I am soon to be a former happy Sonic customer. I am leaving Sonic for direct AT&T fiber because of the following reasons.
I am moving apartments in the same building. I am grandfathered into a 50 Mpbs fiber connection which is no longer being offered. I would like to keep this same offer and max speed for the new apartment in the same building, but Sonic is unwilling or unable to offer this.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is that AT&T used to have data caps on its Fiber service. Now AT&T has unlimited data.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is the cheaper monthly rate for a 50 Mbps plan vs a 1 Gbps plan. Sonic now only offers the more costly 1 Gbps plan. I don't need that much bandwidth. It would be almost completely wasted for me. By contrast, AT&T offers a much cheaper 100 Mbps plan. It's cheaper without any promotional offers, and it's going to be even cheaper still with the promotional offers.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is that Sonic used to stand for ethical principles. I don't think that's true anymore. Sonic cannot claim to be an ethical company based on just one legal action from 2011. Now, Sonic does many of the same anti-consumer practices of the other ISPs. Sonic only sells bundled services for all of its customers regardless of whether the customer needs it (ex: phone service and the ATA rental fee). I have read elsewhere in these forums that Sonic would have ot raise rates without these bundlings to recoup costs, but they should. This leads to the next problem. Sonic engages in the same industry standard deceptive price advertisements, especially hidden fees, such as the ATA rental fee. I understand the need for a rental fee for the AT&T branded Residential Gateway (RG) because of the anti-consumer practices that AT&T does on their network (limits customer features via software in the RG, and uses crypto authentication to require the RG to be present without esoteric workarounds). However, I don't understand the need for mandatory rental fees for other equipment, like the ATA, DSL modems, etc.
When I explained this all to a Sales Rep on the phone I asked "Why should I stay? What's the value proposition for me?", and they said, paraphrase "to support a local company, and because of better customer service". Sorry - that's not worth the price point difference of almost double aka almost $50 per month.
That's why I'm ordering AT&T Fiber for my new apartment online right now.
I am moving apartments in the same building. I am grandfathered into a 50 Mpbs fiber connection which is no longer being offered. I would like to keep this same offer and max speed for the new apartment in the same building, but Sonic is unwilling or unable to offer this.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is that AT&T used to have data caps on its Fiber service. Now AT&T has unlimited data.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is the cheaper monthly rate for a 50 Mbps plan vs a 1 Gbps plan. Sonic now only offers the more costly 1 Gbps plan. I don't need that much bandwidth. It would be almost completely wasted for me. By contrast, AT&T offers a much cheaper 100 Mbps plan. It's cheaper without any promotional offers, and it's going to be even cheaper still with the promotional offers.
One reason in the past to prefer Sonic is that Sonic used to stand for ethical principles. I don't think that's true anymore. Sonic cannot claim to be an ethical company based on just one legal action from 2011. Now, Sonic does many of the same anti-consumer practices of the other ISPs. Sonic only sells bundled services for all of its customers regardless of whether the customer needs it (ex: phone service and the ATA rental fee). I have read elsewhere in these forums that Sonic would have ot raise rates without these bundlings to recoup costs, but they should. This leads to the next problem. Sonic engages in the same industry standard deceptive price advertisements, especially hidden fees, such as the ATA rental fee. I understand the need for a rental fee for the AT&T branded Residential Gateway (RG) because of the anti-consumer practices that AT&T does on their network (limits customer features via software in the RG, and uses crypto authentication to require the RG to be present without esoteric workarounds). However, I don't understand the need for mandatory rental fees for other equipment, like the ATA, DSL modems, etc.
When I explained this all to a Sales Rep on the phone I asked "Why should I stay? What's the value proposition for me?", and they said, paraphrase "to support a local company, and because of better customer service". Sorry - that's not worth the price point difference of almost double aka almost $50 per month.
That's why I'm ordering AT&T Fiber for my new apartment online right now.