Gigabit Berkeley

[seralat]

Hi Dane, wondering where we stand in the Poet's Corner area of Berkeley, which is bounded by University on the North, Dwight on the South, San Pablo on the West, and Sacramento on the East. Are we one of the areas affected by the issues around permitting? What FDA are we included in? It's been well over a year since I put in my order and I'm starting to lose hope here.

Thanks for any info you can give.

[bspath]

Likewise,
I live in Poet’s Corner, and it has been frustrating to see installations happening in the neighborhood just north of University with no sign of anything in my neighborhood. Additionally, my service went out last Friday, with a visit from AT&T scheduled for Wed. These days, a five day service outage is fairly unacceptable, esp. as my home phone and television is completely dependent on the connection.

[amnster]

Could you please let me know what the ETA is on 3043 Ellis St 94703. I've been living without internet at home for over 6 months now.

Current estimate in our GIS system says 3/8/2019, just two days from now, but I don't know how accurate this is. But, we did just activate the area just to the East of you today, so it may be! Either way, should be very soon! Thank you for your patience, and when it does go live and you've experienced it, please share the news with your neighbors!!

Thank you Dane for the update. I still haven't heard from Sonic yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Zandr]

For those wondering what the timeilne is like, once an FDA goes live: Really fast. Based on this thread I called sales (yesterday, 3/11) to schedule an install, and it's booked for Sunday AM (3/17).

My upgrade path is a little wonky because they still had my old service marked as Business, even though I dropped down to a single DSL line when I added Comcast Business. That said, I think it just means I need to call and cancel/port my voice number once the fiber is live.

-Z

[thomasheld]

Is there an ETA for FDA 52 to go live?

[racker]

I would love an update on the 2400 block on Eighth St (between Dwight and Channing) in West Berkeley. One of the 1.5 year reservations! Saw one of the 'comment posters' on a pole nearby last November

This is one where there is substantial uncertainty - we still do not have permits to complete it. As a result, our team has pushed the expected date back to a guess of 8/19/2019, but that's really just a guess, because we don't know when the permit will be issued. I'm sorry we can't be more accurate on this, and that we've got this ongoing delay.

So sad. West Berkeley, the ignored stepchild. :(( Time to double down on Comcast for another year I guess :( Oh, City of Berkeley why do you tax us so

[lefish]

Anyone know how far east this "West Berkeley" issue goes? Does it affect the 'hood between Sacramento and downtown?

I'm in FDA 27-B, for what that's worth, and would also love an update on the current plan for it.

David

[raylam]

We just got activated today—on Durant Ave between Fulton and Ellsworth, CA 94704. First one in the building!

I thought I should share my very positive experience:

We applied last Oct/Nov and received the email for installation scheduling last week.

Once installation was scheduled for 10am-2pm, we received a few emails and text reminding us of the big day, right up to this morning when Sonic notified us they're on the way, still giving us the option to reschedule last minute.

Assad Saleh and his crew (I counted 5 or 6 vehicles by the road, they were activating a building next to me too) arrived within half hour around 10-ish this morning.

The process went extremely smoothly and took only 2 hours—I'm frankly amazed considering this is the first time they're doing it in this building and required getting the wiring in from the street. No hiccups that I can tell: They drilled a hole in the wall, stuck the wire out, installed the modem, finished the installation outside, came back in and activated the connection. They might've finished the next door building in the same time too.

Assad did mention this typically takes up to 5 hours—Sonic management, compliments to Assad and crew this morning for an amazing job.

Now on to getting my NAS and dockers up and running again. I have to say I'm not a fan of these included router boxes: I understand they're not meant for "civilians" to configure and are typically not user-friendly (speaking as a techie who've been running Merlin-ROM on his Asus RT-66nu for years).

[neha]

We are in the apartment complex in the middle of the top edge of the map (Shattuck and Virginia). The rest of our block has been activated, but not us. Are apartment complexes not part of the current push?

I'm afraid I've got some bad news: I looked into this, and it appears that your apartment building has underground utilities, and apparently they did not place (or, we could not find) any extra conduit to allow for future utilities. This is pretty normal; buildings put in conduit for AT&T and Comcast, but that's all that's required so that's all they place. This leaves tenants stuck with just those options. Sorry!

Well, that sucks. Thanks for the response.

[derelyct]

I'm in the same situation in Poets Corner. I preordered the service back in December 2017. I've looked around the neighborhood and I've seen Sonic notices on Addison about Telecom Construction. These were posted back in Nov. 16, 2018. Poets Corner project number is 1607-FDA 29A-3049, according to the notice.

The original estimated time for me was in October. I've been in a holding pattern in a while. To be honest, anything is better than Comcast.