Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[timyu94]

It's basically a big screw you to anyone not in the bay area where sonic is deploying fiber. Sonic Fiber in sacramento? Sonic fiber in southern California? Nope but we're digging you $10 to pay for fiber that the San Francisco Bay area residents can have.

[dane]

It's basically a big screw you to anyone not in the bay area where sonic is deploying fiber. Sonic Fiber in sacramento? Sonic fiber in southern California? Nope but we're digging you $10 to pay for fiber that the San Francisco Bay area residents can have.

I think you may underestimate the scope of our aspirations. The issue of poor duopoly choices for Internet access spans all of California and most of the US, making solving that problem really well an opportunity of significant scale. For over twenty two years now, Sonic, which began as local ISP "Sonoma InterConnect", has grown our reach and territory. Particularly with regards to the new opportunities that being first to market with fiber offers, we expect an exponential growth curve here.

In a way, and if you choose to be, we are all in this together. And with each technology revision here, the past pays for the future, as we make the investments from revenues from current members into new technologies. First that was digital modem technologies like k56Flex and X2, then ISDN, DSL, CLEC central office deployments and now last-mile fiber all the way to the home. We are the one of the few carriers nationwide really trying to solve the problem of limited choice in internet access, and I'd ask for your support as we continue to wage that battle. Please stick with us, we are giving this our best shot!

[jason13]

I think you may underestimate the scope of our aspirations.

Exactly.

I have no idea what the roadmap is. I know that's normal and even necessary due to competitive pressures, ect. But in this case you're making a direct appeal to the consumer to come along on the ride. Basically you're making a crowdfunding appeal, but without the disclosure or consent. After watching the "Sonic fiber in San Francisco" thread drag on for 1449 days, you can understand why one might be a a little wary.

I feel like I've already been holding on for a while and a 20% price hike with no explanation of increased cost of service or added value, only a vague promise with little prospect for those of us municipally challenged. A tough sell in light of the competitive situation.

I'd love nothing more than to give Sonic my money. I'd love to hear about these 'aspirations'- I'd probably want them to be bigger! Shatter the big telecom stranglehold - I think it's negative implications go beyond my petty concerns of a few bucks: information access as a basic human right, censorship and equality issues, etc. I'd love to see regional Sonics across the country in a healthy competitive marketplace on top of a backbone of regulated infrastructure with a mandated free minimum service. It would be glorious.

But that's my personal socialist utopia. This is capitalist America, and you've got to have some kind of value story if you want the investors to come along. Sell me, please.

And with that said, I hope I've used up the last of my internet crankypants for the year.

Dane, thank you for taking the time to respond, and please keep throwing rocks at the giants.

[danielg4]

Six-year Fusion customer here at literally over 9000 feet from the CO, with a five-megabit sync. Nuking the POTS line is not acceptable given the current alternatives. So, what's left is having both that and FTTN and being double-billed, as explained here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3668

Called in to ask whether to get FTTN X1 or X2. "You should get X2." I asked about maybe trying X1 first and then upgrading if the bandwidth is not enough. (Comcast has been filling in, and the promotional period is over after next week.) I was then told that it would be better to order X2 first so that both wire pairs are provisioned, and then downgrade to X1 within the 30-day grace period, and it sure seemed like it could then be upgraded back to X2 if the bandwidth were not enough. Agreed to X2, but only one wire pair was connected: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4083&p=29535#p29535

There is no equipment rented on the POTS line, so on top of double the cost of the old Sonic bill, there is modem rental, ATA rental, and another $20 for it being X2. This is the threshold of justifiability. Now, there would be an extra $10 come February for the POTS line. No.

Called in to ask about downgrading the FTTN to X1. Turns out this would require an order for a new circuit with probable downtime, and Sonic will not allow going back to X2 after it under any circumstance. I guess if X1 bandwidth is shown not to be enough by the end of the current promotional period on Comcast, I negotiate a new Comcast promotion, which I have already verified would bring everything to a lower total monthly cost after the February rate hike on the POTS. (There is Comcast TV service here without a term commitment, and a two-year commitment to Dish is not acceptable in 2017.)

Very frustrating.

[torstenb]

What had me on the fence about that product already is the fact that AT&T is actually offering 24Mbps at this point without any modem rental charge for $50.

This is not true. Look at https://www.dslreports.com/forum/uverse and you will see AT&T will charge the $10 lease per month for all new subscriptions. People who were grandfathered in will also be charged as soon as their CPE fails and they need a new one.

When I go to AT&T's website to order internet service, in the summary page it states:

Wi-Fi Gateway $0.00/mo. Included

AT&T did indeed charge a gateway rental fee, but they changed that earlier this year.

[pockyken007]

Hello Dane ,

After reading the posts in here I have to agree with some of the posters knowing what we are buying for that extra 10$ increase would be nice , now I do trust Sonic and your business model and vision but I also like others mentioned would like to know where " exactly " my money is going ?

Knowing which markets are currently under development given the rate increase is crucial especially since like somebody mentioned before increasing the fee to deliver the product ( I call it an investment ) but others who live further away from main cities or CO / VRAD might see it as " increase in fees to deliver fiber to SF " with no light at the end of the tunnel for them ...

I know you have a vision of building great network and delivering service to all of your subscribers but without us knowing what those plans are it's hard to justify investing the money ( fee increase ) for product that might or might not come anytime soon ... ( maybe giving people some very generic time frames ? ) .

So far you have been very transparent as a company and very straight forward in addressing the issues whatever they might be , for which I will always value sonic above any other ISP ... this I see as an investment on my part to make sure the rest of the guys on the forums have a chance to get their fiber in the near future ( and trust me guys the wait is worth it ) .

Said that I am sticking around for a long run and I trust that sonic will do right by their customers whatever the decision might be

[blackmage]

@pockyken007 I assume a major reason that they dont reveal future expansions is because competitors can build their own infrastructure or even employ tactics like region-specific pricing to stop consumers from switching.

Another reason is that giving a city doesnt give any actual information on whether a specific user will get Fiber. They brought it to San Francisco, but anyone not in sunset, parkside or richmond is not seeing it yet. Also, east to west streets in those areas are also not seeing Fiber yet. I like that their philosophy has changed to announcing it when you can pre-order and check your specific address.

[Guest]

First a not insignificant aspect of Sonic service is unceremoniously dropped -- Usenet -- and now I'm being asked to pay what amounts to a $10 per month idealism tax. I don't like the idea of going with AT&T or Comcast, but the idea of paying a total of almost $70 per month for a 5.5 Mbps internet connection in the year 2017 isn't much more palatable.

[laurateng82]

I am quite upset by this rate increase. When I signed up for Sonic a little over a year ago, one of the things that won me over is that the Sonic representative on the phone promised me that once I became a customer, the price would be locked in for as long as I am a customer. I repeated what I heard to him and he said, "yes, you will get this price for as long as you are a customer. Your rate will not increase." Now, just a bit over a year later, I'm asked to pay $10 more a month. I am disappointed and felt a bit cheated and lied to that Sonic is not upholding its promise to me. Honestly, when I was an AT&T customer, I experienced faster speed and a lesser need to call customer support. Now that Sonic is increasing its price to basically be the same price as AT&T, I don't see any reason not to go back to AT&T.

[wazzufreddo]

What is disappointing to me as a long time customer looking to upgrade from the $39.99 20mbps service to the $40.00 50mbps X1 service is that the 50mbps service is currently being offered to new customers at a $10/mo discount. There isn't a way for existing customers to get in at $30/mo.

There also doesn't appear to be the way to upgrade to 50mbps while bringing your own VDSL modem. I have a fundamental problem paying $9.50 a month for a $60 piece of hardware.