Details on Fiber Service Coming to North Berkeley

[Hap]

My Sonic service has been flawless. When my old modem died, the new one I’d bought established the initial connection with Sonic nearly instantaneously.

A Sonic employee recently knocked on my door here in North Berkeley, informing me that fiber service will be coming to my neighborhood this April. This is a month earlier than another employee had informed me at a recent local street fair. Faster speeds, and coming soon. All good news.

I have some suggestions for inclusion in whatever ‘announcement’ email or letter you might send out on this.

Here are a few questions of the sort I’d hope to see answered in an FAQ to be included (or linked) in that email:

“How much will new customers be charged for the service?”

“Will the monthly charge for existing customers go up?”

“Is the new modem a combination modem and router?”

“Must one’s existing modem and router be replaced with the new modem/router in order to take advantage of the faster fiber speed?”

“Must customers rent (an additional monthly charge?) the modem/router from Sonic? Or can one buy one’s own, from Sonic or from a third party.” (Cheaper for customers in the log run.)

I offer the above suggestions in the interest of 1) cutting down on phone calls and email to Sonic, and 2) eliminating any confusion as to the details of the offer of the new service.

* * *

[dane]

As soon as service launched in your neighborhood, existing customers will receive an invitation via email to visit our Member Tools, in the connectivity section an upgrade option will appear. It's all automatic. For most customers pricing is identical to their current rate, X2 customers will see a cost decrease. All necessary equipment is set up by the installer during the changeover. Today that's an optical network terminal (ONT), which you can think of as a modem, plus a separate residential gateway, which provides all of the layer-3 IP functionality; firewalling, NAT, etc.

[Hap]

When my service was first set up an ATT guy needed to get into the garage below me to connect something. As the garage belongs to my landlord, I can't get in unless he is here. Will I need to plan on having the landlord here to open the garage for the fiber connection? If so, will there be enough advance notice to set that up with him?

[miken]

When my service was first set up an ATT guy needed to get into the garage below me to connect something. As the garage belongs to my landlord, I can't get in unless he is here. Will I need to plan on having the landlord here to open the garage for the fiber connection? If so, will there be enough advance notice to set that up with him?

The installation process is going to vary a bit depending on how many units there are in your building. The simple answer is that we can schedule the installation on a day that works for both you and your landlord so that our installer can discuss installation method before installing the line.

[digitalbitstream]

With DSL service, AT&T hooked the service up to the network interface device (often on the outside of the building). Then interior wire went from there.

What's it look like for fiber? There's a new drop from the street. Can the fiber drop attach to the same hooks on the building as the AT&T line? Or is a new hook required? Does Sonic waterproof that hook?
Then where does it go? Does the line enter the building? How far? Is electrical power required at that point? Who handles inside wiring?


A little FAQ with a diagram would help!

[astroron]

As soon as service launched in your neighborhood, existing customers will receive an invitation via email to visit our Member Tools, in the connectivity section an upgrade option will appear. It's all automatic. For most customers pricing is identical to their current rate, X2 customers will see a cost decrease. All necessary equipment is set up by the installer during the changeover. Today that's an optical network terminal (ONT), which you can think of as a modem, plus a separate residential gateway, which provides all of the layer-3 IP functionality; firewalling, NAT, etc.

so does that mean that one can substitute their own router for the RG? because i have built my own router using a linux box and rely on the services running on that router. or is the RG required and if so, can it be put into bridged mode?

thanks