Query about internet speeds in Berkeley area

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
11 posts Page 1 of 2
by Guest » Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:03 pm
thinking about becoming a customer. I live in Berkeley/Albany area. I'm about 10,000 feet out. Wondering if other customers can share with me what your speeds are for the area as I'm thinking about leaving Uverse.
by dane » Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:18 pm
Average speeds at 10,000ft run 3-5Mbps. Consider your bandwidth needs - Fusion is a great value regardless of speed, but it is limited by distance.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by Guest » Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:28 pm
Dane, thanks for getting back to me via this thread. I would really LOVE to switch to sonic.net. I don't really know what 3 -5 Mbps will translate to in actual speed. I watch netflix and tv streaming occasionally (on my computer only), and download files such as music files. I am currently on 12 Mbps w/Uverse. Do you know if I will experience a problem with the streaming on my computer? And will the downloads be significantly slower? Also, for general internet searches, do you anticipate I'll notice a significant difference? Lastly, does the connection get dropped much? I had this issue w/AT&T DSL high speed internet before I switched to Uverse.
by Guest » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:23 pm
I posted a similar reply in an older thread, but wanted to give you a recent Berkeley data point. We live in Berkeley (NE of campus) in an older place. We are ~7,000-7,500ft from the CO. Looking at the speed/distance chart posted by Dane on dslreports, this distance sees average speeds of 7.5-9.0Mbps.

After Fusion was installed, we were told our line was capped at 7Mbps to ensure a stable connection. These days the modem syncs up at 6.5 and we average 4-5Mbps / 0.85Mbps on a wired connection. When it was first installed, we were getting speeds up to 5.75Mbps down.

Overall, still happy with the decision to switch to Sonic as the value proposition is attractive to us. But keep in mind that average speeds are exactly that, an average, and it is likely there is some variance in the data.
by dane » Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:27 pm
As noted by the other poster, it's quite variable and quite subjective. I'd encourage you to try Fusion out, and see how you like it at your location. Most customers are very happy with the product.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by Guest » Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:26 pm
I am a Fusion client living in the Oakland area. It is my understanding that I am approximately 10,000 feet out. I am LUCKY if I achieve speeds greater than 0.6 Mbps, e.g., my current speed test is showing 0.63 Mbps for download and 0.30 Mbps for upload. The primary issue however is the lack of line stability. While I may experience extended periods of stable connectivity, it is not uncommon for my connection to flicker, hang, or drop-out entirely. Sonic.net technicians (their customer service/technical folks have been wonderful with few exceptions) have been to my location 2 - 3 times in the past to assess the line at my building's main phone box. On those occasions, I have been told that the internal wiring was not the issue.

Another Sonic.net technician is scheduled to come out in a couple ofweeks to assess the box again due to some severe instability problems I am currently experiencing (I ususally do not call unless the instability is severe enough that it percludes my use of the connection for critical projects). Hopefully this visit will return a more lasting resolution to the problem.

I appreciate Sonic.net as a company and much prefer supporting a local, independent business. It may be that the problems I am experiencing are peculiar to my local node. With that said, i have not been able in good conscience to recommend the Fusion/dsl products to my neighborscoworkers. Since we will not share an access point perhaps your experiences will be different.
by Guest » Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:11 pm
Hello. Just to follow-up on my earlier post I ran another speed test after noticing that my connection was once again flickering out and/or hanging. Take your pick. I achieved the blistering fast download speed of 0.05Mbps. Please note that is not a typo - 0.05Mbps is what was returned.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2013202953.png

The behaviour of my connection at this speed is what I have to look forward to for at least the next couple of weeks until the Sonic.net technician is able to assess my phone box. Unless of course the condition spontaneously resolves first. Too bad I need to rely on my interent connection in the meantime. At 0.22Mbps the upload speed was moderately better by comparison.

The following results, returned from a speed test run from the sonic.net website, were not any better:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 57 kbps (7.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 326 kbps (40.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 319 ms
Saturday, June 16, 2012 11:05:34 PM
by ngufra » Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:38 pm
i am in Albany, near the border to Berkeley. We are 1 block away from the CO on solano.
We get about 15 Mbps down and just under 1 Mbps up with sonic fusion.
With AT&T we were getting about 5 Mbps on their Elite product.
You should check what LMI can do for you with their canopy product (wireless)
What sonic can do for you is to bundle two lines together so you actually double the throughput and is slightly less than twice the price. I don't think AT&T offers that.
by Guest » Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:31 pm
I'm glad to hear that you are having better luck with the Fusion product than I am. Having wireless from the ISP side will not work for me and while a bundled line sounds intriguing, I really shouldn't have to pay twice what I am paying now in order to achieve stability or speeds greater than 0.5 to 0.6 Mbps. Especially since in my case doubling the throughput, at a cost of $100.00, would still result in download speeds not much faster than 1.0 to 1.2 Mbps. As it stands, until the speed and especially the stability improve, I cannot in good conscience recommended Fusion as a product.
by jmcl » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:17 pm
I am in west Berkeley, near San Pablo/University (10th & Bancroft to be precise). I have a stable connection, but it tops out at around 3 Mbps down on various speed tests. This is lower than what I expected based on the averages at my CO distance. Overall I like supporting the local business and Sonic's more customer-friendly privacy stance, but on a strict speed basis the big players might be a better value right now. If you are focused on solely on speed you might be disappointed, so think of the other features you are getting. Unless fiber comes to Berkeley :-)
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