Best Internet Providers in Omaha, Nebraska

There’s a lot to be said for Omaha, Nebraska — the affordable cost of living, great music scene, low unemployment — but high-speed internet isn’t exactly one of them. While Omaha has the 39th largest population in the country, its median internet speed is 67th with 191 megabits per second download, according to Ookla. That’s still plenty of speed for most households, but many residents are stuck picking between just two internet service providers, and one of them is probably a fixed wireless option that’s available pretty much everywhere. 

While fiber options are harder to come by in Omaha, fast cable internet is available virtually everywhere through Cox. If you’d rather try out one of the upstart 5G home internet providers, Verizon and T-Mobile are available in the area and they both offer deep discounts for their cellphone customers.

Best internet providers in Omaha

For a long time, Cox has been the only company offering high-speed internet in the Omaha area. Cox is still our pick for the best internet provider in Omaha, but now you’ll have a few other good options to compare it with. 

Cox

Best overall internet provider in Omaha

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Product details

Price range

$40 – $100 per month

Speed range

25 – 940Mbps

Connection

Mostly cable, some fiber

Highlights

1.25TB monthly data allowance, lots of plan options, unique gaming add-on

Available at nearly every address in the city, Cox is the dominant ISP in Omaha and the only cable internet provider. 

Availability: In most neighborhoods, the choice will come down to Cox or a fixed wireless or satellite provider, which are essentially available everywhere but provide slower speeds than cable.  

Plans and pricing: It’d be great to see some more competition, but if Cox is your only option, you could do a lot worse. Ookla lists it as the fastest internet provider in Omaha, with a median download speed of 213Mbps. Most customers will have four plan options from 100Mbps to 1 gigabit. 

Fees and service details: The main downside? Every Cox plan but the cheapest one comes with a one-year contract, and prices increase by $20-$40 per month in the second year on most plans — one of the reasons Cox routinely receives below-average customer satisfaction scores.

Read our Cox home internet review.

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T-Mobile Home Internet

Best fixed wireless option in Omaha

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Product details

Price range

$50 per month ($30 for eligible T-Mobile Magenta Max customers)

Speed range

33 – 182Mbps

Connection

Fixed wireless

Highlights

Unlimited data, equipment included, no contracts, no additional fees

If you want to try something other than Cox, T-Mobile is a great option for smaller households. It’s a 5G home internet provider, meaning T-Mobile uses its network of 5G/4G LTE cellular towers to beam high-speed internet to your home. 

Availability: While it has the advantage of wide availability, fixed wireless speeds are more erratic than wired internet like cable or fiber. Depending on where you live or the time of day, you might have access to a 5G connection (fast) or 4G LTE (not so fast). 

Plans and pricing: T-Mobile Home Internet keeps things simple with just one plan and one plan only for $50 per month. Speeds will vary based on location, but the provider estimates they’ll range from 33-182Mbps download.

Fees and service details: If that all sounds a little too risky to commit to, T-Mobile offers a 15-day free trial to test it out for yourself. (Setup is as easy as plugging the gateway device into a wall outlet.) You won’t have to worry about price hikes, either — T-Mobile locks you into the $50 monthly price as long as you keep it, equipment included. 

Read our T-Mobile Home Internet review.

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CenturyLink

Best option for fiber where available

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Product details

Price range

$30 – $70 per month

Speed range

200 – 940Mbps

Connection

Fiber

Highlights

Unlimited data, no contracts, equipment included with gigabit tier

CenturyLink’s fiber service provides download speeds up to 940Mbps, doesn’t require a contract, and offers unlimited data on all of its plans.

Availability: CenturyLink primarily offers DSL service in Omaha, but if you live in a neighborhood with access to its fiber-optic network — primarily on the city’s West Side — it’s one of the best internet deals you’ll find.

Plans and pricing: If your address is eligible for CenturyLink’s fiber plans, you can choose between 940Mbps for $70 per month or 200Mbps for $30.

Fees and service details: On the cheaper plan, you must pay $15 monthly for equipment (or purchase your own CenturyLink-compatible modem). If you can only get CenturyLink’s DSL internet, you’ll be automatically enrolled in the fastest plan available for $50 per month.

Read our CenturyLink home internet review.

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All available Omaha residential internet providers

Internet options are fairly limited in the area, but you do have some choices beyond our top three picks. Here are some of the other Omaha internet providers you can check out.

• Nextlink: Serving about 46% of Omaha households, Nextlink is a decent option for fixed wireless internet in the area. Its plans start at $50 per month for 25Mbps and go all the way up to 500Mbps for $140. You can also add on home phone service to any Nextlink plan. 

• Satellite internet: No matter where you live in Omaha — or anywhere in the country for that matter — you’ll have access to satellite internet. That said, it should be viewed as a last resort. Satellite internet is slower than other connection types, costs a lot more and typically requires a two-year commitment. HughesNet and Viasat used to be the only choices for satellite, but Elon Musk’s Starlink has staked out its own claim in recent years. It offers much faster speeds than the other two and doesn’t require contracts, but you’ll have to pay a hefty $599 fee upfront for the equipment. Starlink’s availability map shows that the service is currently available in Omaha. 

• Verizon 5G Home: Verizon’s fixed wireless service is similar to T-Mobile’s — an internet connection is sent to your house through the company’s cellular network — but it’s only available to about 1 in 4 Omaha residents. There are two plans available: 85 to 300Mbps for $50 per month or 300 to 1000Mbps for $70. You can also cut those prices in half if you’re subscribed to a 5G mobile plan with Verizon. The only thing that kept Verizon out of one of our top spots was availability.

Omaha internet details at a glance

The good news is that almost everyone in Omaha has access to minimum broadband speeds of 25/3Mbps, and most people can even choose between two providers. Fiber internet is widely available, too, with about half of residents having access to a fiber provider compared to 37% nationwide.

Average price for Omaha home internet service

The average starting price for internet service in Omaha is on the high side at $58 per month. Keep in mind, you’ll still have to pay taxes on these plans and some of them come with additional equipment fees or price hikes after the first year. $58 is higher than we’ve seen from similarly sized cities like Charlotte, San Diego and St. Louis, which all come in at around $50 per month on average. 

Cheap internet options in the Omaha metro area

If you want the absolute cheapest internet in Omaha, go with CenturyLink’s 200Mbps fiber plan. Unfortunately, it’s not available to many city residents and there aren’t many other options in that price range. (The one exception is Verizon 5G Home, which starts at just $25 per month when you bundle with an eligible Verizon cellphone plan.) After that, you’re looking at a lot of $50-per-month options: Cox, Nextlink, T-Mobile and Verizon. 

Here are the internet speeds you can find in Omaha

According to Ookla, Omaha ranks as the 67th city in the country for internet speed, but its average speeds are still plenty for most households. Here’s how it compares to Nebraska and the country as a whole. 

Fastest internet providers in Omaha

Cox, CenturyLink and Verizon are the only internet providers in Omaha that currently offer gig speeds. After that, there’s a steep dropoff to T-Mobile’s 5G Home plan, which maxes out at 182Mbps. 

What’s the final word on internet providers in Omaha?

Omaha residents have less options than most cities when it comes to internet. The market is dominated by Cox’s cable internet for high-speed plans, but newcomers like T-Mobile and Verizon have introduced some more competition in the past couple years. 

Internet providers in Omaha FAQs