10000 Feet from main connection hub

[Steven]

So I recently pulled the trigger on signing up for Sonic (Berkeley area). I have AT&T now and it's not very good where I live (trouble hitting 1 to 2 Mbps down!). They also said I couldn't upgrade the service because of the old DSL lines. My question... with the 10000 feet from my place to the central switching area give me an awful experience? Any advice would be helpful, I'd like to support a local smaller business and AT&T isn't that.

Anyhow, I see an advertised 20 Mbps! but we all know how that pans out. Anyone have some experience in Berkeley or have any advice about the distance?

[oakwcj]

You can get some idea from checking out the speed/distance map at dslreports.com:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r269108 ... ance-chart

10,000 feet is a long way for DSL. The largest cluster appears to be in the 4.5-5.0 Mbps range, which would be a significant improvement for you, unless you're unlucky.

[Guest]

I live in SF about 10,000 from the CO and am getting just north of 3Mbps download. I was getting about 1 Mbps download with ATT, so it's a significant improvement although still not stellar. I hope we're included in the Sunset buildout of Sonic's new fiber net!

[Guest]

So I recently pulled the trigger on signing up for Sonic (Berkeley area). I have AT&T now and it's not very good where I live (trouble hitting 1 to 2 Mbps down!). They also said I couldn't upgrade the service because of the old DSL lines. My question... with the 10000 feet from my place to the central switching area give me an awful experience? Any advice would be helpful, I'd like to support a local smaller business and AT&T isn't that.

Anyhow, I see an advertised 20 Mbps! but we all know how that pans out. Anyone have some experience in Berkeley or have any advice about the distance?

We had Fusion installed a week ago and have been told we are ~7,000-7,500ft from the CO. We are just NE of campus in an older place. Speaking with tech support, I have been told our line is currently capped at 7Mbps to ensure a stable connection. I've checked Speedtest.net a couple times and we're getting about 5.75Mbps down / 0.85Mbps up.

I was hoping for slightly faster speeds given what I've seen on the charts that have been posted, but I'm guessing the wiring is pretty old and this is still way better than the 1.5Mbps AT&T DSL we had before. Plus, tech support is great and I'm happy we don't have to deal with AT&T anymore.

Hope this helps a bit.

[rstone]

This is the unfortunate downside for some to getting their service from an awesome(!) provider. I used to live very about 1k feet from the a CO and even in my ancient building with questionable wiring I was able to get 18 megs down. I moved to the Excelsior (very southwest edge of SF...actually in Daly City, but a block away) and my speeds dropped to about 4-ish megs down. The only fix at this point is to get a bonded line, but with the AT&T phone line requirement it's really more money than I want to pay. I was told that there were applications in for more CO boxes in my area, but I've yet to see any improvement.

However, I would rather deal with slower speeds (still enough to stream HD from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu) and get Sonic's customer service.

I'm just hoping that fiber ends up near me eventually.

[tikvah]

I guess I'm confused. I thought I was about a mile from the CO but my speeds are dismal. I get around 2mbps download (0.7 up). I used to get 3 but your system keeps auto-capping me.

When I signed up for Fusion I was not offered a modem. I was surprised to read on recent posts that you give free modems to people with new Fusion service. Instead, the rep told me that my old modem would work okay with Fusion (the old one is the one I got from you 8 or so years ago when I got DSL).

Is my speed problem a modem issue? A line issue? What's going on? I'd really love something faster. I've discussed the speed issue several times with tech support and they haven't given me any reasons. They just remove the cap so my speed goes up for a few days, then it's auto-capped again.

Thanks,
Cyndi
(Petaluma, unincorporated county area)

[dane]

I'd suggest writing to support@sonic.net to ask them your distance, per the ASSIA stats system, and then compare your speed to the average speed at your distance. That chart can be found here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r269108 ... ance-chart

If your speed is way below average, phone support and ask them for assistance. It could be filters, a new modem, a technician visit, etc.

[tikvah]

Sigh. The techs say that I'm about 12k feet from the CO and that 2-3 Mbps down speeds are normal. This does not address why I get 3 when you tweak my account but then it autosets down to 2. Maybe those of you getting 15 or 20 think there is no difference between 2 and 3 but for those of us at the end of the line, hell yeah there is a huge difference. That's a 50% improvement.

Are there plans to improve Petaluma service? I may be 1/4 mile outside the city limit but it's a pretty large town and there are a lot of computer users and businesses not far from me (I'm half a mile from the outlet mall). Is there just one CO? Is it owned by AT&T? Or does Sonic have some wires too? Who decides when and where to add them, and how does that process work?

I love Sonic but am really unhappy with my speed. I realize that it would be the same at AT&T (or less, cause they'd cap it, like you did for years before I switched from your regular DSL to Fusion). I have zero desire to switch to cable but I'm wondering what I can do. Are you even doing bonded lines anymore (two Fusion accounts)? I need to get a second phone number anyway but now I can't get a discount

Thanks,
Cyndi

[virtualmike]

It sounds like the condition of your phone line is marginal.

You can find tons of advice on how to ensure your internal home wiring is in optimal shape. Unfortunately, for external wiring, you (and everyone else) is a the mercy of AT&T.

There are two COs in Petaluma (125 LIberty Street and 9499 Old Redwood Hwy). Because of the regulations on connections over phone lines, Sonic.net's only choice is to co-locate equipment in those COs.