite is the last resort, and Starlink is the most consistent choice.
Our methodology blends public data with hands-on checks across four weighted factors: pricing & value (30%), speed & reliability (30%), customer satisfaction (30%), and extra perks (10%).
Reviewed by Oliver Morgan — last updated March 2026.
Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS Table S2801), Speedtest by Ookla, FCC National Broadband Map, and provider-published Broadband Facts labels.
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It's one of the most common frustrations Delaware residents raise online. Unlike states where multiple fiber and cable providers frequently overbuild the same neighborhoods to compete for customers, Delaware's ISPs have historically settled into largely separate service territories, particularly outside the Wilmington-Newark region.
The practical result: three in four Sussex County addresses, and more than half of Kent County addresses, have exactly one wired option. This rolls down to whichever cable or DSL provider originally built out that specific area, plus whatever fixed wireless or satellite happens to work well there.
This shows up most visibly in newer developments. Communities like Sussex County's Plantation Lakes have residents actively comparing notes on which provider actually serves which street, because sales offices and provider coverage maps can promise infrastructure that isn't built yet.
Verizon Fios has been "coming soon" to parts of the community for years, according to residents, while the live fiber options only cover certain sections. It's a version of the same problem NJ apartment renters face with "fiber in the building but not in your unit," except here, it plays out at the neighborhood level rather than the floor level.
The good news: Delaware's $107 million BEAD program is addressing broadband gaps. The first $27.8 million will connect 4,728 underserved addresses, including 2,790 in Sussex County, with construction starting in fall 2026.
This is because speed tests generally measure download and upload speeds, and latency, but these measures don't dictate the stability of the connection. For gaming and video calling, higher jitter and packet loss can cause lag and stutters.
Whether Verizon Fios is "worth it" depends on your needs and provider availability. If you need 100% fiber with low latency for gaming and other upload-intensive tasks, then Verizon Fios is the better option. But if browsing, streaming, and light remote tasks are all you need, then Xfinity is an equally good option.
This is because of various reasons, including infrastructure differences, network congestion, and more. Some areas have fiber infrastructure, while others have cable and wireless only. And even if you consider one connection type, distance from the server also impacts the performance you get.
Yes, there are several government-assisted and ISP-specific programs like Lifeline, Xfinity Internet Essentials, student-specific deals by Xfinity, and more.
Prices tend to be lowest in the Wilmington–Newark region, where Verizon Fios and Xfinity compete directly for the same addresses. Outside New Castle County, competition is thinner, and prices can vary more depending on how many wired options actually reach your address.
Delaware residents can access the federal Lifeline discount ($9.25/mo) alongside major provider programs like Xfinity Internet Essentials or Verizon Forward.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), Table S2801: Types of Computers and Internet Subscriptions.
Speedtest by Ookla. © 2026 Ookla, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
FCC National Broadband Map (Broadband Data Collection).
U.S. News & World Report. “Internet Access Rankings.” Best States.
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