Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[mkld]

No one likes price increases.

However, this move is ultimately a matter of survival for Sonic.

NSAT&T has made clear its intention to abandon their responsibility to copper-based POTS (plain old telephone service) and DSL as soon as the government entities allow it to. With that will go a large portion of Sonic's business. Sonic either advances boldly in building fiber, or it dies in the foreseeable future. The great cost of laying fiber in many areas, especially rural, is not now and will not be affordable for Sonic or any other less-than-megacorp in my lifetime. That's not a matter of selfish choices, but economic and technical realities.

Comparing Dane Jasper to Donald Trump is about as idiotic as one can possibly get. While Jasper could have presented the price increase in a more palatable way - for example, not painting it as a direct benefit for those of us who will never see fiber to the home in our lifetimes - he is not an evil, greedy man.

No data caps, no artificial speed caps, no giddy voluntarism with the StasiNet (like both NSAT&T and Comcrap), and US-based - nay - SANTA ROSA-based - technical support, you just don't get that with the other "choices" (sic). If NSAT&T or Comcrap service works well for you, great, but wait until something goes wrong, and then you get to talk to someone reading from a script in India or somewhere other than America, who fails to understand that restarting your computer will not resync your data connection. I dealt with literally that just before I switched to Sonic.

[bitmaker]

I'm so happy that Sonic is available as an option. I feel the speed pinch too, and will be ecstatic when fiber makes it to my home. But there are no other options out there for someone who cares about being treated fairly, and have their privacy respected. IMO, that is worth the extra cost alone. Thanks, Sonic, keep up the good fight.

[blackmage]

No one likes price increases.

However, this move is ultimately a matter of survival for Sonic.

NSAT&T has made clear its intention to abandon their responsibility to copper-based POTS (plain old telephone service) and DSL as soon as the government entities allow it to. With that will go a large portion of Sonic's business. Sonic either advances boldly in building fiber, or it dies in the foreseeable future. The great cost of laying fiber in many areas, especially rural, is not now and will not be affordable for Sonic or any other less-than-megacorp in my lifetime. That's not a matter of selfish choices, but economic and technical realities.

Comparing Dane Jasper to Donald Trump is about as idiotic as one can possibly get. While Jasper could have presented the price increase in a more palatable way - for example, not painting it as a direct benefit for those of us who will never see fiber to the home in our lifetimes - he is not an evil, greedy man.

No data caps, no artificial speed caps, no giddy voluntarism with the StasiNet (like both NSAT&T and Comcrap), and US-based - nay - SANTA ROSA-based - technical support, you just don't get that with the other "choices" (sic). If NSAT&T or Comcrap service works well for you, great, but wait until something goes wrong, and then you get to talk to someone reading from a script in India or somewhere other than America, who fails to understand that restarting your computer will not resync your data connection. I dealt with literally that just before I switched to Sonic.

Oh, man. I remember Comcast support. I'd do all my own troubleshooting 2-3 times and then wait a couple days hoping it was just an outage. Only after all of that would I get fed up enough to call and deal with them.

[[email protected]]

That's quite a hefty increase. Oh well. And I have no interest in DISH. Cancelled it over a year ago because all those channels and nothing on. Gee... I think there was a tune about that...

[jilbrown]

Dear Sonic Staff and Sonic Customers,

I have three things to say about Sonic (the service), the Sonic Staff, and the future:

1) Sonic, specifically, Fusion Package, is hands down the best value and up-time reliable DSL and POTS phone service.
(The recent price increase isn't even close to the inflation rate over the last 10 years)

2) The Sonic Staff is 110% every time I need to call -- which is only about three times a year and is always a problem I caused.
(Have you ever tried to contact AT&T or Comcast, let alone get the problem fixed?)

3) The future is coming and technology will bring 'new' ways we access the information we use. Nothing is free.
Building infrastructure costs money; and as Sonic Customers, we supply the capital for these improvements.

Thank-you Sonic!

[Chris Browne]

Dear Sonic Billing Department,

I'm writing to sincerely apologize for my phone call to the Billing Department this morning:
I called when I saw my most recent bill had increased by $10.

I had not paid attention to the notices about the price increase: 100% my fault and I am sorry.

I complained and whined like a spoiled child at every solution the staff person provided: 100% my fault, I'm sorry.

I said some things that can't be taken back: 100% my fault, I'm deeply sorry.

Nobody should have to deal with a bad customer and that is what I was!

To the Billing Department Staff Member: I wish I could take it all back: Please accept my apology, I am remorsefully sorry.

Thank-you Sonic and the forum for listening to me.

Chris Browne

[dharbert]

Dale,
Maybe I'm late to this discussion but that's because I just received my monthly bill which had a $10.05 (25%) price increase. I understand that it's been 7 years since the last increase but since I've only been on the service for 18 months it doesn't look like that to me. From my perspective it looks like so many other telecommunication services - hook them with an introductory price and start increasing rates after the initial period is over.

It's nice that you're building fiber networks but from what I've read, you won't be in my neighborhood (20+ mile east of Sacramento) for many years. Besides, my needs are no where close to what fiber offers. So I'm being asked to subsidize those who benefit from fiber now? Why not have those who use fiber pay for it? Let those of us who can live with slower speeds pay less and those who need the faster speed pay more.

Sorry, but a 25% rate increase is too much to swallow. If nothing changes soon to correct this, I'll be looking for another provider.

Thanks for listening.

[ankh]

Three thoughts:

One: You might look at the lag time between when voice Support decides someone needs a tech visit, and the first available visit appointment date. For me, it's about a week. That's a long time to wait, though it does build in the time it will take to clean out the basement so we can find all the old phone wires under the house.

It might be worth putting some of the new money into meatware response time.

Two: I'd love to have a map showing my neighborhood -- defined by radius from the big phone company building through which everything apparently flows -- with info about when fiber might become available.

Three: I've asked before if Sonic could poll the customers in my neighborhood about willinggness to help with PR, so those nearby could get in touch with one another. The other couple of Sonic customers on my block talk Sonic up as I do when we hear neighbors bemoaning how they're treated by their ISPs. I wish we had a neighborhood network.

But hey, we could be having house parties. Got any Gimme Caps with the Sonic logo on them?

[Disappointed]

I just became aware of this big price increase today (+25%!!). I've had FTTN service for less than two years, so this is an annualized increase of over 12% per year. I have not read all the posts but did read Dane's first post that explained his reasoning. I'm confused. I live on the peninsula - there's no gigabyte service in my town, and it's unlikely to receive it for years to come, if ever. But my rates are going up so I can pay for someone else to get improved service? Isn't this a long term investment that Sonic should be financing as such to grow there business? Fine if they want to grow market share, but don't have current customers who receive no benefit subsidize it or suggest we're paying more now for some service we may or may not receive in the future. I had long been a fan of Sonic and have referred at least a half dozen new customers to the Sonic, but no more. This is a big disappointment which has soured me on the company, and the handling of communications around this price increase is a complete disaster.

[ardgrant]

I am a Berkeley resident and receive no benefit for the increase because we don't currently have fiber in Berkeley. I also see that Berkeley is toward the bottom of the queue for getting fiber. So, essentially my increase is subsidizing people who receive fiber before I do.

I see that LMI is offering service (at the same speed as Sonic with excellent tech support) for $30/mo in 2017 to become $42/mo in 2018. Seems to me like my best option is to switch to LMI and back to Sonic when you have Fusion in Berkeley.