Gigabit Berkeley

[ChrisW]

I saw a Sonic bucket truck and crew at work at California and Allston this morning. I'm guessing FDA 27C will soon go live.

[ChrisW]

I saw a Sonic bucket truck and crew at work at California and Allston this morning. I'm guessing FDA 27C will soon go live.

...but not yet. The availability tool is still offering pre-orders as of this evening.

[igorru]

Well this kind of surprised me. Today I was checking out the LCP from my FDA (29A) that is being worked on since Monday and realized that a new telephone pole showed up right next to the original one in the last couple of weeks. The Sonic crew working on the LCP moved the cabinet to the new pole today.

Check out the images from May, yesterday, and today.

https://imgur.com/a/hOzDr39

[Honeywell]

Thanks igorru. I tried as much as I could to find a map of FDA regions. Do you have a list or how did you find out the designation? Also, is the LCP on a telephone pole? If so, I think I know which one...

Most of that information is part of the Sonic's permit filing with the city of Berkeley. It's available to the public if you know where to look. ;)

And if you don't know where to look or can't find it?

[igorru]

And if you don't know where to look or can't find it?

Go to Berkeley Online Service Center - Zoning Permits
Then go to the Public Works section.
Search for permits using the Search by Contact and put Sonic in the Name of Business field. This will bring up all of the permits Sonic applied for in Berkeley.
The two permits covering West and South Berkeley, that had the big delay are: U2018-00246 and U2018-00247
If you have a permit open you can click on the Record Info tab and switch to Attachments. You'll find all kinds of documents in there. You need to have an account and be logged in to see them.

[ChrisW]

Go to Berkeley Online Service Center - Zoning Permits
Then go to the Public Works section.
Search for permits using the Search by Contact and put Sonic in the Name of Business field. This will bring up all of the permits Sonic applied for in Berkeley.
The two permits covering West and South Berkeley, that had the big delay are: U2018-00246 and U2018-00247
If you have a permit open you can click on the Record Info tab and switch to Attachments. You'll find all kinds of documents in there. You need to have an account and be logged in to see them.

My, that's a lot of attachments! I knew about the Permits page, but I never realized how much more was there if you were logged in.

[lefish]

Status update from 27-B:
FDA went live last Tuesday. I scheduled installation for 8/19.

Wednesday, crews were in the area doing the pre-installation drops. There was a problem with ours. There was no light (fiber optic signal) at the pole in front of my house (2400 block of Jefferson). Crew hadn't seen that issue before.

Friday I called Sonic customer service to see what they knew about it. They said there were notes that there was no signal and they'll need to investigate. I asked him how often this happens. He said this was the first time he's seen.

This morning there was a crew in front of my house confirming the issue. I later saw them at the LCP at Bancroft/California. Asked them about the problem. They said they found the source of the issue and it should be fixed today (whew!). Probably caused by confusion around the fact the LCP box was moved across the street and there was re-routing done to get the cables there.

Looking forward to installation on 8/19!

[AnnoyedInPoetsCorner]

Honestly, please stop sending me monthly updates filled with exclamation points and self back patting. It's fairly tone deaf to tell me how amazing the progress in my neighborhood is when it's been since last November when I signed up and it's just now past the 50% mark.

I understand Berkley city permitting is a pain, but honestly, even if things are going great on your end, opening an email every month that has no information and little progress just further makes me question whether I'll ever get the service I signed up for.

/end rant.

[coyote2]

Honestly, please stop sending me monthly updates filled with exclamation points and self back patting. It's fairly tone deaf to tell me how amazing the progress in my neighborhood is when it's been since last November when I signed up and it's just now past the 50% mark.

I understand Berkley city permitting is a pain, but honestly, even if things are going great on your end, opening an email every month that has no information and little progress just further makes me question whether I'll ever get the service I signed up for.

/end rant.

I hear you; I just wanted to note that they started sending these monthly emails because of complaints here when they stopped (IIRC because permitting caused their projections to become unmeetable).

And at least now instead of % in your neighborhood they say % in your area.

Now that the permit logjam has broken, they could probably give projections again with non-zero reliability, so maybe your post will prompt them to jump back into projections?

I guess it could be worse. A couple months a tech upgrade I was waiting for came out that was years overdue, with absolutely zero mention that it would ever even come.

[coyote2]

I know how eager y'all are, so if like me you have a landlord...

21 days ago I got the golden email and immediately scheduled my install (for tomorrow August 8). Four days later some Sonic reps just dropped by to look at the property since it's a Multi-Resident building and let me know to call Sonic to arrange landlord approval. (And gave me very helpful ideas to present to my landlord.)

When I called Sonic cancelled my apt. but promised to "expedite" a new one when I got approval. Which took just 4 days...but by then because their schedule had filled up and because I needed a morning apt. my install date is still 22 days away instead of tomorrow.

So, if you have a landlord, when the date for your magic email gets close if you can get approval from your landlord in advance you could avoid a delay like mine.

Oh, and the messages around the "approval" mechanism were mixed. At first "Dispatch" said they needed to talk to him; but when I got landlord approval and called and offered his number to the other, MRU unit, they accepted my word (which makes sense, as they said I am after all responsible to my landlord for this).

In addition to letting Sonic know my landlord approved, I let Sonic know my landlord delegated to me responsibility for making sure the install was done exactly as he wanted. But they didn't tell me that pre-installs (where they run and test a line from the poll just to the building) are unscheduled; the pre-installers didn't notice the notes about my need to make sure it met my landlord's wishes, but luckily I happened to be there and notice them and the pre-installer's preferences turned out to be more what my landlord wanted even than what the Sonic reps who dropped by 3 weeks before said would work.