Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
597 posts Page 1 of 60
by dane » Mon Dec 26, 2016 8:48 pm
What are we doing?

Since launching in 2010, Fusion broadband and phone service has remained at a fixed price, with the standard level of residential service costing $40 monthly. Now, as we head into 2017, we are implementing our first Fusion price increase, ever. Beginning in February, the price for Sonic’s Fusion services will increase by $10 monthly.

I’ll address the reason for this and the details below.

Why is the price increasing?

This price increase will fund more fiber construction, allowing us to continue to expand the reach of gigabit service as rapidly as possible.

Over the last year, we have gone from just 1% of members connected with Gigabit service on Fiber to over 10% of our members now connected with Fiber. That is really good progress, and we believe it is now time to scale up!

Our mission at Sonic is to deliver fast, uncapped and unlimited service, and the ultimate goal is delivering full gigabit service via Sonic fiber. Today, one in ten Sonic members are connected with Sonic gigabit fiber service, and expanding our fiber reach will mean the the majority of our members will be on fiber in the next few years. Our mission is to continue to build more and more fiber, and this price increase means more fiber, and more Sonic fiber-connected members.

Meanwhile, we will also continue to add faster options and more value for all Fusion members, including higher speed interim services for many of our customers, with VDSL2, X2 and FTTN upgrades. See https://members.sonic.net/connections/serviceupdate/ for options for your location.

And for customers looking for ways to cut costs, we have launched low-cost DISH TV bundles that can help them save money by switching TV providers. See http://sonic.com/dish for details.

Who will this affect, and by how much?

Over time, all Sonic Fusion broadband and phone customers will be affected by this price increase. But for customers who are in a term agreement, no change will occur until the term agreement comes to an end.

As for how much, each existing Fusion service will increase by $10 monthly. So for example residential Fusion X1 of all forms (ADSL2+, VDSL2, FTTN, Fiber) will increase from the current rate of $40 monthly to a new rate of $50. And residential Fusion X2 of all forms (ADSL2+ or VDSL2 bonded broadband, and 50Mbps FTTN X2) will increase from the current rate of $60, to a new rate of $70.

What about re-rates or retention offers?

It has become commonplace in our industry to offer lower pricing to customers who call to complain about price, particularly if they threaten to cancel service. This is an unpleasant process for both customers and staff of the competitors, but more importantly, it is not fair to those who do not call, who are not aware a lower price is available if only they had called and spent significant time and effort threatening cancellation.

Instead, I hope that every customer will understand our mission, the quality local customer service we deliver, and both the value of our service and the values of our company. Out of concern for what is fair and right for all of our members, and the work environment for our staff, we are not offering a lower price to members who contact us to press for one.

Fusion is still an industry-leading value

Fusion remains a leading value. Sonic continues to offer uncapped and unlimited internet access, and when compared with competing broadband products that cost $55 to $80, and which all now levy monthly usage limits, Fusion is a great deal. And from competitors, unlimited phone service costs about $30 additional, making the Fusion bundle an even better value.

Over the years since 2010, we have added many features to our Fusion service, including faster connection technology, VDSL2, FTTN and fiber, and X2 bonding options. We have also improved Fusion by including free nationwide calling, and today calls to most countries are free too. Our popular FaxLine and personal web hosting, and VPN features all have added value to Fusion. And today FTTN and fiber customers can even use Accession communicator to take their unlimited Fusion phone service with them on their mobile device.

If members are seeking ways to save, for Sonic members with TV service, switching to a DISH bundle with Sonic can be a really great option. If you’ve got cable or another satellite service, the Sonic DISH option provides lower-cost TV options, plus a $10/mo discount on Sonic service for a year. Together these two items can more than offset the upcoming price increase. Visit http://sonic.com/dish for info.

One last point: most of our members have the option of speed upgrades available at their location. For best available performance and price, I encourage you to check for VDSL2, FTTN, X2 and Fiber upgrade availability here: https://members.sonic.net/connections/serviceupdate/

Thank you for your continued support of Sonic as we pursue our mission to build the best internet service available for all: Local support, strong privacy policies, uncapped usage and of course, the fastest service possible.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by simx » Mon Dec 26, 2016 9:48 pm
Seems reasonable, if it really does speed fiber construction. Can you tell us any more details about fiber plans in SF in other neighborhoods? At one point, Sonic had a list on the main website neighborhoods that would be explored next. Is Sonic still concentrating on building out the Richmond and Sunset, or will other neighborhoods join the rollout?
by dane » Mon Dec 26, 2016 10:12 pm
simx wrote:Seems reasonable, if it really does speed fiber construction. Can you tell us any more details about fiber plans in SF in other neighborhoods? At one point, Sonic had a list on the main website that included Bernal Heights and the Castro (my neighborhood) as places that would be explored next. Is Sonic still concentrating on building out the Richmond and Sunset, or will other neighborhoods join the rollout?
Richmond, Sunset and Parkside are wrapping up, and you will see other SF neighborhoods coming up soon. The first of these is already quietly under construction, and will go live for pre-orders shortly, and many more will follow. Two additional cities are also in engineering and permitting, and three others are in the earlier stages. (For those in Sonoma County: yes, some of these are expansion here!)

The last five years have been building to this point, creating the capabilities to scale fiber construction and service delivery. In the last year, we have finally gotten to production stage for this product, and now have over 10% of our members connected on our own fiber. (In January, this was just 1%!) I am pleased and proud that our team has gotten to this point, it has been an interesting and challenging process, and now that we've got the capabilities to scale up, it is time to do that!
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by danielg4 » Mon Dec 26, 2016 10:59 pm
How will that affect multi-product accounts? Reference: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3668
by phr » Tue Dec 27, 2016 12:47 am
This is disappointing. I'd feel ok with it if I thought it was going to get fiber to my neighborhood faster. But I doubt my part of SF will get fiber anytime this decade, so what seems to be happening here is that I get to pay for fiber to be deployed in more expensive neighborhoods than mine, with no benefit for me, instead of charging it to the folks getting the fiber who can generally afford it more easily anyway. It would show some class if customers who have to pay this extra $10/month for other people's fiber were offered some kind of credit towards getting fiber themselves if/when it does finally become available to them (again I expect it to be years away for most of us).

I also remember hearing of various upgrades to voice service being explained as coming from declining costs in a defined-profit product. That was nice, free international calls weren't something I really use, but since it wasn't costing me extra then why not. Except now it is costing extra, in that the surplus that got directed into free international calls could have gone to fiber build-out instead of raising basic service prices on everyone. I'd vote for eliminating the free international calls since I've made maybe 10 minutes of international calls in the past 10 years.

I do find landline phone service to be useful but I don't feel like I even need free domestic calling let alone international. I'd be happy with 60 minutes/month included, then 1 or 2 cents per additional minute. Similarly with the popular fax service--popular? Faxes are even still a thing? I can't remember the last time I saw one. I'd even be willing to drop my Fusion voice phone altogether since I could still use my mobile for occasional voice calls. Mobile voice quality is worse but I could live with it.

I also have zero interest in Dish TV. And personal web hosting=valuable? Not really, that's available free or almost free from a million places. I particularly like afreecloud.com (zero cost) and buyshared.net (starts at $5/year), both providing much more flexible service than Sonic personal pages. It's ok that Sonic hosting is seemingly decades behind the times since I understand Sonic treating it as a legacy product, but in that case it shouldn't be pitched as valuable in the present day. I do like the idea of Sonic OpenVPN and plan to start using it sometime, so that's something.

I like Sonic and dislike Comcast enough to pay around the same amount for Fusion at around 7 mbps as Comcast charges for 25+ megabits but now it will be flat-out more expensive too (and no, X2 Fusion isn't available at my location).

Between the overloaded tech support, the antiquated VOIP ATA's where Sonic fiber is available instead of SIP, the recurring voice outages in those places, etc. I start to perceive that the price increase actually reflects Sonic being financially overextended and maybe even circling the drain. I hope it can recover. But addressing the problem by having most of Sonic's customers subsidize fiber for the lucky minority that can get it is not that nice.

How often do other ISP's increase prices with no meaningful service increases anyway? I don't think I've ever seen that. This is the IT industry which is an area where advancing technology normally makes costs lower rather than higher.
by parker_day » Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:41 am
This will probably push me to go from Fusion x2 to Fusion x1. Maybe that's better for Sonic in the end, only having to lease one copper line.
by torstenb » Tue Dec 27, 2016 5:37 am
While I understand and can appreciate the fact that investing in infrastructure and service upgrades is necessary to stay competitive, I still don't understand why the cost in the U.S. is so much higher than in many other places in the world. And I'm not referring to low-wage countries, quite the opposite actually.

In Europe, internet service and phone lines are offered between EUR 20 to EUR 30, with internet speeds being much higher than here.

Anyways, from my point of view, implementing a price increase at this point will be counterproductive, at least when it comes to trying to win and keep customers not yet on a faster speed option, such as Sonic's VDSL, Sonic's Fiber, or on the road to fiber in the short-term.

To give you an example, with my in-process move, I kept my account active with just email in order to continue with Sonic service at my new place, although it will be Sonic FTTN, which I'm not a big fan of to begin with. (What I don't like is that there are two parties involved with potential finger pointing and playing the blame game when things go wrong.) 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. And only "one throat to choke" when things don't work. Now that a similar $50 price tag for 20Mbps (Sonic FTTN) is imminent, there is really hardly a reason anymore to go with Sonic, at least not for Sonic FTTN. Too bad....
by goetsch » Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:22 am
I'm sure we'll never get fiber in Humboldt, so I hope somebody enjoys my $10.
by andsonic » Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:46 am
I read this with mixed feelings. When I upgraded to FTTN, I cut the cord. Previously I had been taking advantage of the Sonic/DirecTV bundle. DirecTV's predatory practices were part of why I made the change. If Sonic wanted to add local TV services, or waive the modem rental (required for FTTN), or cover some of the taxes; I could stomach the price change.

I know that Sonic has very little margin on FTTN accounts. I know that Fiber planning can not be publicized untll everything is ready to go. It would be nice, however, if Sonic would (to balance out the price raise news) also give some indication that they are moving forward with Fiber in other cities.

It's all well & good to hear about SF, but I'm in the eastside Santa Rosa black hole.
by pockyken007 » Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:53 am
I have no issue with 10$ increase if it brings fiber to those who don't have it yet , as one of the lucky people who happen to live on the avenues in SF ( with an active fiber connection ) I have no problem supporting your efforts to bring fiber to the rest of the customer base . While price increases are never a nice thing I can see what you are doing Dane and even though above posters mentioned valid points ,I don't see it as increase but more so as an investment ( long term but investment nevertheless ) in a company that so far delivers on their promises ( too you guys longer then anticipated but you did it ) . Keep up the good work Sonic .
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