CNET's People's Picks survey is back: vote for your favorite internet service provider

At a glance:

• CNET has reopened its People's Picks survey throughout May, inviting readers to share honest opinions about their internet service providers — the good and the bad.
• The 2-minute questionnaire goes beyond speed tests and pricing, focusing on real-world factors such as peak-hour reliability and customer service quality.
• Top-voted providers will be featured in a published roundup, giving consumers a crowdsourced guide to the ISPs they can actually count on.

Why CNET is asking readers to speak up

Internet service has quietly shifted from a convenience to a household essential. For many households it is the backbone of daily routines — streaming movies, shopping for deals online, and working remotely all depend on a stable connection. Yet the experience of living with an ISP varies wildly depending on region, plan, and time of day, and no amount of marketing material can capture that reality. CNET wants to change that by going straight to the source: the people who actually use these services every day.

"An internet connection is like electricity or water — an absolutely essential utility, but one you really only notice when it's not working. I'm excited to learn what real people actually value in their internet providers. It's simple enough to compare speeds and prices when shopping around, but what is it like to actually live with it every day?" said Joe Supan, CNET's principal writer and broadband expert. His perspective underscores a gap that traditional benchmarks often miss: the qualitative day-to-day experience that numbers alone cannot convey.

What the survey covers beyond speed and price

Speed test results and price comparisons only tell half the story, and the People's Picks survey is designed to capture the other half. Participants are asked to evaluate how their provider holds up during peak evening hours, how dependable the connection is over weeks and months, and how responsive — or unresponsive — customer support proves when something goes wrong. These are the friction points that define whether an ISP earns loyalty or drives subscribers to cut the cord entirely.

The survey also acknowledges the uneven landscape of broadband availability. Whether a reader lives in a major metro area with a dozen competing providers or in a rural community where satellite internet is the only option, every perspective is welcome. That breadth of input is what makes a crowdsourced ranking more useful than a lab-tested roundup alone.

How to participate in People's Picks

The survey is open for the entire month of May and takes roughly two minutes to complete. Readers can weigh in on whichever provider they currently use, rating their satisfaction across several dimensions without needing to create an account or submit personal details beyond basic usage information. CNET has made the process deliberately lightweight to encourage a high volume of responses, which in turn produces a more statistically meaningful result.

Once enough data has been collected, CNET's editorial team will tally the responses and publish the winners in a dedicated roundup. Readers who participate are encouraged to check back in a few weeks to see whether their preferred ISP made the list — and where it landed relative to the competition.

What to watch for in the results

Past People's Picks roundups have revealed clear patterns: large national providers often dominate on raw speed, while smaller regional operators can outperform on customer satisfaction and service consistency. The interplay between urban and rural experiences is particularly interesting, because satellite and fixed-wireless providers serving remote areas face unique technical challenges that cable and fiber providers simply do not. This year's results could highlight whether newer low-earth-orbit satellite services have closed the reliability gap that has historically plagued traditional satellite broadband.

For anyone currently shopping for a new provider, the upcoming roundup will serve as a practical, experience-driven complement to CNET's existing guide to the best internet providers. Together, the two resources offer both expert analysis and crowd-validated sentiment — a combination that paints a fuller picture than either could alone.