Gigabit Berkeley

[alxyang24]

Just wanted to thank the two engineers (Nate and ... unfortunately I forget the second person's name - sorry) who did my install on Thursday. Yes - Thanksgiving! They arrived at my place at 2pm and had me all up and running by around 5pm. The various Sonic boxes are installed in my basement where Nate's cabling quality far exceeds anything I've done down there. For those interested the final setup look like this:
IMG_0995.jpeg
The external fiber cable (black on the left) goes into the grey box where, after being looped round a bunch of times, is terminated and attached to the short white cable. This leaves the grey box and plugs into the ONT (the white modem looking box). This is the small business ONT box which supports 2G down, 1G up, and two POTS lines.

I'm not *quite* there yet - I'm only running at 1G/1G and my phone number hasn't transferred over; and while Nate would gladly have stayed to sort this configuration out for me, this all seems like stuff I can work though with Sonic's technical support next week over the phone. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving people.

Looks great!

Just Curious, is it only one fiber cable going from the grey box to the ONT? Interesting that the 1(?) strand fiber can handle 2G down and 1 up which may suggest its its just a limitation of the ONT rather than the fiber cable. I thought it would be 2 fiber lines running to the ONT. Is the ONT included in the price you are paying? Is it an Adtran as well?

[aanon4]

Just Curious, is it only one fiber cable going from the grey box to the ONT? Interesting that the 1(?) strand fiber can handle 2G down and 1 up which may suggest its its just a limitation of the ONT rather than the fiber cable. I thought it would be 2 fiber lines running to the ONT. Is the ONT included in the price you are paying? Is it an Adtran as well?

Yes, there's just one fiber coming into the house. A single fiber has 2.4G down and 1.2G up (I assume that's without protocol overhead). As for the ONT, yes it's included, and I think it's Adtran because @dane has mention them in this context before. However, it's screwed rather securely to the wall and I don't want to pull it off to check. Cost is 2x the 1G/1G service.

[dane]

I'm in the same neighborhood and feel the same way! Never got a notification that my neighborhood wouldn't hit the October deadline and also don't have any idea when my expected preorder delivery date will be.

I'm still excited for fiber but also have a hard time recommending Sonic right now. Also thought it was funny that the only latest email I got from Sonic was about referring friends!

Are you a current customer, or have you pre-ordered?

[babazaroni]

I am interested in the fiber service for Berkeley.

Will we have to rent the fiber modem and how much? Is the cost in addition to the $40/month?

[cmeisel]

My biggest fear really is that sonic arrive in our neighborhood and realize the poles are now pretty full since ATT used by another space with their fiber. I would expect that sonic at this point is 100% confident and sure that the poles can take another cable, has all permit's for it and will deliver fiber as promised by Feb 26th or earlier based on that.
But three to 4 poles here (including the one in front of my house) looks really, really cramped.

[wbagby]

Hey Dane; been a Sonic customer for two years now and I love it!

I live on Russel Street in Berkeley, and I was hoping for an updated timelime maybe on the Fiber installation? I really don't mean to be a bother.

Also, I'm a preorder customer and I've never received any email updates, even though I've been preordered since 2017.

Thanks for any information you can provide; I appreciate it!

[dane]

Hey Dane; been a Sonic customer for two years now and I love it!

I live on Russel Street in Berkeley, and I was hoping for an updated timelime maybe on the Fiber installation? I really don't mean to be a bother.

Also, I'm a preorder customer and I've never received any email updates, even though I've been preordered since 2017.

Thanks for any information you can provide; I appreciate it!

You shouldn't be both a current customer AND have a pre-order placed: that'll result in having two Sonic accounts, and a bit of a mess. Current customers get notification as soon as their fiber distribution area goes live, with an invitation to Member Tools to schedule your migration to the new fiber network.

We've been burned by our estimates on timelines by a variety of factors that we don't have complete control over, so we're generally not providing estimates at this time. We are building just as fast as we can!

[rb20]

I'm in the same neighborhood and feel the same way! Never got a notification that my neighborhood wouldn't hit the October deadline and also don't have any idea when my expected preorder delivery date will be.

I'm still excited for fiber but also have a hard time recommending Sonic right now. Also thought it was funny that the only latest email I got from Sonic was about referring friends!

A third person in this area who is wondering when it will be online.

[coyote2]

We've been burned by our estimates on timelines by a variety of factors that we don't have complete control over, so we're generally not providing estimates at this time. We are building just as fast as we can!

That's totally fair.

And, for the same reason I admit I didn't read this huge thread before posting, I get that responding to it must be a challenge (so I understand why my "Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:17 pm" post didn't get a reply).

I really really want Sonic to thrive. Why not let people (Preorders like me included) know where things stand, not just people who come to this thread/forum, but all of them. I didn't hear a word until November about my October Preorder being missed. And beyond that it was mute; why not instead say that "we're generally not providing estimates at this time" stuff.

And maybe every month send a short email saying where the install-lines are now. I know whenever I drive around Albany/Berkeley, it thrills and encourages me to see where the Sonic trucks are swarming to bring Gigabit fibre to us thirsty people.

Honestly I couldn't be happier that it will happen; I've lobbied my City Council/Mayor for this competition for the evil Comcast for decades.

[aanon4]

I'm not *quite* there yet - I'm only running at 1G/1G and my phone number hasn't transferred over; and while Nate would gladly have stayed to sort this configuration out for me, this all seems like stuff I can work though with Sonic's technical support next week over the phone. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving people.

So, just wanted to close this out. After a few days of mucking about and Sonic doing internal paperwork, I finally have my full service up and running. Here's the results:

Screen Shot 2018-11-28 at 11.08.18 AM.png (62.3 KiB) Viewed 3031 times

Obviously I'm *very* happy. If anyone else on here goes the 2G/1G path please be aware that about two thirds of people at Sonic I spoke to, both in sales and in technical support, claim they don't sell this option; but obviously they do. I have some sympathy though, as this is clearly overkill for most individuals.

Meanwhile, Sonic installers continues to swarm my block; at least three drop crews doing multiple installs in the last week and you can't walk outside without falling over a Sonic van. Watching people flee Comcast warms the heart.