Question about upcoming Bonding and Uverse Plans

[Guest]

For those of us with decent existing firewall/router equipment, can the leased equipment be used simply as a bridge without wifi?

No, it would not be a true bridge mode because for VDSL2 you need to authenticate using the certificate embedded within the CPE's firmware. There are provisions for handing the packets to 3rd-party equipment: DMZ+ and IP passthrough are what you want to search for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Uv ... _equipment If their CPE all behave similarly, you can access the modem from within the LAN and disable the device's wireless interface.

One other thing about AT&T's U-verse infrastructure is they have commandeered net 10 for the LAN portion of their devices. This happened maybe 1 or 2 years back but I haven't been following up on it. https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r27 ... k-address-

[darrylo]

One other thing about AT&T's U-verse infrastructure is they have commandeered net 10 for the LAN portion of their devices.

Lovely. I'd forgotten about that. Fortunately, I've been using 192.168.123/24, and so I can avoid part of the pain.

Yay for double NAT.

Thanks.

[Guest]

I don't think they're doing carrier grade NAT yet. My relative's work subscribed to U-verse maybe 8 months back and they still have a real public IP on their WAN interface. It probably allows them to do so in the future and this is one of the reasons why I would have preferred Sonic's FTTN product will have a Sonic IP rather than using a VPN.

I wonder if today's RT ADSL1 infrastructure is already using VPNs but it's just transparent to their subscribers. My guess is if it is served by the CO Sonic has much more control so they won't have to encapsulate the data stream.

[cantuoye]

Well, I'm hopeful we'll be taking orders and delivering service prior to 3/23, but I can't guarantee that at this point without potentially putting you in a bind. There might be a few weeks of time where you'd have to pay them an out-of-term rate if you wait for Sonic's service.

So that you understand the offering, it's limited to residential locations, and will deliver up to 18Mbps and a VoIP phone line with nationwide calling, for $40/mo, or up to 45Mbps and a VoIP line for $60/mo. Taxes and fees for the VoIP service will apply, as does an equipment fee of $6.50/mo for the slower service, or $9.50 for the faster one. Hopefully that gives you enough data to make an informed decision.

Dane,

I am disappointed that Sonic won't be allowing their customers to purchase their own VDSL2 modem, but it sounds like that is AT&T's fault.

Will you please consider offering VDSL2 without VoIP service? I know Sonic is able to offer ADSL2+ service without VoIP service, so I don't see why Sonic couldn't do the same for VDSL2.

I understand that VoIP may be appealing to many of your customers. However, there are plenty of us that have no need for phone service, nor do we have any interest in paying the associated taxes and fees. I haven't had phone service for nearly 7 years, and I certainly don't need it now.

When VDSL2 is officially announced, I hope VoIP service will optional rather than a mandatory.

[agav]

As with Fusion, Sonic does not offer equipment for sale, we support the equipment as part of our complete service. This allows us to take end-to-end responsibility for service delivery, from WiFi on the couch to the premise wiring and all of the equipment that makes up the service.

I am very happy with that trade-off. Maybe I am the only one here.

But you might not realize that you also get full install service with the rental fee. I like to tinker myself, but I have no interest/time to run a new wire through our apt building to our apt. And that is just what Dane's team did for us when I moved in. Super knowledgeable guy too.

At the end of the day, the difference is the price of a gallon of milk in SF plus change, so I'd rather have Sonic rent the equipment and make sure things work well.

[m2m3]

As with Fusion, Sonic does not offer equipment for sale, we support the equipment as part of our complete service. This allows us to take end-to-end responsibility for service delivery, from WiFi on the couch to the premise wiring and all of the equipment that makes up the service.

I am very happy with that trade-off. Maybe I am the only one here.

But you might not realize that you also get full install service with the rental fee. I like to tinker myself, but I have no interest/time to run a new wire through our apt building to our apt. And that is just what Dane's team did for us when I moved in. Super knowledgeable guy too.

At the end of the day, the difference is the price of a gallon of milk in SF plus change, so I'd rather have Sonic rent the equipment and make sure things work well.

I feel the same way. I am willing to pay $6.50 monthly for essentially insurance against modem, phone and wiring problems in lieu of paying $150 for a single service call. I do recall that when I was getting POTS from ATT, they charged something like $5/month for inside wiring plan.

[Guest]

I'm really not a fan of VoIP and if it's mandatory it makes the whole Sonic Uverse product unattractive. The concerns I have about VoIP are at least these: 911; unavailable during extended power outages; unavailable when your internet service is down (how are you supposed to report a service outage?);

... do you not own a cellphone?

[darrylo]

... do you not own a cellphone?

In disaster situations, the cellphone network is often overloaded (assuming that the towers have decent power backup, and that's not guaranteed). POTS is often more accessible.

Example: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconside ... eliability

(Ignoring destroyed towers, one big issue is that the towers may only have a few hours of battery backup. In a multi-day power outage, that's a problem.)

[hhwong]

I am very happy with that trade-off. Maybe I am the only one here.

But you might not realize that you also get full install service with the rental fee. I like to tinker myself, but I have no interest/time to run a new wire through our apt building to our apt. And that is just what Dane's team did for us when I moved in. Super knowledgeable guy too.

At the end of the day, the difference is the price of a gallon of milk in SF plus change, so I'd rather have Sonic rent the equipment and make sure things work well.

I feel the same way. I am willing to pay $6.50 monthly for essentially insurance against modem, phone and wiring problems in lieu of paying $150 for a single service call. I do recall that when I was getting POTS from ATT, they charged something like $5/month for inside wiring plan.

Maybe what Sonic should do is get away from itemizing this fee in marketing and just say that it's 46.50 and 69.50 per month.

[jnurthen]

So the FTTN plans will be 18 or 45 Down.

What will be the upstream speeds? I'm very close to a node (<500 ft) so should be able to get whatever the maximum speed is.