Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[MouseRat]

I checked out my address and it says "Expected Sept 2018"

Quote from a Sonic email I received yesterday:

"Sonic is bringing Gigabit Fiber Internet to your neighborhood! You lucky duck. That means symmetric speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps, along with the reliability and the super friendly customer service you already know and love from Sonic."

Where do you live?

[moogra]

Berkeley

[quadl8]

I now pay $68 for 3 mb/s down. This is crazy.

[joe.higgins]

I'm still waiting patiently for fiber in Albany.

I got the marketing post cards, I have seen the Sonic vans, the website tells me its available.

I rang Sonic a few weeks ago and was told that new customers are prioritized over existing. They told me that I would be contacted when it was available in my location.

Any idea when it will come to my part of Albany?

Joe

[parker_day]

Any idea when it will come to my part of Albany?

What happens when you go here: https://members.sonic.net/connections/serviceupdate/#/

You might be able to order it through that form if it's currently available.

[joe.higgins]

Any idea when it will come to my part of Albany?

What happens when you go here: https://members.sonic.net/connections/serviceupdate/#/

You might be able to order it through that form if it's currently available.

Thanks for the suggestion Parker. It tells me May 2018.

However, this was March 2018 previously, so I am not holding my breath.

[joe.higgins]

I just got the upgrade email. Now I need to decide.

The cost is $50/mo. which is the same as what I pay now.

There is an additional $9.50 tacked on for "RG Rental". I don't want to pay $114/yr. for a router when I already have a perfectly good RT-AC66U.

I lose my static IP & landline (this was expected).

A bit perturbed that the churn enabling pricing strategy is similar to larger providers (whom I left to join Sonic many years ago). New customers get a $40/mo. price.

I am not sure how the service will be brought into my house, I presume they need power at the POE.

[ngufra]

New price is the same as old price.
You do not need to rent the residential gateway if you don't want it.
The RT-AC66 may struggle a little bit to deliver Gigabit depending on what you do (e.g. open-vpn) Also i think my RT-N66 has a WAN port that is 100BaseT, not 1000BaseT.

The discussion about new customers getting $10 off has been discussed ad nauseum.
You CAN close your account and create a new one to benefit form intro pricing but intro pricing is contingent to renting the RG.

Does it seem fair to you to pay LESS for a faster service though?
I upgraded and pay the same for faster service and am not complaining.

They will install fiber into your house up to where you have your router (which also need power anyway) The fiber adapter will have a network port and a phone port.

[joe.higgins]

Thanks for the reply @ngufra.

The AC-RT66U is 1000BaseT on the WAN side.

The $50/mo. is reasonable (and comparable with other western countries, albeit a few years late) and I am good with that.

The prices were increased by $10/mo. sometime ago to support the GB build out, so yes, given that
existing customers have partially funded the build out I would have expected at least a token allowance there.

With my current DSL, my router can be anywhere the POTS is wired, so I have my modem, etc. in my basement, far from the demarc (where there is no power nearby, old house unfortunately). I doubt (but would be pleasantly surprised) if **any** provider would route through my old house to my current location. Would love to be wrong on this. Have some friends whose recent relevant experience with a new house was far from ideal, hence the concern.

[ngufra]

Isn't the modem powered ?

For our house, sonic installed fiber from post to side of house; then installer came for home install, cable enters in the basement, and runs across the basement to the other side of house where all the network and phone connections arrive and where the fiber adapter, router and switches are. There is power there.

If there is no power there, it should be fairly easy to install it from the same circuit that service the first floor plugs.