Sonic.net

Any idea on when to tell when Uverse is coming to an area? And by Uverse I mean FTTN type boxes that offer greater speeds, not their ADSL rebranded as "Uverse". I know they've been stalled in SF, however I noticed an odd(ish) looking street box about 8 blocks away, it was shorter than traditional phone boxes, but a bit wider and had a power meter attached to it and was thinking Uverse (the real one) is actually coming to the area, however checking online I still see 6Mbps as the maximum speed, and even when I enter the address of the house right infront of the box (incase it's a distance issue) still see 6Mbps as the fastest speed available.

It really is difficult sitting hear when I hear "just wait, good stuff is coming soon" when I know the "good stuff" (i.e. me not having to pay extra for bonding to get a 10Mbps connection, that's total not additional) isn't even available here yet. I mean I know there's big city red tape but this is San Francisco damnit, my only option for actual broadband internet (as hopefully defined by the FCC soon) should not be Comcast.

Yes, the shorter box with the power meter on the side is a VRAD terminal for FTTN. Although it may be installed, it usually takes some time for AT&T to get it fully tested and integrated into their ordering system. That's probably why you're still seeing the 6Mbps listing.

The same holds true for Sonic. Although they have made an arrangement with AT&T to provide service via that platform, it's taking a little time to integrate the service into their ordering system.

I just received an offer from AT&T for U-verse (that's their official hyphenation and capitalization, btw) and went to att.com/u-verse to check availability (well, maximum speed). Since I wanted to minimize cookies and sneaky marketing I used a private-browsing window, but that won't work on their page. So then, again to maintain some modicum of privacy, I typed in an address at the end of the block rather than my own. That showed the address as qualified for Internet and phone, but not TV, with the maximum speed of 6 Mbps, or something similarly slow. Meanwhile, a year-old VRAD is only two blocks away!

So then I bit the bullet and entered my own address, and now I was qualified for Internet, phone AND TV, with a maximum speed of 45 Mbps. My guess is that since I currently don't have AT&T service for anything, they are welcoming me with open arms, whereas perhaps my neighbor already has some form of AT&T service so they are getting a different story. I wouldn't put it past AT&T to play games like this.


(While I was checking service availability, I selected the 'build your own bundle' option and did just that. I clicked on every Internet, phone, and television option that I could find, plus other add-on service nonsense and extra devices, just to see how expensive it could get. By the time I was done I managed to create a bundle that cost over $800 per month. Then I closed the page. Dream on, AT&T...)

wa2ibm wrote:Yes, the shorter box with the power meter on the side is a VRAD terminal for FTTN. Although it may be installed, it usually takes some time for AT&T to get it fully tested and integrated into their ordering system. That's probably why you're still seeing the 6Mbps listing.

The same holds true for Sonic. Although they have made an arrangement with AT&T to provide service via that platform, it's taking a little time to integrate the service into their ordering system.

Thanks for the reply, any idea how far apart VRAD boxes typically are placed? Rather than me driving and and down the street looking for them, be nice if there was one closer to me, as I know similar limitations exist with distance and VDSL2.

Mike wrote:

wa2ibm wrote:Yes, the shorter box with the power meter on the side is a VRAD terminal for FTTN. Although it may be installed, it usually takes some time for AT&T to get it fully tested and integrated into their ordering system. That's probably why you're still seeing the 6Mbps listing.

The same holds true for Sonic. Although they have made an arrangement with AT&T to provide service via that platform, it's taking a little time to integrate the service into their ordering system.

Thanks for the reply, any idea how far apart VRAD boxes typically are placed? Rather than me driving and and down the street looking for them, be nice if there was one closer to me, as I know similar limitations exist with distance and VDSL2.

They're typically sited within 3,000 of the home. This results in a lot of boxes. One city we serve has two Central Office buildings, 53 "Pronto" ADSL1 remote terminals, and 150 "Lightspeed" FTTN VRADs. These are primarily in the suburbs, with the urban core served by the central offices alone.

With this deployment density, about 20% of premises can be served at 45Mbps, and 45% of premises can achieve 18Mbps or better. When paired with VDSL2 in the CO, it creates a compelling product and significant reach.

Curious, not sure if you can actually chime in on the issue. But is the city of Millbrae 94030 hard to work with? It seems like they have no interests in bringing "broadband" here.

Most of the city is stuck with low DSL speeds with the CO located on the opposite side of town on Magnolia/Millbrae Ave, near the border of another city (Burlingame 94010).

While the alternate route is Comcast holding a monopoly over the cable situation with Astound servicing every city surrounding Millbrae with the exception of San Bruno 94066 (but they have the San Bruno Cable Company).

I just did a search for 'VRAD San Francisco map' and this was the top hit:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mi ... =UTF&msa=0

That map is (currently) next to useless since there are so few entries, but this looks like just the kind of thing crowdsourcing is good for. Someone needs to really coordinate the effort, though.

For San Francisco, check here: http://bsmnt.sfdpw.org/surfacemountedfacilities/

dane wrote:For San Francisco...

It'd be so cool if DPW added a layer showing COs.

Maybe this will help:

SNFCCA01 555 Pine St, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
SNFCCA04 1 McCoppin St, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103
SNFCCA05 3333 25th St, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110
SNFCCA06 30 Onondaga St, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94112
SNFCCA12 2345 Pine St, 1st Floor, San Francisco, CA 94115
SNFCCA13 389 9th Ave, 1st Floor, San Francisco, CA 94118
SNFCCA14 1515 19th Ave, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94122
SNFCCA17 6150 3rd St, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94124
SNFCCA21 611 Folsom St, 1st Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107

Here that is as an image, with wire-center boundaries:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/37e6rt1djsan1 ... 0.png?dl=0