Gigabit Berkeley

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
640 posts Page 64 of 64
by dane » Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:30 pm
chris.w wrote:For the last 3 days, I’ve seen swarms of Sonic vans parked near the NE corner of Allston and California—no bucket trucks, just vans. Does anyone know what this is about? Connecting up University Terrace (faculty housing) en masse, perhaps?
I'm not sure which building, but yes, this is a mass install in a multi-tenant building. We're doing lots of those around the Bay Areas these days.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by chris.w » Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:39 pm
dane wrote:
chris.w wrote:For the last 3 days, I’ve seen swarms of Sonic vans parked near the NE corner of Allston and California—no bucket trucks, just vans. Does anyone know what this is about? Connecting up University Terrace (faculty housing) en masse, perhaps?
I'm not sure which building, but yes, this is a mass install in a multi-tenant building. We're doing lots of those around the Bay Areas these days.
Dane, thanks for the confirmation. University Terrace is a 75-unit, multi-building, condo/townhouse complex with underground utility service, built by UC in the early 90’s to provide affordable housing for faculty. I’m guessing that when Sonic built out the neighborhood last fall, the UT HOA saw that it offered a superior alternative to their then-current ISP (probably Comcast), so they’re making the switch.
by Frederick » Sun Jul 05, 2020 4:43 pm
Does anyone know when/if Sonic fiber will reach 38th and Telegraph in Oakland?
by dane » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:05 pm
Frederick wrote:Does anyone know when/if Sonic fiber will reach 38th and Telegraph in Oakland?
That region looks like early next year. Of course, specific coverage will depend upon the exact address and available infrastructure, but the area is planned.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by kyle.depasquale » Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:26 am
Awesome news of further expansion in Oakland. Can you provide any information for the area between W Grand and 26th, north of Market St?
by xtian.stratus » Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:13 am
Hi - any updates on the 1800 block of Solano Ave. in North Berkeley? (with underground wiring)

For the past year, there's been a big construction project at the theater across the street. for a while, I was seeing sonic trucks parked there so I assume some sonic installation has been happening around our location.
by miss_katrina_kaos » Tue Oct 20, 2020 1:59 am
Any update on the 1800 block of Alcatraz? I've been cheerleading for Sonic and have gotten friends and family on it plus got the card a little over two years ago letting me know my area was going to get fiber.

We are in 1826 which is a multi unit building and I know Sonic is providing service a couple blocks away in two directions.
by dane » Tue Oct 20, 2020 4:55 pm
xtian.stratus wrote:Hi - any updates on the 1800 block of Solano Ave. in North Berkeley? (with underground wiring)

For the past year, there's been a big construction project at the theater across the street. for a while, I was seeing sonic trucks parked there so I assume some sonic installation has been happening around our location.
No, we are not doing any underground residential fiber construction in Berkeley at this time. Not that we wouldn't like to, but I haven't initiated the conversation with the City about the standards updates that would be necessary in order to facilitate this.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by dane » Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:15 pm
miss_katrina_kaos wrote:Any update on the 1800 block of Alcatraz? I've been cheerleading for Sonic and have gotten friends and family on it plus got the card a little over two years ago letting me know my area was going to get fiber.

We are in 1826 which is a multi unit building and I know Sonic is providing service a couple blocks away in two directions.
The issue there was an unsafe pole in front of 1881 Alcatraz Ave. It was a 45-foot tall wood pole that was installed in 1966, which had become unsafe due to rot, fungus or damage. That pole was replaced in late 2019 with a new 50-foot wood pole, and we can now include this area in our future infill project queue.

Infill projects can take a long time to accomplish however, because they're very small and we must fit them in between other construction projects that are in process. This is why pole reinforcement and replacement and pole safety, in general, is such a concern for us, because leaving gaps in the network is certainly the last thing we want to do.

So in summary, we'll get there eventually, and I'm sorry for the delay! We do not have much control over the quality of the preexisting infrastructure, so we're somewhat stuck playing the hand we are dealt.

One action that cities can take that can help is to adopt standards that allow for trenchless underground construction. This means microtrenching, as well as directional boring with minimal restoration. If these cost-efficient underground construction methods can be used to work around unsafe poles, sometimes we can avoid issues like this during an initial build. But to date, I don't believe any Bay Area cities have adopted standards. We will be working to promote that in the coming months.

Oh, and cities also need to not block the installation of temporary poles by carriers in cases like this as well. Some cities are wrestling with us on the temporary placement of poles where unsafe conditions exist, which is doubly bad: we cannot deploy, and the unsafe condition remains un-resolved. By placing an adjacent communications-only temporary pole, we can deploy, while contributing to a temporary resolution of the safety condition until the power utility finally replaces their pole. Again, some cities are fine with this while others do not want to see temporary poles used (although we don't think they can actually disallow this - but wrestling this through a legal and complaint process is a waste of time and financial resources for all parties.)

Just a bit of color and background on the process we are engaged in. We are building a lot of network very rapidly, and there are a wide array of issues that come up. Don't get me started on building owners/managers/landlords that do not want to allow us to deploy. (This, despite state law, we are a telecom utility, and despite tenant rights to select the telecom of their choice, etc. Again, costly waste of our time and theirs as we go through the process.)
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by dane » Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:20 pm
kyle.depasquale wrote:Awesome news of further expansion in Oakland. Can you provide any information for the area between W Grand and 26th, north of Market St?
That area is seeing some construction now, with service delivery either wrapping up or recently completed for two public schools there. The Oakland schools are an anchor user for our fiber build in the area, and we must focus on getting them all online first, then infill the fiber to the home adjacent. Currently, we are expecting to activate the network in that area in 2Q2021.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
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