Boulder is mostly a Comcast and CenturyLink market with a growing list of fiber overbuilders. Comcast Business has the dominant cable footprint. CenturyLink (Lumen) has fiber in parts of the city. The City of Boulder has been building out municipal fiber. T-Mobile fixed wireless is widely available.
The pricing problem in Boulder is paying Comcast prices when CenturyLink fiber or muni fiber sit in the same building. Boulder has more fiber options on commercial blocks than most cities its size.
What's specific to Boulder
Boulder commercial demand sits in three places. Downtown Boulder along Pearl Street holds the legal, financial, and small-business core. Boulder Junction north of downtown is the planned mixed-use commercial district anchored by Class A office and the regional transit depot. East Boulder along Pearl Parkway and Arapahoe is the suburban office and light-industrial spine. The University of Colorado Boulder and BAE Systems are two of the largest commercial accounts in the metro and shape what enterprise pricing looks like for the rest of the market.
In November 2024, the City of Boulder announced a fiber lease agreement with ALLO Communications to extend high-speed internet citywide, with construction expected to begin in 2025. That puts a serious fiber overbuilder against Comcast and CenturyLink for the first time in this metro, and is the most active piece of broadband news here in years.
What you should be paying
These are dedicated internet ranges from current carrier wholesale data, marked up to typical retail.
Boulder dedicated internet, typical retail (mid 50%)
Monthly recurring charge, dedicated internet access (DIA). Numbers are derived from current carrier wholesale quotes. Shown as a metro-tier band where city-level data is thin.
| Speed | Typical retail (mid 50%) | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Mbps | $630 – $1,060/mo | n = 6 |
| 500 Mbps | $955 – $1,660/mo | n = 6 |
| 1 Gbps | $1,195 – $2,000/mo | n = 7 |
| 10 Gbps | $1,560 – $6,250/mo | n = 6 |
If your bill sits above the high end of the band, you are likely overpaying.
Analyze My Bill FreeFor Comcast Business coax at 600 Mbps, the fair price is $150 to $230 a month for a single office. For CenturyLink fiber at 1 Gbps, expect $150 to $230 a month.
Carriers worth quoting in Boulder
Five carriers cover most addresses in the metro.
- Comcast Business. Coax everywhere, fiber in select buildings.
- CenturyLink (Lumen) Business. Fiber where they have rebuilt, copper elsewhere.
- Crown Castle Fiber. Common in commercial buildings downtown.
- T-Mobile Business Internet. $85 a month for 200 to 300 Mbps. Useful benchmark.
- Verizon 5G Business Internet. $99 a month at 400 Mbps.
If you have not had three of these on a quote sheet, you have not run a real comparison.
What to do this week
- Pull your most recent invoice. Find the contract end date and the side fees.
- Get one quote outside Comcast. T-Mobile Business Internet is the fastest benchmark.
- Compare your base rate to the bands above. If you are 20 percent above the high end, the retention call is worth making.
See where your Boulder bill sits against current rates
Upload your latest business internet invoice. We will run it against Boulder carrier wholesale data and flag the side fees that should not be there.
Takes 60 seconds. No account required.