Dedicated Internet Access (DIA Internet): Ultimate 2026 Pricing Guide

Dedicated Internet Access, often referred to as DIA internet, encompasses ISP products with guaranteed, symmetric, dedicated bandwidth backed by SLAs for uptime and potentially other performance metrics. DIA is the gold standard for a business’s primary connectivity option if connectivity matters at all to the business.

What Drives DIA Pricing in 2026?

DIA pricing is impacted by a number of factors. Higher bandwidth always yields higher cost, when all other variables are held equal.

The cost to deliver the connection is another major factor influencing cost (often the most influential factor). If the connection is "off-net" and construction is required, that'll significantly impact costs. Connectivity in a colocation data center is often relatively cheap, as many ISPs are "on-net" with plentiful bandwidth to provision without construction.

Contract term length also matters to cost: shorter terms mean higher cost, as the ISP must amortize the cost of service delivery over a shorter timeframe. Most commonly, we'll see 36-month terms for DIA dedicated internet access services.

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Otherwise, you can see summary data for some DIA quotes from the Lightyear dataset across three bandwidth tiers from the past year. All quotes analyzed are in the US on a 36-month term, but include a diverse mix of US geographies, ISPs, and on-net vs. off-net situations. This allows the averages and high / low percentiles to give you a better gauge of what to expect depending on what variables come into play when quoting DIA on your own.

Sourcing an off-net circuit in a complex geography? Expect pricing to be above median, maybe at the high-end of the distribution.

Sourcing in a well populated colo? Expect pricing to be at the low-end of the distribution. (Note: some low-cost colo-centric providers are excluded from the data so as not to swing results too deeply).

Since our last pricing update, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps DIA pricing have compressed in line with historical trends (roughly 5-10%), while 10 Gbps pricing has compressed a bit more. Given the high volume of 10 Gbps data center connectivity quoted in the past year, that likely influences the trend.

Last 12 Months DIA Pricing ($MRC) by Bandwidth Tier

Source: Lightyear 2026 State of Connectivity Report. Data reflects US-based quotes on 36-month terms across a diverse mix of geographies, ISPs, and on-net vs. off-net situations.

Average Broadband / Best Effort Pricing

Broadband, or best effort, connectivity is more similar to the connectivity options you’d utilize at your home. Business broadband offerings differ quite a bit, but they’re typically shared (rather than dedicated) connections, lack SLAs, and come with asymmetric bandwidth (much more download than upload speed).

Further, broadband connectivity is marketed at maximum speeds, meaning if you have a “100 Mbps connection”, that’s the best speed you’ll likely get and in reality it will likely be lower most of the time. As a positive, many business broadband options can be purchased on a month-to-month term with no contractual commitment!

Note: not all broadband products are created equal. Some broadband services come with symmetric bandwidth, and now even SLAs. That said, most often business broadband service is packaged as outlined above.

Below, see summary data for US business broadband quoted within Lightyear’s dataset. It’s much cheaper than DIA internet, which makes sense given the lack of construction, SLAs, and support offered.

It's worth noting that broadband pricing has compressed quite a bit in the past year, driven by several major competitive shifts in the market. You can now often find competitive business broadband available for under $100/month in a metro area. For reference, last year our median 100 Mbps broadband option was $141/month. 1 Gbps broadband options are also now much more readily available than they were even a year ago.

A few developments worth noting:

• Spectrum now offers an SLA-backed broadband product called Enterprise Internet. It's a shared, broadband-like connection that comes with a 99.9% uptime SLA and a rapid restoration commitment with a six-hour mean time to repair. This creates a new middle ground between standard broadband and full DIA for businesses that need more reliability without paying dedicated pricing.

• AT&T Business Fiber now has 2 Gbps and 5 Gbps symmetric options in most of its fiber footprint. Above 1 Gbps, AT&T also includes a 5G wireless backup device at no additional cost.

• Comcast has significantly increased throughput on its business broadband tiers at no additional cost. In many upgraded markets, upload speeds have also increased and can approach symmetric on their lower-tier plans.

• Lumen exited the broadband market entirely, selling its mass market fiber business to AT&T for $5.75 billion. Lumen is pivoting toward being an enterprise-focused network solutions provider.

Last 12 Months Broadband Pricing ($MRC) by Bandwidth Tier

Source: Lightyear 2026 State of Connectivity Report.

DIA Bandwidth Sourced

What bandwidth tiers are enterprises selecting most frequently when sourcing DIA connectivity?

See below for a distribution from our dataset. We’ve observed average bandwidth tiers selected trending up over time, which isn’t particularly surprising.

Today, 100 Gbps (and some 400 Gbps) connectivity is beginning to make up a real share of the pie. When Lightyear was founded, 100 Mbps was the "gold standard" bandwidth tier, and that's just no longer the case.

DIA Bandwidth Tier Distribution

Source: Lightyear 2026 State of Connectivity Report.

Type 1 vs. Type 2 Access 

When you purchase connectivity from a provider who is leasing last-mile infrastructure from another service provider, you’re purchasing “Type 2” connectivity.

When enterprises work with aggregators (like GTT or Granite) or only work with a small number of ISPs, Type 2 can make up a significant portion of an enterprise’s network. Type 2 comes with a number of differences from Type 1 access, most notably that it’s “marked up” by the provider utilizing another provider’s infrastructure.

By how much exactly?

The average markup observed in our dataset in pricing for Type 1 access vs. Type 2 access on 100 Mbps DIA internet quotes is approximately 18-20%. It’s worth noting that the observed markup can differ materially based on circumstances of what’s quoted. 

Get Started with Your DIA Internet Procurement

We hope this post helped shed some light on how dedicated internet services are priced. If you made it this far, you’re aware that quite a few factors go into your internet quotes and some orders are more nuanced than others.

Despite the nuance, here at Lightyear we believe that connectivity is a commodity and it should accordingly be procured and managed like one.

We are working round the clock to mine our data for helpful insights like these. We hope to use our data to help get businesses the value they deserve.

If your enterprise needs help procuring, implementing, managing, or rebidding your telecom services, don’t hesitate to reach out for a demo of our services.