by
dane » Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:28 am
Today Sonic reaches about one third of San Francisco homes, and uptake is critical in driving this further. So, even if we do not reach you yet, please spread the word, on Nextdoor, Facebook, and with friends and family.
For premises we haven't reached yet in regions with aerial utilities, we are continuing our construction, but we do end up with many gaps in coverage due to overloaded poles. And we have been unsuccessful at getting pole owners (either PG&E or AT&T, they jointly own and either can allow it) to let us reinforce the unsafe poles. A few consumers affected by this have already filed complaints with the California Public Utilities Commission via their
website, so it is possible this might change in the future.
And for those served by underground utilities, the City of San Francisco's department of public works does not allow new trenchless utility construction, so any entity that doesn't have an existing conduit (AT&T and Comcast) will be unable to build fiber optic infrastructure to serve premises with underground lines. SF's board of supervisors is considering an ordinance that would require SF DPW to allow microtrenching, but the method would be limited to use in sidewalk areas only, which we don't believe will make it feasible to build a citywide fiber to the premise network.
We are committed to bringing fiber to all of our members, and will continue to expand our reach everywhere we can. Membership size is the critical driver for our capability to accomplish this, so please tell everyone about Sonic!