Can You Have Two Internet Providers in The Same House?

Internet providers provide services for accessing, using, or participating on the internet, however, the difference in internet service providers and their broadbands provides users with different experiences that may make or mar the customer’s usage of the service. Perhaps your internet speed isn’t fast, or maybe the speed is great but the service is intermittent, or you’re just not satisfied with the services provided by your chosen internet service provider, these reasons may lead you to want to purchase a second internet provider. However, you wonder if you can have two internet providers in your house.

You can have two internet providers in the same house. To achieve this, you just have to make sure both internet providers don’t use the same cabling, and in some cases, you may need to get a new phone line. The easiest way to do this is to have a DSL internet provider and a cable internet provider. 

Having two internet connections in the same house may be complicated but it is achievable. In this article, I’ll discuss if you can have two internet connections in your house, and if so, how can you get and connect two internet providers in the same house.

Can You Have Two Internet Providers in The Same House?

If your internet speed isn’t fast, or maybe the speed is great but the service is intermittent, or you’re just not satisfied with the services provided by your chosen internet service provider and you’re considering purchasing another internet service provider but you’re worried if it’s possible to have two internet providers in the same house, worry not because you can have two internet providers in the same house. 

To do this, you’ll have to make sure that both internet providers don’t use the exact same cabling, and you may have to get a new phone line. According to experts, the easiest way to have internet providers connected in the same household without them interfering with each other would be to have a DSL internet provider and a cable internet provider. 

Internet service providers provide you with internet access in different ways. The following are the ways internet service providers provide internet to users:

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

This system provides its users with access to the internet via your existing telephone line. The service is usually delivered with wired telephone services. This means when users use their preferred ISP services this way, the user will be billed for both their phone and internet bills and they’ll be billed to the same provider. 

An example is your regular SIM card. When using this as your internet service provider, you will be billed for both your phone bills and your internet bills by the same service provider. 

Cable 

This type of internet service is usually offered by your cable TV provider by using coaxial cables to connect you to the internet. Cable internet is widely considered faster than the digital subscriber line (DSL). However, it’s not a very secure option because residential cable internet uses a line shared by everyone in your neighborhood. 

Fiber

This type of internet service connection uses fiber-optic cables that send data extremely fast, as much as 70% of the speed of light, and are resilient to severe weather conditions. The only downside to this internet service option is that it’s not widely used everywhere because it’s not generally used hence, you’ll have to contact your provider to have access to it. 

Having two different internet services in your house is highly dependent on the internet connection you want to have or currently have. If you have DSL internet and you want to get internet service from another DSL provider, this will be very challenging as you may even need to get another telephone line. 

However, if you’re using cable internet, it’s easier to get another cable service provider without worrying about the provider’s cabling as you would if you were using DSL internet service providers. 

Can You Have Two Different Wifi Routers In The Same House?

If you have an enormous home network, it may be tough for you to connect to that network wirelessly from some particular point in your home. This may have led to you wondering if you can have two different WiFi routers in your house. 

However, you need not worry anymore because you can have two different WiFi routers in your home and a second router can improve network performance and help you stay connected to the internet from anywhere in your home. 

Having two different WiFi routers in your home lets you be able to connect from any corner of your house because the availability of both WiFi networks will cover more grounds in your house to keep you connected whenever you are anywhere in your house. 

There are so many benefits of having two WiFi routers in your house, especially if there’s so much ground to cover and it may be tough for just one WiFi router to do this. The following are the benefits of having an extra WiFi router in your home:

Support For More Wired Devices

If your first WiFi router is the wired Ethernet one, those kinds of routers only support a limited number of connected devices, usually just 4 connected devices or maybe 5 at most. A second router will provide you with more open Ethernet ports so you can add more computers to the network. 

With an extra WiFi router, you can connect more computers in your home to the internet if they’re wired devices. So if you have a series of gadgets in your home, you can easily get these gadgets connected to the internet with more support for wired devices. 

Support For Mixed Wired And Wireless Network Setups

If your home network is wired and you want to connect WiFi-enabled devices with it, installing a wireless router as your second router allows your WiFi devices to connect while your other wired devices remain on Ethernet. 

This will let you dedicate your first router to Ethernet connections and your second router to wireless devices that are WiFi enabled. For instance, if other users in your home use a lot of wireless devices, you can get another router device to keep them connected to that particular network while your wired devices remain connected on the initial router. 

Improved Wireless Reach

In terms of signal range, adding a second wireless router boosts the wireless network in your house and helps your network reach more range in your house. So if your first wireless router isn’t reaching every part of your house, consider getting another wifi router to improve the wireless reach in your home. 

It can also help you with network isolation especially if you heavily utilize the network connection between certain computers (such as to request large file transfers and local gaming). 

Isolating those computers that may affect your network speed because of the heavy utilization of the network to work with one router keeps the network traffic going smoothly while you connect your other devices to the other WiFi router for faster internet speed. 

How To Get Two Internet Providers In The Same House

Technically, it’s very possible to have two internet providers in your house, in fact, you can have as many internet providers as you want in the same house. When internet providers are connecting you to the internet, they are either connecting you via physical connections running to your house like cables, a fiber connection, a telecom line, or via something resembling a satellite dish for satellite internet services. You can get connected to two internet providers by being connected to two physical connections or one physical connection running to your house and one satellite internet service and you can also have both of your connections be satellite internet connections. 

Basically, the scope of getting two internet services is the same as getting one. Internet service providers do not have a restriction in place that stops users from having two or more internet services installed in their houses because the decision to have two or more internet services installed in a house is solely left to the homeowners. 

The only requirement is, that you’ll have to connect with two providers that service your area and you should make sure to distinctly tell them that you’re aiming to set up two separate connection lines. 

This is important because if you’re moving into a new house or a new apartment, there are already lines running in the house. Most internet service providers are going to use the lines that are already run in the house to connect you and you don’t want the second company’s installation to disconnect you from the first connection.

If this is being done on a house, it’s going to be an easy connection because the internet service provider will come and install their connections easily, however, if it’s being done in an apartment, you’ll need to first contact and connect with the management. You may be lucky that multiple lines were already previously run in the apartment and you just need to call the providing company to come and run your connection.