San Mateo Fiber Deployment Milestones

[bjeung]

I've pre-ordered Sonic for both my home and business. I received the November construction update and it says this:

Sonic is still making forward progress in your area and is hitting all projected milestones with the city. Although this process takes time, we promise it's worth the wait for you to get the fast, friendly internet you deserve. We will let you know once your area enters into the next Engineering phase.


Where can we see these projected milestones?

[dane]

The first phase of a project generally includes a process of approvals from the local municipality. These vary by City, but basically they want to assure that Sonic is properly licensed and insured, and that we will comply with City standards related to utility construction in the region. In some cities this results in a document like a right of way agreement, or a utility conditions permit. Sometimes there is no agreement, and they simply grant encroachment permits. The process varies, and sometimes is ministerial, and other times the process requires negotiation and even approval by a city's council.

Because every City's process is unique, and until we are through finished, not fully known to us, we do not attempt to explain all of the steps in our status emails.

But lest you think that we're stalled while these processes occur, note that we generally are able to engage in substantial preliminary engineering work, while any approvals are in the pipeline. Pole and route surveys and fielding, parcel and occupancy data and many of the other components of the network design can and generally are in process during this phase as well.