Sonic Gigabit Fiber in Richmond CA 94805 area?

[loherj]

The fiber has been hung on my block, and whatever the grey boxes are that hang out on some of the poles, those have been worked on, but I’ve not seen any activity here in 94805 in many weeks, and no updates on the pre order status. I’d really hoped that there would be more news, even if to just acknowledge that we aren’t in a planning or pre construction phase.

We just had a large portion of our pre-order area in Richmond go live on Thursday, 6/1/2023. The area that went live did not include your pre-order address, but we are working hard to get your area completed. Thank you for your continued patience as we build out your area.

[liz_pulido11]

How long is the process? My status has been on planning for over a week. I need internet by June 25th, I may have to cancel

[knewman]

We've seen no construction activity in our neighborhood for months, and our expected date for live fiber was moved from July to August. It is frustrating to have so little visibility into when to expect we might be getting service. Any updates other than the change of month? Is the city holding things back?

The mayor posted the following to NextDoor on July 18th:

I am learning that Richmond residents are missing work and facing other delays in their daily lives due to issues with Sonic internet installations. Rest assured that the City is standing by, ready to quickly review any permits the company decides to submit. The Mayor’s Office has been in communication with both Public Works and the company. We can confidently say our Public Works Department will provide ongoing support to the company and has offered many options for moving this process forward. We are excited for expanded broadband access in our community, and we hope Sonic decides to apply for the needed permits soon.

Thank you to Richmond residents who brought the issue of canceled Sonic internet installations to our attention! Your communication to my office makes our city better.

In community,

Mayor Eduardo

Is it true that Sonic hasn't even applied for the needed permits? I'd love to know more.

[dane]

Unfortunately, Richmond has been a bit challenging for us, with permitting issues that have caused some delays. The most significant right now is that they currently are requiring a new permit every time we do an aerial drop to a customer's home, which means added cost and delay for every installation. This isn't required of AT&T or Comcast, nor is it typical in any other city, so it is something we're negotiating with the city in hopes of resolving.

[senaka]

Hello Dane,
Thanks so much for you reply. While some parts of Richmond belong to the city of Richmond, some parts of Richmond belong to the county (unincorporated area of Richmond). For the residents of unincorporated Richmond, Sonic would need to apply for the permit with the CC County (not the city). Is the county also requiring a new permit every time you do an aerial drop to a customer's home?

[knewman]

Unfortunately, Richmond has been a bit challenging for us, with permitting issues that have caused some delays. The most significant right now is that they currently are requiring a new permit every time we do an aerial drop to a customer's home, which means added cost and delay for every installation. This isn't required of AT&T or Comcast, nor is it typical in any other city, so it is something we're negotiating with the city in hopes of resolving.

Is this a new policy in Richmond, or was Sonic just unaware of the permitting process when offering signups? I'm also wondering what kind of advocacy would be helpful from Richmond residents, if any.

[dane]

Unfortunately, Richmond has been a bit challenging for us, with permitting issues that have caused some delays. The most significant right now is that they currently are requiring a new permit every time we do an aerial drop to a customer's home, which means added cost and delay for every installation. This isn't required of AT&T or Comcast, nor is it typical in any other city, so it is something we're negotiating with the city in hopes of resolving.

Is this a new policy in Richmond, or was Sonic just unaware of the permitting process when offering signups? I'm also wondering what kind of advocacy would be helpful from Richmond residents, if any.

From what I’ve heard from the team here, this is a new requirement, and only applies to Sonic. That’s a shame because we have invested in building a huge new modern fiber broadband network, which we now cannot connect anyone to. Our two competitors are continuing business as usual. It’s also not something we have ever seen in any other city. And I can’t see how our competitors or Sonic could adapt to a permitting requirement for the routine network drops like this, because of cost, time, but also carriers do not have processes in place in our software and tools to insert a manual permitting submission (and likely delay) step into the routine work of same and next-day drops from poles to homes.

It’s quite a conundrum.

[artakamoose]

Is this a new policy in Richmond, or was Sonic just unaware of the permitting process when offering signups? I'm also wondering what kind of advocacy would be helpful from Richmond residents, if any.

Email your city manager, local city council member, and the mayor. Let them know this is happening and that it only applies to Sonic and not AT&T or Comcast. Tell that that you just want a fair, equitable playing field for internet service providers. See what they say and if results happen soon. If not, there's a chance this is coming from one of them because they've been bought off, in which case it should be taken to the local press. It utterly inconceivable that this should be applied to one ISP and not the others.

https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/59/City-Manager
https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/29/City-Council
https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/55/Mayors-Office

[knewman]

Spotted some Sonic workers 3 houses down from me yesterday and asked if this meant work was again happening in Richmond. I was told that the permitting issue had been resolved and that about 8 households per day were getting hooked up. Disappointed that there has still been no communication from Sonic about the installation dates moving, being delayed, resolved, etc, but optimistic that it might actually happen this calendar year. In the meantime, the targeted internet ads I continue to see promising "soon" decrease my patience.

[deraps]

Has anybody seen work happening in the richmond annex? I preordered a month or so back, and has an estimated go live month of August. It's now saying September, but I'm curious if anyone has seen them doing installs in 94804.