Sonic.net

The latest, and most scary challenge we’ve encountered in our construction occurred today: a utility bucket truck was stolen, with the technician up in the bucket!

This was a contractor working for Sonic on the fiber network construction, in the area just North of University Village in Albany.

From our team:

While a contractor’s employee was up in a bucket truck working on the overhead lines, someone carjacked the truck and sped off with the person up in the bucket. Many overhead utility lines were hit and are down, as well as trees, signage etc. The chase reportedly extended for as much as two miles. The contractor who was in the bucket was taken to the hospital due to injuries from being drug through overhead utility lines and trees.

Update:
The employee who was in the bucket was released from the hospital after receiving stitches. Overall injuries were thankfully relatively minor. He dropped to the bottom of the bucket after the first impact.

The guy that stole the truck was caught when trying to carjack a second vehicle. He was running from police, reportedly after committing thefts at the nearby Target.
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If anyone in the area finds any videos of this incident, please pass them on to us!

-Dane

Is there any update about fiber in south Berkeley? I called the sales department and left my phone number and email after they told me they would contact me within a week. It has been a month and I have yet to receive any updates or information about fiber in my area.

That is very scary, Dane! Some of those buckets can extend pretty far up - it's a miracle that the arm didn't snap off or the truck didn't flip over. I hope that contractor gets well soon. It seems like theft has been going up in the last few years.


In other happier news, I saw construction signage on Fulton between Bancroft and Durant stating that Sonic was going to do construction on a fiber conduit next week.

moogra wrote:In other happier news, I saw construction signage on Fulton between Bancroft and Durant stating that Sonic was going to do construction on a fiber conduit next week.

Saw 5 high-viz jacketed Sonic folk digging there on Friday, so I guess they already started.

FDA 30 just went live!

FDA 30: Marin Ave from Del Norte St to Santa Barbara Rd. San Benito Rd from Marin Ave to Spruce St. Spruce St and Oxford St from Marin Ave to Eunice St. Arch St. Shattuck Ave from Marin Ave to Los Angeles Ave.

dane wrote:FDA 30 just went live!

FDA 30: Marin Ave from Del Norte St to Santa Barbara Rd. San Benito Rd from Marin Ave to Spruce St. Spruce St and Oxford St from Marin Ave to Eunice St. Arch St. Shattuck Ave from Marin Ave to Los Angeles Ave.

Woo hoo!

Well today in "weird' Sonic ...

I ordered my fiber line via the members' tool this morning, scheduled the install, and it all went well. A little later I called Sonic sales because I wanted to bump the order to a business service - I work from home and it would be useful to have some more bandwidth. However I was told that Sonic will not sell me business service because it's not a business address. There was no other reasons given.

So ... instead ... they let me order two fiber installs which, according to my math, will cost me the same as the business service but involve installing two ONTs and running to cables to the house rather than one. I'm not sure why this is better from Sonic's perspective, but I thought I'd mention it here. From my perspective, assuming the two runs to my house are tapped off two different fibers in the street, then I should get more bandwidth out of the house than with the business service. Worst case it's the same.

Anyway, I'm quite happy this worked out, but it's a bit odd if you ask me.

@aanon4, yes, that makes no sense. Just select “small business” on the address entry form and you’ll be presented the SOHO 2Gbps service that you can order.

FDA 34A just went live!

FDA 34A: Euclid Ave from Cragmont Blvd to Grizzly Peak Blvd. Poplar St from Rock Ln to Hilldale Ave.

dane wrote:@aanon4, yes, that makes no sense. Just select “small business” on the address entry form and you’ll be presented the SOHO 2Gbps service that you can order.

Well I did the upgrade via the member tool and I was never offered the small business option there. And as I noted in my original message, they wouldn't let me upgrade the service after the fact because I'm not allowed to have business service. If you have a specific person I could talk to about it please let me know.

Thanks