A Proposal to Sonic from long term 4.1/.87 DSL customer

[jgainor]

During the Covid 19 pandemic a lot of people are working from home. Our DSL speeds are horrible typically going between 4.1 down and amazing .87 up paying $64 / month!! A couple neighbors who both switch from Sonic to MonkeyBrains are getting 30-35 up/30 down for $35/month. A friend a couple blocks away is getting over 70 up and 55 down again for $35/month at MonkeyBrains. We get all of our utilities from poles on Cole street at Waller and Verizon installed fiber on those same poles in September 2019. Also SF is running a dedicated “ fiber pipeline” down Haight street (a block away) with no word from Sonic about future availability.

So for those customers that Sonic is charging $64/month for 4.1/.87 speeds or anywhere close to that in the year 2020 a number of us have this proposal in the short term:

1) After it is safe to have home visits by installer install the dual line effectively doubling current speeds for same price as single line (not+$20).
2) Since new modem would be required (Currently we bought our own) Sonic provide free modem.

Sonic is a fantastic company in so many ways. It would be difficult to leave BUT since our monthly bill is paying for all those other neighborhoods to have Fiber. Working from home with such poor service is not only impacting performance but is dangerous as some of us are answering life/death questions with a local university medical system and the current speeds can barely keep up with the VPN, etc. required for such a vital service.

With those slightly higher speeds AND an actual timeline for Fiber installation in the neighborhood staying with Sonic could happen…. a positive outcome for all!

Jerry

[brandonc]

Hey Jerry,

Thank you for posting your feedback and I'm sorry to hear that your internet speed is giving you problems while working from home. I understand where you're coming from and how the things you listed would help with the current situation and we would definitely do that for our customers if we were able to, but unfortunately it wouldn't be viable for us as a company.

We still have a lot of customers on our DSL services and if we adjusted the cost for some of them, then we would have to do it universally. We lease the infrastructure from AT&T each month for your DSL service, so we have to charge that price even if the speeds aren't as competitive in order for us to even afford to sell the service. In your case, your home is just pretty far away from the nearest central office and the speeds get dropped off over the distance traveled.

Fiber doesn't have those limitations, so it's ultimately just a matter of getting better infrastructure in that area and if there's a Fiber pipeline being built near you, then that's a good sign. I'm not aware of the build out plans, but at least it will be easy to run the cables once we do.

Lastly, I just wanted to let you know that we do appreciate your business, but at the same time if you need better service and we can't provide anything comparable to the competition, then we don't blame you for switching. We will gladly have you back once we update the infrastructure in the area and if you switch from another provider to our Sonic Fiber, then we will cover the contract buy-out (up to $200.00) for that company, so you can switch back pain-free.

Regards,

[pboggini]

I second the motion for Sonic to reconsider having their DSL customers will very slow speeds effectively funding their fiber customers. I get that ATT charges you all to use their copper but if you'd get to building out fiber in our areas then you wouldn't have that problem. Those of us with lower speeds paying more don't care one bit that it costs you more. It's value for the $$ that we are suffering from and Sonic just seems to shrug and not care. We all come here asking when we might see fiber and all we get are crickets. I know that dealing with municipalities sucks but if you let us know you are talking to cities, we the citizenry and help put pressure on our elected officials to pave the way for you.

So how about you go back to being the more consumer friendly company we all grew to know and love and how about you start showing your long time DSL customers a little love for sticking with you despite the terrible speed/$$ your are providing us today?

[larns576]

we the citizenry and help put pressure on our elected officials to pave the way for you.

Actually, Dane has mentioned several times to talk to your supervisor/mayor regarding equal access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

When Supervisor/Mayor Farrell was in office, Dane attempted to work with his office to get microtrenching passed. Unfortunately, Farrell was not able to pass any legislation before leaving office and the issue has not been taken up since. The City doesn't seem very inclined to change anything to allow competitor access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

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[sjr100288]

What is especially frustrating is having no visibility as to when fiber might be available. We’ve been told that it’s easier when there are overhead lines. The wires run down our backyard, but there is no explanation as to whether it is the city, AT&T, or some other entity that blocking Sonic’s use of the poles, or what other impediments might exist. As the other poster noted, we can’t help if we don’t know the problem. I need a landline, so I pay Sonic. For the internet, I’m using Monkeybrains. I just ran your speed test on my Monkeybrains line and got 50.87 up and 64.72 down. Your DSL service: 3.36/ 0.72. The minute I no longer need a landline it’s not a hard choice. I’ve had Sonic for many years and there are lots of things I like, but the way you are treating your long time DSL customers isn’t going to win you much in the way of loyalty.

[pboggini]

I'm not sure at all how useful your response is to me since I live in San Jose. Dane has said that they want to come to San Jose but given no timelines nor any indication that us talking to our elected officials would help speed up the process. When I spoke to support this afternoon the helpful person on the other end of the line said "eventually" and that "they were as far south as Palo Alto and moving south". So, still no idea when San Jose might get anything if we ever do. Note the person I was talking to was very nice and sharing whatever info they had which is more than I can say for what we get lately from Dane or those folks who should be making this happen.

I've also been pushing my local council person to try and get them to reach out to the likes of Sonic, Sail, etc as I'm hoping that if they do that will help get something better than ATT and Comcast here. I've spoken to someone who's working with the Supervisors on this very subject. W/O help/input from Sonic, this will go nowhere. Note that I do have someone from Sail who's contact info I've been sharing with the city. They seem more eager to get into San Jose than Sonic does.

What those of us in the South Bay are looking for is whether or not Sonic has even talked to San Jose. If not, when do they think they will? What's getting in the way? If I push on them now and they are willing, who at Sonic should they talk to? That's the kind of info I'm looking for from Sonic and I haven't gotten any of that info. So, super happy to help but I've been hearing the same story for 8 years now and nothing has changed. Happy to push on my elected officials if it will make a difference but it doesn't look like it will.

Actually, Dane has mentioned several times to talk to your supervisor/mayor regarding equal access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

When Supervisor/Mayor Farrell was in office, Dane attempted to work with his office to get microtrenching passed. Unfortunately, Farrell was not able to pass any legislation before leaving office and the issue has not been taken up since. The City doesn't seem very inclined to change anything to allow competitor access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

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[dane]

we the citizenry and help put pressure on our elected officials to pave the way for you.

Actually, Dane has mentioned several times to talk to your supervisor/mayor regarding equal access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

When Supervisor/Mayor Farrell was in office, Dane attempted to work with his office to get microtrenching passed. Unfortunately, Farrell was not able to pass any legislation before leaving office and the issue has not been taken up since. The City doesn't seem very inclined to change anything to allow competitor access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

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+1

[Larns576]

Honestly, us as regular citizens, without deep pockets and political connections, probably won't make much/any difference in getting laws/legislation changed.

Sonic, as a small, private, local company mostly doesn't have a budget for lobbyists. Unlike ATT & Comcast, they simply can't afford to throw money at politicians to get stuff changed. For the most part, they probably build where it makes business sense to. From what I've seen, if your address doesn't have Sonic fiber pre-order available, it's probably not coming this year.

Thats not to say Sonic & Dane doesn't try. Dane himself has flown around the country to advocate customer privacy and get microtrenching passed, but there's only so much he can do and its a slow process. Sonic tries and thats why we all love them. Unfortunately, only a few of us are lucky enough to have their fiber.

[pboggini]

Dane, it's great that you've spoken to folks and yes people like me do appreciate your lack of data caps, throttling, your stance on privacy, etc. These _are_ the reasons we've stuck with you for so long despite getting much, much worse bang for the buck than the Fiber customers we feel like we are subsidizing. As someone who's been pushing San Jose for a while now, what can I do to help? I've been working with my local council person's office who is working with the City Manager's Office. What do we tell them? What's the schedule? The message "we come to places that make business sense" and/or "when we have enough DSL customers in a location we will deliver" doesn't tell us anything. Are we even on the radar? Is my talking to my local representatives helping? Do they even know you exist? It's great to toss it back on us and tell us to advocate but without a coordinated plan we are just making noises. The folks from Sail are using the connections I've given them to see if they can make progress. I've suggested to my local folks that they should be working with companies like Sail or Sonic or others to help figure out how to get internet to folks that don't have it today and to give those of us who do better options.

If San Jose isn't on the near term roadmap then my efforts don't help at all. If it is, they will. Telling us to lobby as the solution is a cop out.

I think Jerry also has a point that keeps getting glossed over/trivialized by you and the folks fortunate enough to have Fiber. That is, those of us with DSL pay the same or more (I pay more since to get 25/2 I need bonded DSL) than the folks with Fiber on the promise that some day, if there are enough of us, we might finally get Sonic Fiber in our area. I do think for some places like San Jose you also need to take the Field of Dreams attitude. If you build Fiber here, people will indeed come. Most people just hate ATT and Comcast and with all the high tech folks who live here, they would really appreciate your stances on things but there is no way they will settle for less than 1G (well probably 500Mbps) so you aren't even a consideration.

So help us help you. Don't just +1 a post you like, help us help you so that you can help us.

we the citizenry and help put pressure on our elected officials to pave the way for you.

Actually, Dane has mentioned several times to talk to your supervisor/mayor regarding equal access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

When Supervisor/Mayor Farrell was in office, Dane attempted to work with his office to get microtrenching passed. Unfortunately, Farrell was not able to pass any legislation before leaving office and the issue has not been taken up since. The City doesn't seem very inclined to change anything to allow competitor access to trenches or to allow microtrenching.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4613&start=50
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15499

+1