Tantalizingly Close Fiber in Berkeley

[dane]

OK, should be in your email now

Thx!

[buegelfrei]

Hi Dane,

We got a couple notices in the mail from AT&T in May regarding upcoming work "accessing existing conduit, man holes and poles as identified on the attached Location Map within the next couple of months to place fiber cable in support of future fiber based services." One of the maps shows locations up and down our block (which has underground utilities). Ping me if you'd like scans.

[apl]

We got a couple notices in the mail from AT&T in May regarding upcoming work "accessing existing conduit, man holes and poles as identified on the attached Location Map within the next couple of months to place fiber cable in support of future fiber based services." One of the maps shows locations up and down our block (which has underground utilities). Ping me if you'd like scans.

Same here (maybe we are neighbors).
Unfortunately, I don't know if AT&T running fiber would get us better offerings from sonic. If not, it might be enough to get me to consider switching, though.

[ankh]

Saw the Sonic cable truck on Hopkins near Posen midday today.
Stopped and asked if I could watch and that I was a customer.
Two guys were charming, explaining what they were doing.
One pulled out a single hair-thin strand and explained we were seeing a plastic coating on an even thinner glass fiber.

You have good ambassadors at work there.

Now if I could only get the "Availability" tab to work -- I enter street and zip and click and nothing happens. Permitted a long list of Javascript things, everything but Facebook. Nada.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlejsgxOxrU

[ankh]

Hmmm, the "Check Availability" button has quit working for me.
Even when I turn off all the anti-malware protections.
Firefox, latest Mac version, and Safari, same nothing happens.

----- another fiber install question -----

Will we be told when to expect the Sonic folks on our block, or when they'll hook up our house?
(I assume that's 2 different visits, one for the poles, the other for the new drops and new router?)

I'd like to know in advance so I can have a bucket of cold drinks and cookies for the crew.
On the chance it'll be Berkeley-hot rather than Berkeley-cold-foggy weather.

[digitalbitstream]

I think I'm going to have to talk to the house next door — where I expect you will be offering fiber — and see if we can't piggyback off their service.

Please don't do that, we cannot sustain the business model if people share their connection with a nearby home or apartment.

But Dane, you could expand your business model to be inclusive of that option. Either pole mount a Ubiqity node,
or offer a discount to the host house at the end of the block. Then offer Sonic branded last 1/4 mile services.


That or support community conduit install: if a street pays for conduit you hook everyone up.

[ankh]

A while back Sonic had an option for sharing service, but that went away quite a while ago.
Separate IP address, I think I recall, to avoid being liable for the neighbors' behavior.
I think having access to it helped convert a couple of my neighbors though.

[apl]

In addition to the notice from AT&T about running fiber on our (undergrounded utilities) street, we also just got a card from Paxio about running fiber (on poles) nearby: "This new network will provide Gigabit For All and provide you a choice of multiple service providers." Not clear if All really means All in this case, but more competition can only be good.
I would still like a clear answer as to whether the improved AT&T infrastructure would result in a better offering being available from Sonic. Right now all I can get is ADSL.

[steve@upstill.net]

Call me whacky, but isn't there some potential for a (very-)local-area mesh network for blocks like the one discussed here? Shouldn't there be some scheme for this last-block situation?

[ankh]

Well, it's not done by Sonic, but there is a local mesh network set up for the Berkeley/Albany area by ham radio folks, using Ubiquity NanoStations. That, along with a GMRS repeater system, are meant to survive after the cell tower batteries go flat, a few days after the big earthquake, since the electric grid isn't expected to come back for quite a while.