Sonic no longer an AT&T VAR?

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
16 posts Page 2 of 2
by spencerw » Fri May 26, 2023 8:47 am
daniel15 wrote:
spencerw wrote:As for our price increase, we attempted to notify customers via the important notifications section on their prior invoice
I doubt even 5% of customers read the invoices. I've got automatic payments enabled and so never have a reason to look at it, and I imagine that's not uncommon.
Thank you for your feedback. We have had many customers explain that they are not looking at the monthly invoices which is why they missed this price increase notification. While we do encourage customers to check their monthly invoices, we understand that future important notifications may need to be conveyed through other means.
Spencer W.
Community and Escalations Specialist
Sonic
by dkirker » Tue May 30, 2023 11:13 pm
spencerw wrote:Our Fusion Broadband and IPBB services both required AT&T infrastructure which is why they are no longer available. While our Fusion Broadband was provided using our own network, the physical copper lines used had to be leased from AT&T. At this point, we are only offering new orders/upgrades for our 1g and 10g fiber services.
I believe that AT&T is at least supposed to provide access to its infrastructure at a reasonable price. Unless there is more to it than just "AT&T is too expensive".
spencerw wrote:
dkirker wrote:What did the content of this email look like? I received the following email from Sales on Dec 15, 2022, however it didn't indicate ANY urgency in doing such upgrade
That email from our sales team is the one I was referring to.
Really? Because nothing in that email says, "this is your last chance to order this service." Instead, it sounds like many of the, "we hope you enjoy your service and we just want you to know that you have options" emails that I get regularly from anyone I have service from.

Come on guys. I expect this kind of behavior from AT&T or Comcast, not Sonic. Do better.
by sklyman » Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:27 pm
I totally agree that the "hey, check if you can update!" email, with absolutely no indication that this was your LAST chance to change service, was totally lame.

I've been searching through the Sonic pages, and I see that the availability of higher Sonic-on-ATT service tiers for those who were getting FTTN service dates back to Aug 2020 (see below)!!

Yet it also says that "old speed tiers are still applicable" if you were unlucky enough to take a chance on Sonic way back when, as I did :shock:

As far as I know, there was never any notification about the option to upgrade from Aug 2020 til this Dec 15 2022 non-urgent, non-specific email.

I've read elsewhere in the forum that you had to cancel your existing service and then sign up for the new service, and would have no internet for 7-10 days....which I would have been totally happy to do in order to move away from my current pathetic FTTN service (supposedly up to 22 Mbps, but at peak network times it's more like 2-5 Mbps).

I agree with the previous poster - this is the kind of thing we expect from the big soulless ISPS - we expected better from you, Sonic. VERY DISAPPOINTED. :x

As of Aug 19 2020 there have been updates to the speed tiers for IPBB Fiber to the Node(IPBB X) and IPBB Fiber To the Home (IPBB FX). These services are now called IPBB-C(Copper) and IPBB-F(Fiber) and have new expected speeds. Old speed tiers are still applicable for customers that have signed up prior to the above date.

Fusion IP Broadband Copper
Ethernet Speed 11Mb/s - 75Mb/s

Fusion IP Broadband Fiber
Ethernet Speed 850Mb/s - 950Mb/s
by dkirker » Thu Jun 15, 2023 7:40 pm
It definitely is disappointing... I know that AT&T is REQUIRED to provide some level of access to POTS infrastructure to CLECs at an acceptable rate. I guess Sonic threw the baby out with the bathwater when they decided not to accept the new rates when renewing the contract? I would be fine with switching to the Sonic hosted Fusion as an alternate, though it didn't get me above about 20Mbps (I think it actually was about 17 Mbps or so -- which is more than the "11 Mbps on a good day, but 3 Mbps to 5 Mbps otherwise" that I get when using AT&T+Sonic VPN)...

I am doing everything that I can to keep my business, in some capacity, with Sonic and keep my IP traffic carried by Sonic, but that is getting harder and harder. Right now I can suffer through the slow-down with the VPN since I am unemployed (and have been for some time). However, hopefully, this will soon be coming to an end (it has to) and the need for a more performative Internet connection is likely going to exist...

Hell, even a "Fusion Lifeboat" VPN-only (well, I guess Fusion minus the AT&T parts is fine) service for Fusion customers that are "trapped" to be able to continue using (and supporting -- I want this to be absolutely clear as I would like to actually continue to support Sonic even if I know that my apartment in Sunnyvale will likely never get fiber) while using a different host ISP would be great.
by edwardc_2001 » Tue Jun 20, 2023 6:40 pm
Rumor has it Sonic's CEO reads these postings, so... [See Sonic #7200006]

I live in Corte Madera and kept DSL so's to have a copper cable for my landline. Recently having decided PG&E isn't as likely to have major outages as previously, I decided to go for Sonic's fiber optic only to discover it's no longer available here for new users. When I called Support I was told my town and a few others weren't permitting Sonic to put in its own lines (but see what Eli Beckman had to say (below).

This is troubling. I've been a happy Sonic customer for a decade or so and would very much like to continue as one but my computing bottleneck is my wifi and I'd like to solve it w/o going to AT&T or one of the other quasi-monopolies.

I asked my vice mayor about this and got the following response:
I’ve confirmed we have no prohibition against Sonic providing its own infrastructure in the Town of Corte Madera. They would need standard encroachment permits to do work in the Town right of way, and pay the costs of building out their fiber network, but beyond that, we know of no reason they could not provide service in Corte Madera.

Like so many who've commented on this thread, I too don't recall getting any warning about the capability going away.

What's the scoop? Surely you don't wish to force customers off Sonic.
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by braininlaw » Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:45 pm
Well. Came to the boards to make essentially the same complaint. I've got X2 DSL which appears to be running on wires which aren't properly weather insulated (I get all sorts of connection problems during the rainy season), and good luck getting AT&T to troubleshoot that. So I figured I'd switch to fiber once I worked out a way to get around the no-fixed-IP problem (a separate complaint), but surprise! Now it's too late to get that through Sonic.

I'd rather poke my eyes out than do business with AT&T, but it's looking like I may not have another option. Thanks for not giving me an appropriate warning.
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