Sonic Gigabit Fiber in Santa Clara

[audi100]

Santa Clara has a city owned municipal utility which owns all the poles in the city and has a backbone fiber network. Here is their website and map of the backbone network:

http://svpfiber.com
http://tek-tips.nethawk.net/japan-data- ... ms-part-1/
map: http://altaterra.site-ym.com/resource/r ... vp-1-2.jpg

Looking forward to Sonic building off of this network to provide gigabit FTTP in Santa Clara!

Started this thread so people from the Santa Clara can show their interest and Sonic can start talking to the the municipal utility and start building the network. Would love to hear ideas about how this can happen faster too...

[jthon]

I was just thinking about making a similar post! Now that Google Fiber is dead Santa Clara might be a competitive option for the next Fiber expansion. The city utility Silicon Valley Power owns all the distribution poles and is willing to work with others to allow attachment, and most homes are served by overhead poles so trenching/microtrenching wouldn't be needed to serve a large part of the population.

The City Council previously approved Google's build out plans (now on permanent hiatus), and I'm sure would be willing to work with Sonic. If Sonic is thinking/planning to expand down here I'd show up at any commission/council meetings necessary to help Sonic fast track fiber support.

I hope if they are planning such an expansion they announce the start of work soon. My current DSL isn't cutting it, and I've started to evaluate other options since Sonic for better or worse won't resell FTTN to me, and DSL x2 is way too expensive for the speed.

[steelgaze]

Google was not the only competitor to Sonic. There's still that telco called AT&T, which has also promised to roll out fiber in the bay area as a whole. It's hard to say Sonic would compete with AT&T as kinda are in SF, but they beat AT&T's rollout and edges them out on pricing. Not sure if they will go into Santa Clara if AT&T does a big rollout in the region.

[chucko]

AT&T has already rolled out fiber in neighboring Sunnyvale. But I'd really like to see someone else get Santa Clara.

[audi100]

AT&T rolled out U-Verse in my neighborhood around 2.5 years ago in Santa Clara (I have had Sonic Fusion for most of that time). I don't think they will be in a hurry to roll out fiber here, when their plan with privacy is around $90 in Cupertino.

I am not sure what sort of rates SVP Fiber charges, but it should be at-cost or even free if the city really wants a citywide residential network built. I would be willing to go to council meetings to make this happen as well. I don't think the municipal utility can mandate privacy and net neutrality, I wish.

I have wondered why the city itself hasn't just become an ISP, I think Google's intentions have been hanging around now for ~2 years, while fiber installations have become more widespread. I am not sure if you could count Google completely out though, at least according to their website they are still exploring it.

One of the overhead lines in the map actually goes through my backyard, lucky me. I have also wondered if it is as simple as a splice per house for my side of the street to get fiber internet, without adding any new wires to poles. The whole neighborhood and other parts of the city will probably need new wires on poles and splicing.

[steelgaze]

All of the successful Municipal fiber projects have an associated 'nominal' cost. While not free, it's certainly cheaper than existing private offerings. The problem is that incumbents will lobby against the effort.

Privacy and NN rules are what your ISP or this case, the city, chooses to follow. Just know that the FCC is choosing to not enforce those rules/guidelines. Sonic for example will continue to operate with NN style and privacy rules.

I would definitely count Google 'out' of building the fiber network. The site is stale and they have already started refunding people deposits in places they took pre-order money for build outs. If Google comes back to expanding, they will go under the webpass Microwave transmission banner.

[audi100]

Here's the email I sent to MAYORANDCOUNCIL@santaclaraca.gov hoping for a reply and action.

Expanding residential fiber internet services in Santa Clara

Hi, I'm writing about increasing internet service provider options in Santa Clara. Recently Google put it's plans on hiatus after working with the city and SVP for a fiber roll-out. There are other options that the city council and SVP should explore, like convincing other ISPs to do a fiber build-out using SVP Fiber's dark fiber network.

Sonic (http://www.sonic.net) has been expanding and offering gigabit fiber internet in the Bay Area and NorCal, and might expand their fiber network to the Santa Clara to offer residential fiber internet services. They are consistently rated well for customer service, fiber pricing and speed, privacy and supporting network neutrality (http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense ... e_u_s.html). I have had their DSL service for around 2 years without any issues. In my neighborhood, only Comcast offers plans above 50 megabits/s, on plans which which cap data usage to 1TB/month and increase in prices after 1 and 2 years. There are currently no citywide fiber internet providers in Santa Clara which offer speeds up to 1 gigabit/s, which other bay area cities now have. Additional ISPs and FTTH (Fiber to the home) build-outs to increase options for residents would be great for the city, and something the city council and SVP should encourage to fully realize the potential of the dark fiber network and utility infrastructure maintained by the municipal utility.

[Anony Mouse]

I would also like to see Sonic work with Santa Clara and SVP to roll out fiber in Santa Clara.

While I am glad Google brought fiber in Santa Clara to peoples minds, I am bummed that their interest caused Sonic not to pursue it earlier.

There has just been(still is) a major construction project on San Tomas regarding utilities, and fresh fiber for a rollout would have been awesome to include in the work.

I do not expect AT&T to put any Fiber in now that Google has backed away.

p.s. I used to use Sonic, but the 12 MB down and .75 up was not cutting it for working from home, and they refuse to sell FTTN for my situation(between their company policy ranges of distance)

[NotPoky]

I would also love to see Sonic work with Santa Clara and Silicon Valley Power to bring Fiber to more of Santa Clara (Paxio serves some part of Santa Clara, but I have never been able to figure out where)

The San Tomas construction project site specifically mentions Fiber Rollout as part of the work, thus taking fiber further into Santa Clara neighborhoods.

[Fiberneeding Guest]

OpenFiber.com which is a survey site for Paxio theoretically is actively seeking interest in a Fiber Rollout in other locations.

I just signed up, and hope it will convince them(or push Sonic to do a similar survey)