Looking for internet service to your San Jose home, business or enterprise? The capital of Silicon Valley has a variety of accessible local and national internet service provider options. 

Nation wide carriers & ISPs

Known for poor customer service (check out these Comcast memes) bandwidth caps, hidden charges and locking customers into contracts with heavy exit fees, these national ISPs have enjoyed a profitable duopoly and been around forever.  

These huge companies have extensive network coverage and wide customer bases. Unfortunately, coverage lacks when it comes to customer care. Both have been busy reducing pricing for consumers in the last few years. (Coincidentally, since Google Fiber was announced). These ISPs offer reasonable speeds to the San Jose area. Listed prices do not include tax, installation fees and other charges may apply. These prices probably do not compensate for your time on the phone, if you have an issue, either. 

• AT&T -- Offers Internet, TV and home phone bundles to San Jose. Prices start from $57 per month* for U-verse TV with Internet, Showtime and a 1 year subscription to Amazon Prime. See that * above? That means that AT&T has certain geographic restrictions (areas it can't provide service) and other fees, taxes and charges apply. So your $57 plan is not actually a $57 per month plan.   
• Comcast -- Much like AT&T, Comcast offers bundles, internet, TV and phone service to the San Jose area. Xfinity bundles start from $89.99, which includes TV, internet and voice. Now comes all the wonderful fine print.

A small sample of Comcast's extra terms & conditions;

• Restrictions apply.
• Only valid to new customers.
• $89.99 per month does not apply to all areas.
• $89.99 per month for the first year, on a 2 year deal.
• From months 13 to 24, price increases to $114.99 per month.
• $89.99 is also a deal price, only valid until November 22nd, 2015.
• Other fees, charges, taxes and activation costs apply.

Download speed is stated as 75 Mbps for the above Xfinity bundle plan. No mention of upload speed. Basically, read all the fine print before Comcast locks away your business. Then, confuses you with extra fees you weren't expecting. Plus, a contract which you can't get out of for 2 years.    

Google plans to bring fiber to San Jose homes....potentially

• Google -- has potential plans to expand it's fiber to the home (FTTH) service to the San Jose area. San Jose is listed as a 'Potential Fiber City' on Google's fiber map. Google's fiber and TV service started rolling out in 2012. It has since been rolled out to 3 cities in the United States; Provo in Utah, Austin in Texas and Kansas City.

Basic internet for homes in activated cities costs $0, with a $300 construction fee. (The construction fee can be paid in installments of $25 over a 1 year period). Gigabit Internet service is $70 per month and construction fee is also waived. Gigabit Internet + TV is $130 per month, also with a waiver on the construction fee. All service plans are subject to fees and taxes, depending on your location. 

There are 6 more cities on the 'upcoming' list of Google Fiber service. Get updates, check your address and find out more about Google Fiber expansion plans here or check out the localwiki discussion page on Google Fiber Communities, in the Davis area of California. 

Other San Jose ISPs

Local ISPs with presence in San Jose and the Bay Area. These companies provide services for home and business internet users, ranging from DSL to fiber and also phone and internet bundles. Many offer free installs and local technical support. 

• Fastmetrics -- provides dedicated, business only high speed internet, phone and data center services to San Jose. Their fiber offer includes speeds at 1 Gbps upload and download. Free fiber install on a 3 year plan. Locally in San Jose they also manage a list of 10 lit fiber internet buildings, at last count. Lit buildings offer symmetric fiber speeds to 100 x 100 Mbps with a 5 day install time available. All Fastmetrics business internet services include unlimited data, hardware and IP addresses. Other options include business ADSL2+ broadband, WiFi, Ethernet and hosted cloud phone services. Technical support is "live, local and responsive" and not too far away in San Francisco. 
• PAXIO -- offers fiber optic internet service, small and enterprise business and residential internet services.  PAXIO services cover the San Francisco Bay Area and their head office is located in Santa Clara. Business internet options include fiber, (delivered over their own privately managed network), with speeds up to 10 Gbps for enterprise level customers. Residential phone, DIRECTV and fiber internet service bundles are also on offer, starting from $28.50 per month, for a 10 Mbps fiber connection (other fees apply for phone and TV services).  
• LaunchNet -- provides "broadband solutions for home and business". Range of services for home and small offices includes DSL (also resells service from Covad) and ADSL2+. Residential internet service starts from $22.95 per month for 'express' DSL service, which includes unlimited usage, free install, 1 x dynamic IP address and a stated speed of 1.5 Mbps download and between 128-384 Kbps upload speed. Pricing increases for more speed and more IP addresses. 6 Mbps down and 51 2 - 768 Kbps upload option is $36.95 per month.  Contracts look flexible with a month to month option.  For business connectivity in San Jose, LaunchNet offers DSL, ADSL2+, T1 lines, bonded T1s and Ethernet.  'Business class' ADSL2+ starts at $59.95 per month for a maximum d/load speed of 15 Mbps. A T1 line providing 1.5 Mbps symmetric starts at $330 per month with a $199 installation fee. 
• HyperSurf Internet Services -- similar service offerings to Launchnet, with home and business internet options. Reseller of AT&T and Verizon DSL. Also provides Metro Ethernet over fiber, with speeds to 600 Mbps upload and download.  DSL pricing starts from $24.95 per month. Call required for Ethernet pricing. HyperSurf also provdes colocation, web hosting and VoIP services. 
• Sonic  -- a good one to check when you're comparing.Their website shows price and speed if you search for your address.

Evaluating San Jose ISP performance

Check local San Jose ISP performance on this Speedtest.net awards page. Residential and mobile network service speed data available (no business speeds).