Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[Guest]

Like you, we feel that the practice of our industry peers of burying price change notifications on page three or four of a PDF which you're probably not going to open is bullshit. Recently I saw another large carrier notice in the second paragraph of a "News you can use" section on the back page of the bill! It is notable in particular that our invoice is plain text, and that the notification is "above the fold", resulting in plain text which shows immediately upon highlighting or viewing the message in your email client. We have made a number of price increases via similar invoice notification, and haven't heard significant complaint from members about them being unaware of the price change.

[/quote]

So, rather than announcing the rate increase in "a PDF which you're probably not going to open," you placed it in a monthly invoice email, which few people probably open... which may well explain why you haven't heard significant complaints. The rate increase should have been announced in an email titled "Sonic rate increase."

BTW, emails do not fold.

Don't misunderstand... I have been, and (tentatively) remain a supporter and recommender of Sonic. But whenever I see this type of obscuration/obfuscation, it makes me think that either Sonic is descending the slippery Comcast-playbook slope, or Dane is training to become a politician.

And more importantly...

WHEN DID IT BECOME A REASONABLE THING TO CHARGE EVERYONE THE SAME AMOUNT REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY"RE BUYING? Getting Gigabit? Have we got a deal for you! Stuck (possibly for ever) on 2mb decaying copper? Sorry about that!

We're all very supportive of seeing Sonic spread fiber far and wide. But realistically, many subscribers will not see fiber any time soon, if ever. And forcing have-nots to fund "haves" is one of the reasons that many folks despise big business.

EVERYONE else, including all the bad guys, at least charge based on tiers or service levels. Please rethink this "one price fits all" strategy. Something like: Gigabit - $55, FTTN - $50, Copper - $40 would be much more palatable.

[reynaldocs]

The problem I personally have with this price increase is that I am already paying a lot for slow speeds. I'm already paying a premium to try and support a local ISP instead of Comcast. I currently get 15mbps. The only way to go faster is either fusionx2 for maybe 30mbps or switch to Comcast. Not even AT&T deploys u-verse/FTTN in my neighborhood, so the odds of Sonic's fiber rollout ever hitting my neighborhood is realistically zero. If it wasn't profitable for AT&T to do FTTN here, I can't see any reason why sonic would even consider FTTH considering sonic's more limited funding. We already struggle streaming video online with more than one or two people. As much as I want to continue supporting Sonic, the low speeds plus the price increase make that justification really difficult. Currently, my connection doesn't even qualify as broadband according to the FCC. As much as I hate comcast, this price increase with no potential for increased speeds in the future may just force me to switch.

I've located your account and believe that we may be able to get you more speed on VDSL. I see that you made the upgrade in August of last year, but that the caps on the line weren't raised as much as they could've been, and after running some diagnostics the existing line should be able to achieve speeds closer to the 25-30 Mbps range. If you would like for me to make these changes please feel free to send me a direct message with a date/time when I can do so (I've refrained from doing so now as it will bring down your connection for a few minutes.)

[pockyken007]

And forcing have-nots to fund "haves" is one of the reasons that many folks despise big business.

So haves should fund have-nots ?

[[email protected]]

Jesper (CEO),

I do have a problem with your business decision to increase $10 for everyone. Do you think it is fair for people, who have Fiber, paying the same price that people, who do not have Fiber, pay too.

Can you also discuss what will happen with $10 that you get from everyone? Do you have accounting to show how this will be used, etc?

What is the timeline for rolling out Fiber to customers esp the ones in SF. I am afraid that i will dish out more $ without using Fiber and then something new comes up and I end up losing to people who have been on Fiber.

Vadim

[mark.a.craig]

So we could stop, but doing so would give up on the mission our whole company and team is focused on: to build a faster, friendlier, more private and better Internet connection for Sonic members, an alternative to duopoly cable/telco, an unlimited service, and a compelling value. Fast access to the Internet shouldn't just be available from the cable company - you deserve a better alternative.

Sonic.net is not a non-profit entity, is it? No prosaic selection of words can erase that fact. If the principals of Sonic.net, including yourself, were truly interested in egalitarian internet service, then why haven't you been pitching the acquisition of Sonic.net as some city's or county's municipal broadband, or better yet pitch that approach for your career in the first place? I don't trust the words of people who say one thing and do another.

In any form of business transaction, there is supposed to be an exchange of value; ideally the exchange of value should always be roughly equal, to prevent concentration of wealth and the sickening oligarchies we have seen forming in our society. As someone who will never be able to benefit from Sonic service over wires owned by Sonic.net (much less publicly owned, the true form of network neutrality), here you are asking me to pay $10 more every month for already substantially inferior service, and yet offering me nothing at all in exchange for the extra demand? How very very egalitarian of you.

[vadimsf]

Agree with this 100000%

[/quote]".... here you are asking me to pay $10 more every month for already substantially inferior service, and yet offering me nothing at all in exchange for the extra demand? How very very egalitarian of you.[/quote]

[vadimsf]

What is your turnaround to respond to my email, Dane?

[mpedroia]

The North Bay Business Journal "Book of Lists" has a profile of Sonic and reports that they have 20,000 customers. If you removed 25% of the customers who may have Legacy DSL, dial-up or fiber, you could have 15,000 customers affected by this price adjustment. This would generate an additional 1.8 million dollars annually. I can only hope that this additional revenue does something to improve service for those of us who are stuck with 4 mbs Fusion. When I upgraded to Fusion, I was achieving over 7 mbs, this has eroded for unknown reasons to 4 mbs....nothing has changed on my end....including the cost of the lesser performing broadband.

[mpedroia]

Oops, fine print note, they (North Bay Business Journal) estimates 20,000 "North Bay" customers however 53,000 overall so...I revise my revenue estimate to 4.77 million annually. Wow, we may never know but that is a gigantic number.

[vadimsf]

Dane Jesper, I am waiting for your response to this. In addition this seems to reflect the Trump culture (haves and havenots). Is Sonic trying to become like a Trump empire?

What is your turnaround to respond to those simple emails, or are you overwhelmed with responses that seem to invalidate your points and have exposed your scheme on giving more service to haves and denying services from havenots?

Jesper (CEO),

I do have a problem with your business decision to increase $10 for everyone. Do you think it is fair for people, who have Fiber, paying the same price that people, who do not have Fiber, pay too.

Can you also discuss what will happen with $10 that you get from everyone? Do you have accounting to show how this will be used, etc?

What is the timeline for rolling out Fiber to customers esp the ones in SF. I am afraid that i will dish out more $ without using Fiber and then something new comes up and I end up losing to people who have been on Fiber.

Vadim