Fiber!

[santarosaguy]

Dane-
I think it's great that I have seen a local "project" grow into a going concern and now a large company that is expanding it's footprint across the land, but what about Santa Rosa...??? We are not that far out from you, but cannot even get Fusion (nevermind Fiber) and with the annexation of Roseland coming soon and the burial of utilities as Stony Point is widened all the way down to Hearn Ave., I have to ask; What about Santa Rosa??? What about your home? I live just south of Giffen Ave., and I expect that means that not only should I never expect to be offered reliable Fusion service above 3Mbps it also means that we won't EVER be getting Fiber - You have people on here asking about Fiber in San Jose and the City; What about Santa Rosa???

[dane]

I'm not sure I want to know the answer, but where does Fremont rank?

I anticipate that we'll release per-city rankings in a few months.

[ark]

It would be nice to get Sonic.net Fiber in Palo Alto. Palo Alto responded to the Google Fiber Consideration Process. See http://cityofpaloalto.org/news/displayn ... rgetID=268 with the details sent to Google all made public at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/disp ... rgetID=268.

There's a review of Silicon Valley cities and their responses to Google at http://www.tellusventure.com/blog/silic ... gle-fiber/.

So I would guess since Palo Alto is under consideration by Google currently, that would mean that Palo Alto is less interesting to Sonic.net for installing Fiber. However, if Google does not choose Palo Alto, then the City's interest in Fiber, and the data that it published, should make Palo Alto much more of interest for Sonic.net to install Fiber to the Premises. Is that an accurate assessment, Dane?

[dane]

Palo Alto is an interesting case. While they've got a backbone ring, they don't have any distribution infrastructure to homes. I had assumed they did - they are a municipal electric utility - but the communications space on the poles is owned by AT&T, so Palo Alto has no advantage there as compared to typical communities.

Kansas City KS and Austin TX on the other hand do own their utility poles, so that gave them a good head start in attracting a Gigabit fiber solution.

[bobrk]

For me, I'm hanging around with my Sonic legacy DSL until either Sonic or Google shows up with fiber at my downtown San Jose house.

[wa2ibm]

Well Bob, at least in the older areas of downtown San Jose, your utilities are overhead, which improves the possibility of getting fiber. In the newer areas, where I am, it's all underground. So much for me.

[ben]

So the fact that an area is (primarily) served by utility poles can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who owns the poles? Who owns the poles in Santa Rosa and is that a good thing or a bad thing? What are the chances Bennett Valley will see fiber within the next 5 years?

[dane]

So the fact that an area is (primarily) served by utility poles can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who owns the poles? Who owns the poles in Santa Rosa and is that a good thing or a bad thing? What are the chances Bennett Valley will see fiber within the next 5 years?

Utility poles in Santa Rosa (and most other Bay Area cities) are jointly owned by PG&E (the top portion) and AT&T (the bottom portion). That's not good or bad, it's just typical.

As for the chances Bennett Valley (or any other neighborhood) will be built with Fiber by Sonic, that depends primarily on take rate in the neighborhood. We'll be focusing on our areas of highest uptake, because with fixed construction costs to pass all homes, how many of them subscribe is the primary driver of feasibility. We will be releasing a lot more on this topic, as well as area rankings, in the next few months.

[bobrk]

I can't imagine it would be a tough sell to get people to try something other than ATT or comcast down here in San Jose. With your Sonic sponsorship at the Shark Tank, it doesn't seem like it would take much more to get you guys more popular.

[thulsa_doom]

I can't imagine it would be a tough sell to get people to try something other than ATT or comcast down here in San Jose. With your Sonic sponsorship at the Shark Tank, it doesn't seem like it would take much more to get you guys more popular.

Right now might not be the best time to hitch yourself to the Sharks brand name. Maybe next season.