Gigabit Berkeley

[ronsul]

I, too, have been a Sonic customer for *more* than 15 years. and was 'nudged' off your DSL over AT&T in October of '17, and have tolerated the outrageous Comcast rates, despite my 'meager' fixed income...really NEED to get back down to your awesome service and rate! Hellllp!

[dane]

Hey everyone,

FDA 17 just went live!

FDA 17: Prince St, Alcatraz Ave, and Woolsey St from Claremont Ave to College Ave. Lewiston Ave from Woolsey St to Alcatraz Ave. Eton Ave from Woolsey St to Claremont Ave. Brookside Dr.

Have a great day!

[speedy_dsl]

Excellent news, hope we get the email soon!

[worthy.ken]

I've just received word from my Berkeley city council member that just this Tuesday the city and Sonic came to an agreement on permitting for the rest of Berkeley.

I guess that should clear the way for Sonic to install in southwest Berkeley, my area.

[dane]

I've just received word from my Berkeley city council member that just this Tuesday the city and Sonic came to an agreement on permitting for the rest of Berkeley.

I guess that should clear the way for Sonic to install in southwest Berkeley, my area.

Yes, your information is correct. We had a summit meeting between our team and Berkeley public works on Wednesday and made some very good progress. They have committed to issuing the permits for the remainder of the project early next week. That is great news, issuance of the necessary encroachment permits will allow us to get the fiber deployment for the remainder of Berkeley underway!

[ronsul]

Yay!

[ChrisW]

I've just received word from my Berkeley city council member that just this Tuesday the city and Sonic came to an agreement on permitting for the rest of Berkeley.

I guess that should clear the way for Sonic to install in southwest Berkeley, my area.

Yes, your information is correct. We had a summit meeting between our team and Berkeley public works on Wednesday and made some very good progress. They have committed to issuing the permits for the remainder of the project early next week. That is great news, issuance of the necessary encroachment permits will allow us to get the fiber deployment for the remainder of Berkeley underway!

They said it couldn’t be done!
That’s GREAT news! Thank you, Dane, and thank you, Sonic, for persevering and seeing this through.

Barring further impediments, when do you expect to finish building out the affected FDAs—27C in particular?

Thanks again,
Chris

[lefish]

I heard the same from my councilperson. Great news!

Barring further impediments, when do you expect to finish building out the affected FDAs—27C in particular?

I'm itching to know the same for FDA 27B (although if I were Dane, I would refrain from answering that until Berkeley, you know, actually issues the permits ).

[dane]

I don't yet have any details on updates to the construction schedule.

With all of the moving parts; various construction companies, crews, and Sonic fiber splicing technicians etc that are involved in this, we don't yet have that figured out. We lost one of our aerial construction contractors because we had no available work for them, and they are now working for another carrier elsewhere in California. We were about to lose the crews from a second construction company next week, but the good news is that now that the permit issue has been resolved, we will be able to swing them back to Berkeley. (They have been doing work in Oakland while we have been idled awaiting Berkeley permits, but they will wrap up there next week and would have found other work as well.)

One good news item: for those in the NorthEast section of Oakland is that they'll now see service sooner than we had expected, because that's where we were able to send the idled crews from the second firm.

[racker]

Oh man, this is exciting. Build out West Berkeley before the city changes their mind!!