This is not going to be a rant against Sonic. Rather it's mainly about AT&T. But I've been a Sonic customer for many years, I'm just about ready to cancel service, and I thought it would be worth posting a couple of thoughts before I go. If I could go ramble about this on AT&T's forum, I imagine that it would fall on deaf ears anyway over there.
I started ADSL service with AT&T way back in the day when it was the hottest new thing around. Eventually I switched over to Sonic because the price was (briefly) lower and the terms were better. I still like Sonic's terms of service, and would much prefer that rather than the terms offered by the major ISPs. However, after a couple of standard speed upgrades early on, I finally ended up at 6mb down & 1.5mb up. And that's where it has stayed for about a decade (or more?).
I understand that this comes down to AT&T. They stopped marketing ADSL. Cable internet speed eventually surpassed it and left it in the dust. Year after year, I checked both Sonic and AT&T's availability pages to see if they were offering anything better. But nope. I was never offered anything better. And then they stopped offering anything at all, as the relative value of my existing service went into an endless nosedive.
My suburban block (in Solano County) is bordered on one side by a creek and on another side by a 4 lane highway. As a last ditch effort, I searched a bunch of nearby addresses in the AT&T service availability tool. On the other side of the creek and the other side of the highway, AT&T offers speeds between 50mb down and 100mb down. To my address and anyone else on my street, no offer. I found the form on AT&T's website to have them investigate their database and see whether there's a mistake regarding service availability. After several days, the reply came. Still no offer.
The only other wired option I have (that isn't repackaged AT&T ADSL) is Comcast. I've always been loathe to go back to them after some very bad experiences with their customer service many years ago. I've held out as long as I can bear. But with the lack of speed improvements, AT&T apparently redlining my street, the service interruptions growing more frequent in recent years, and the looming sense that AT&T intends to let their copper & DSLAMs rot and break down sooner rather than later... unfortunately I think it's time to get off of the sinking ship.
I started ADSL service with AT&T way back in the day when it was the hottest new thing around. Eventually I switched over to Sonic because the price was (briefly) lower and the terms were better. I still like Sonic's terms of service, and would much prefer that rather than the terms offered by the major ISPs. However, after a couple of standard speed upgrades early on, I finally ended up at 6mb down & 1.5mb up. And that's where it has stayed for about a decade (or more?).
I understand that this comes down to AT&T. They stopped marketing ADSL. Cable internet speed eventually surpassed it and left it in the dust. Year after year, I checked both Sonic and AT&T's availability pages to see if they were offering anything better. But nope. I was never offered anything better. And then they stopped offering anything at all, as the relative value of my existing service went into an endless nosedive.
My suburban block (in Solano County) is bordered on one side by a creek and on another side by a 4 lane highway. As a last ditch effort, I searched a bunch of nearby addresses in the AT&T service availability tool. On the other side of the creek and the other side of the highway, AT&T offers speeds between 50mb down and 100mb down. To my address and anyone else on my street, no offer. I found the form on AT&T's website to have them investigate their database and see whether there's a mistake regarding service availability. After several days, the reply came. Still no offer.
The only other wired option I have (that isn't repackaged AT&T ADSL) is Comcast. I've always been loathe to go back to them after some very bad experiences with their customer service many years ago. I've held out as long as I can bear. But with the lack of speed improvements, AT&T apparently redlining my street, the service interruptions growing more frequent in recent years, and the looming sense that AT&T intends to let their copper & DSLAMs rot and break down sooner rather than later... unfortunately I think it's time to get off of the sinking ship.
