Petaluma Residential Gigabit

[dane]

Yes, expanded reach will be discussed here, on Twitter and on Facebook - but also for current customers in areas we've started construction, you'll also get an email to let you know the expected upgrade date.

Thanks for continuing to spread the word about Sonic and our mission!

[mandk@sonic.net]

This is primarily for Dane. I convinced my wife to change based on the promises of gigabit fiber knowing that it would take some time to build out. In the time since we first subscribed I have gotten and am battling stage 4 kidney cancer, Dane, I'm counting on you to get this done before I kick the bucket. I promised my wife I would talk to you guys and find some way to inspire you. Frankly, this is all the inspiration I've got right now. Gigabit for the cancer guy. Yay. Whatever works, honestly. I do know that the bottom line is what matters most ... still. Never hurts to have a cause.

Thanks, Kevin Mann

[dane]

This is primarily for Dane. I convinced my wife to change based on the promises of gigabit fiber knowing that it would take some time to build out. In the time since we first subscribed I have gotten and am battling stage 4 kidney cancer, Dane, I'm counting on you to get this done before I kick the bucket. I promised my wife I would talk to you guys and find some way to inspire you. Frankly, this is all the inspiration I've got right now. Gigabit for the cancer guy. Yay. Whatever works, honestly. I do know that the bottom line is what matters most ... still. Never hurts to have a cause.

Thanks, Kevin Mann

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear you are fighting cancer, and I sincerely hope that you can kick cancer's ass!

That is some solid inspiration, but I don't have any good news to bring you right now. We are working to build as much fiber as we can as fast as we can, but your neighborhood is not in our near-term commitment list. A key part of this is that your utilities are underground; we must prioritize based upon the intersection of existing Sonic customer demand and per-premise-passed construction cost. Overhead construction cost is lower, so regions where we have lots of members and where utilities are aerial (as in West Petaluma) are high on the list.

[tikvah]

Hey Dane, this is the kind of "inside information" I was hoping for. I know you can't say "you'll have fiber by mid 2018" or anything like that. But it would rock to know if I was on your "near-term commitment list." I'm in West Petaluma with overhead utilities but just a tad out of the city boundaries (it's unincorporated). I think there is no way I'd be on your top 5 sets of lists, let alone number one, (we're semi-rural) but it's possible you might do my street (Gossage Av) as a connector between a heavy residential area with schools and the outlet mall/some industry/ and the police station/more residential/large stores. You never know...

Is there a priority map for Petaluma? Like which areas might be first or second, which next in line, and so on? I'm at the end of a DSL line and things are slow over here.

Thanks!

[Guest]

Sonic used to have a list of cities where they're in the running (consideration, build, etc) for getting Fusion Fiber but I can no longer find it. The gigabit link now just says SF, Brentwood, and Sebastopol has fiber and anywhere else goes to the availability link.

[dane]

Sonic used to have a list of cities where they're in the running (consideration, build, etc) for getting Fusion Fiber but I can no longer find it. The gigabit link now just says SF, Brentwood, and Sebastopol has fiber and anywhere else goes to the availability link.

We no longer publish ranking info due to competitive concerns. But along with more SF neighborhoods, we do also have two additional cities in engineering and permitting today, and three more in the early stages of the process. The pace is increasing, a lot.

[pockyken007]

Dane ,

With the roll out of more and more fiber do you guys also deploy new technologies at your CO to be able to handle the increase in customers / connections and if so can you give us rough numbers how much you increased in hardware size over the last year ?

[dane]

Dane ,

With the roll out of more and more fiber do you guys also deploy new technologies at your CO to be able to handle the increase in customers / connections and if so can you give us rough numbers how much you increased in hardware size over the last year ?

Yes, there are transport backbone upgrades that must be deployed into central offices that support fiber services. Gigabit service does result in higher required speeds out of individual end-offices, but our VDSL2 services for customers across our entire footprint can achieve up to 100Mbps, and this has also both triggered many upgrades.

You can see some hints about upgrades in our system notifications, where we mention central offices or cities that may be affected by overnight work. Much of this is pushing transport upgrades across the network, as well as firmware updates, bug fixes, etc.

[pockyken007]

I shall follow those a bit closer then , I am always curious about new developments

[kkruzich]

I did a search on the forums for 'Petaluma' specifically in hopes to find details about fiber coming to Petaluma (and specifically from Sonic). I am extremely interested in this. I'm as interested in fiber almost as much as I'm as interested in oxygen and clean water. Please make it available!

I read, not long ago, about business fiber becoming available (in 2017?). Should that be taken as a hint residential is not far behind?