Fusion without phone

[Montgomery]

No. Fusion is an all-in-one product. By offering it that way, Sonic is able to offer a lower price since they don't have to have the administrative overhead of splitting out the features.

When Fusion was first available, it was available without dial tone (voice service). But that led to issues as well when AT&T techs would run down a bank of lines and find a pair without dial tome, they'd presume it wasn't used and go ahead and use it for something else, leading to an outage for the Fusion customer.

Simplification is the word of the day.

Stipulated: the list price for Fusion, with mandatory dialtone, is actually lower than standalone used to be.

That said, I dispute your statement that Sonic is yielding us a lower price by forcing us to accept dialtone, through administrative streamlining. Dane has offered us a litany of excuses, some less unbelievable than others, but I don't believe he ever conjoined simplified product line/mandatory dialtone with the ability to lower prices.

Rather, he has stated it was based on ease of support, and marketing. I can understand the desire, having dealt with Sonic CS/support - the best in the world, and yet, they still get confused, often. I can understand the need to have a price-point you can plaster on a postcard.

But it pains me to see Sonic adopting incumbent-like practices, including hiding real prices behind asterisks and fine print - disclaiming below-the-line taxes, placing the customer in inside-wire-maintenance-land-limbo, non-optionally "renting" modems, and in the end, shrugging, and exclaiming "B-but all the other [big] boys do it!".

We still subscribe, and pay the premium rate, because we can, but I really resent paying an extra $150 a year in unnecessary taxes (a drop in the bucket compared to the other new and higher taxes we're hit with this year, but I digress), on principle.

Hopefully, the bigger picture will start to come into focus o'er the coming year or two, and we can look forward to 100M FTTH for a Fusion price, from any number of vendors, but primed by Sonic's disruptive initiative, at which time, my grumblings will diminish.

[fakeout]

Have you not plugged in a phone because you don't own one? We are considering including a basic reliable telephone as part of the hardware kit, so that's the reason I'm asking.

I have a phone, dug it out of a box in the garage.

[shpping4ISP]

Bundled service, mandatory modem rental... Sonic is becoming like other ISPs?

[dgatwood]

I came here to ask the same thing. In my case, I'd like to add ADSL2+ service from some company on my second pair in parallel with my existing service. Paying additional taxes and fees for a second dial tone at my house doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, so I guess I'll continue looking for other options.

[barry leonard]

I am trying to cut my overhead since I am on social security and have a limited budget. I have heard that Sonic is a fine company, but I don't think that I will take it on due to the practise of kiting the costs. Why should I have tgo pay for something that I don't intend to use.

Barry Leonard

[Hopeful]

Sonic is free to offer whatever product they want, at whatever price they want. Take up your beef about taxes with your elected representatives: landlines are taxed because long ago everyone had to have a landline... but now those taxes are merely hastening the demise of that service (and destroying associated jobs).

I too am puzzled that Sonic doesn't offer a "Fission" product. I don't use a landline. I'd pay up to $50/month (including equipment costs) for the 20Mbps broadband Sonic would probably provide. I think broadband-only could be more profitable for them than the Fusion product - easier to provision and configure, easier to bill - but it's their business. In another thread they said a problem is that their techs need dial tone, but ATT puts dial tone on its "dry loops"...

Fortunately we have a number of competitive choices. Shop around for the best deal for you. I'll keep checking in a couple of times a year in hope that Sonic will enhance its offering by dropping analog voice service.

[Guest]

i happen to love having a copper line. 5-9's reliability and crystal clear calls. you'll be prying it out of my dead hands.

[virtualmike]

i happen to love having a copper line.

+1

[Joseph Ballin]

So this week I was notified by Comcast that my bill would be going from $39.99/mo for 3MBPS service to $64.99/mo.
Naturally, my blood pressure spiked and my urge to ditch Comcast was strong (enough to seriously consider weighing the ramifications/consequences of just straight up stealing internet access). What I was paying was already ridiculous, but to have that increase by 50% on top of that is just insulting.

I start looking up other ISPs, and I hear about Sonic. I hear great things, but I'm someone who works in the tech field, so I hear marketing BS all the time, so I take my time and do some research. Thanks to this thread, I am realizing that switching to Fusion will actually end up saving me nothing, as the associated costs of a needless land line and additional fees actually bring the final bill to around $60/mo, which is closer to the thankless sodomy that I'm receiving form Comcast.

Sonic (or that Dane guy, whoever):
You're missing out on an opportunity. If you actually just charged $39.99 a month, without all the hidden fees and other crap, Comcast's move would have people flocking to you in droves. You're a smaller organization, so people actually look to you for refuge from larger businesses. You have the chance to stand out and become a beacon of hope, much like how Google Fiber is starting to become. You could take a note or two from their page, and use that to your advantage, offering a better service at lower prices.

But instead, you are acting exactly like Comcast, pulling the same kind of back-handed crap that the other telecommunications companies do. From an outside customer's perspective, you're not as quick, capable, or professional as Comcast, but you'll apply fees and forced additional charges as though you're the accidental lovechild of AT&T and Comcast's marketing team's after a week of binge drinking. Sadly, the very fact that you're still relying on AT&T technicians holds to this analogy, as it's like you're still holding mommy's hand.

In an economy where people are now aware that Koreans get 200x the internet speed at half the price, there is just no feasible way for you to maintain your business model for long. Once Google Fiber (and similar startup companies) start cropping up, I'll be ditching Comcast immediately. I'm sure many of your customers will do the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ilMx7k7mso

[vanman]

I am a very long time Comcast customer, ( the service has gone thru several name changes) and you cannot even begin to compare the quality of service and support. There is no way I would put either my internet much less my phone service in Comcasts hands!!!!!! The $64 is much less than I was paying for phone and poor DSL before the switch to Sonic. I am also one who believes in copper for a phone, my cell is handy ?( try to find a pay phone nowadays) but with 3 cordless and 1 ancient Ma Bell in the home it's also so convient.
BTW my monthly Comcast bill is real close to $200, thats TV only no Pay-view no porn and goes up regulary every year with NO improvement in service quality.