Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[pockyken007]

I hope all of you that are out because of this increase won't be coming back to Sonic when fiber is available in your neighborhood after all it would it would then be considered " fiber beneficiaries " paying for your fiber wouldn't it ?

The shortsightedness of some people is astounding to say the least all you see is price increase and you seem to be unable or maybe unwilling to see pass that while I do agree that price increase shouldn't affect people who are not on FTTN / FTTH or below certain threshold of speed on their service the increase is not to fill out the pockets of Sonic with extra $$$$ it's to deploy fiber in the neighborhoods that sonic is currently building out in and continue the expansion as they secure build out permits ... if you can't see why this is a good thing then bye bye Felicia don't let the door hit ya on your way out .

That's just silly, ken. It's not just the price increase, I'd gladly pay it for decent service. But not for the mediocre service sonic is providing me. I like the company (or I did until this outrage, now I'm less sure), but my affection stops at the point where they decide they can take advantage of it.

If sonic needs cash to build their business there are ways to do that other than making their existing customers subsidize it. At the very least limit the subsidies to those with the potential to benefit. Sonic is never going to provide fiber to my location. Never. Others will get here first. When they do I'll be the first in line.

For you to tell me that is being shortsighted is condescending and insulting. Especially if you're in line to benefit from sonic's extortion of it customers.

For the record: It's not the 10 bucks. It's the poor service that it buys. I'd gladly pay it and more for a quality connection.

If you read my message wholly you would notice that I did mention " while I do agree that price increase shouldn't affect people who are not on FTTN / FTTH or below certain threshold of speed on their service " which basically means that the increase should affect people who are already getting speeds of FTTN ( 25 MBPS for X1 and 50 MBPS for X2 ) or fiber with 1 gig down and 100 mbps up and not the people who are getting 1 mb down and 1 mb up ( or people who are in the same boat as you ) .

[torstenb]

Very interesting to follow the comments here. It looks to me that people would be willing to accept such a rate increase, but only at certain service level minimums. I would agree with that.

If I had Sonic Fiber, or Sonic's own VDSL2 with 50+ Mbps, the value would still be superior to most other providers and it would make sense to continue to stick with Sonic. But for anything below 50 Mbps, particular 24Mbps or less, to me and - from what I read here, - to others as well, it does not make sense, given that there are alternatives, even if those alternatives are only Comcast or AT&T.

Sadly, if Dane & Sonic continue to go through with that rate increase across the board, the time has come for me, too, to try another service provider (again).

[pockyken007]

Very interesting to follow the comments here. It looks to me that people would be willing to accept such a rate increase, but only at certain service level minimums. I would agree with that.

If I had Sonic Fiber, or Sonic's own VDSL2 with 50+ Mbps, the value would still be superior to most other providers and it would make sense to continue to stick with Sonic. But for anything below 50 Mbps, particular 24Mbps or less, to me and - from what I read here, - to others as well, it does not make sense, given that there are alternatives, even if those alternatives are only Comcast or AT&T.

Sadly, if Dane & Sonic continue to go through with that rate increase across the board, the time has come for me, too, to try another service provider (again).

Yup that seems to be the general consensus . Personally being lucky to be on fiber I don't mind if my price went up to 50 or even 60$ a month from the 40$ that we are being charged now ( + applicable fees and taxes ) . At that speed ( fiber ) vs value point sonic could easily charge the end users 50-60 a month and people would still sign up ,40$ a month is great but if you need more revenue to continue the build out I suggest that Sonic should focus on people who have speeds of 25MBPS + ( FTTN, FTTH and some lucky VDSL users ) , for lower tier speeds it makes literally 0 sense to increase the prices like others have mentioned in previous posts the speed VS cost simply doesn't add up and the " dark side " all of the sudden doesn't look so dark anymore ...

[miken]

Don't have a problem with slight increase if the service remains stable. But going from 38 MPS to 6 MPS every Sunday during prime time viewing is ridiculous. That's not the service I signed up for.

Have you called in to support to troubleshoot this? Speeds will vary depending on location and service type, but they should be stable. You can also send me a PM with your username and I'd be happy to help.

[danielg4]

Very interesting to follow the comments here. It looks to me that people would be willing to accept such a rate increase, but only at certain service level minimums. I would agree with that.

If I had Sonic Fiber, or Sonic's own VDSL2 with 50+ Mbps, the value would still be superior to most other providers and it would make sense to continue to stick with Sonic. But for anything below 50 Mbps, particular 24Mbps or less, to me and - from what I read here, - to others as well, it does not make sense, given that there are alternatives, even if those alternatives are only Comcast or AT&T.

Sadly, if Dane & Sonic continue to go through with that rate increase across the board, the time has come for me, too, to try another service provider (again).

Yup that seems to be the general consensus . Personally being lucky to be on fiber I don't mind if my price went up to 50 or even 60$ a month from the 40$ that we are being charged now ( + applicable fees and taxes ) . At that speed ( fiber ) vs value point sonic could easily charge the end users 50-60 a month and people would still sign up ,40$ a month is great but if you need more revenue to continue the build out I suggest that Sonic should focus on people who have speeds of 25MBPS + ( FTTN, FTTH and some lucky VDSL users ) , for lower tier speeds it makes literally 0 sense to increase the prices like others have mentioned in previous posts the speed VS cost simply doesn't add up and the " dark side " all of the sudden doesn't look so dark anymore ...

The thing is that it really is in Sonic's economic interest for customers who can be serviced only by ADSL to go away…

[pockyken007]

Well yeah ultimately every member should have fiber at least that is the dream but just as Dane said " Over the last year, we have gone from just 1% of members connected with Gigabit service on Fiber to over 10% of our members now connected with Fiber. That is really good progress, and we believe it is now time to scale up! " so does that mean that 90% is on combination of FTTN / VDSL / ADSL etc ?

[foaxzilch]

"The thing is that it really is in Sonic's economic interest for customers who can be serviced only by ADSL to go away…"

That's me. Long time customer. Paying for FTTN but getting ASDL speeds (5Mbps). Good customer service but slow speeds. No hope in sight for faster service from Sonic in my area. Price increase is absurd for my connection.
This weekend I hooked up Comcast for a try. Bought my own equipment and the self install was easy. $40 per month for 25Mbps. Getting 26.8 Mbps down and 6.3 Mbps up. There is a data limit but it's 1TB/month. Sayonara Sonic.

[pockyken007]

"The thing is that it really is in Sonic's economic interest for customers who can be serviced only by ADSL to go away…"

That's me. Long time customer. Paying for FTTN but getting ASDL speeds (5Mbps). Good customer service but slow speeds. No hope in sight for faster service from Sonic in my area. Price increase is absurd for my connection.
This weekend I hooked up Comcast for a try. Bought my own equipment and the self install was easy. $40 per month for 25Mbps. Getting 26.8 Mbps down and 6.3 Mbps up. There is a data limit but it's 1TB/month. Sayonara Sonic.

That's why I said 25 MBPS and UP should see increase in price this is a prime example of why sonic will loose customers that are on slower speeds but are asked to pay more ... it makes no business sense for them and I wholeheartedly agree with that , if I was on sub 25 mbps connection and asked to pay 10$ more I would start looking on price point of speed/cost ...

[Kevin22]

Have you ever explained the rationale for "one price for all" pricing, Dane?

Judging by the bill I get emailed every month, I suspect it may have something to do with having a joke of a billing system. Unless you really do want to drive all of the customers who are really far from a CO and/or are not realistic candidates for future fiber lines, I suggest that you invest in a billing system and price services variably and rationally.

[oddhack]

"The thing is that it really is in Sonic's economic interest for customers who can be serviced only by ADSL to go away…"

That's me. Long time customer. Paying for FTTN but getting ASDL speeds (5Mbps). Good customer service but slow speeds. No hope in sight for faster service from Sonic in my area. Price increase is absurd for my connection.
This weekend I hooked up Comcast for a try. Bought my own equipment and the self install was easy. $40 per month for 25Mbps. Getting 26.8 Mbps down and 6.3 Mbps up. There is a data limit but it's 1TB/month. Sayonara Sonic.

That's why I said 25 MBPS and UP should see increase in price this is a prime example of why sonic will loose customers that are on slower speeds but are asked to pay more ... it makes no business sense for them and I wholeheartedly agree with that , if I was on sub 25 mbps connection and asked to pay 10$ more I would start looking on price point of speed/cost ...

Even for the closer customers it makes little economic sense. I'll be paying over $90/month for Fusion X2 come February, which is delivering a hair over 40 Mbps performance - or $80/mo. + $150+ for a VDSL2 modem alternatively. Or I can pay $50/mo. + $40 for a cable modem for 1 or 2 years, maybe $80/mo. after that, for 2.5x the performance. Again, where's the value proposition? The difference is around $500/year. What's extra-rude is that Sonic fiber customers are paying considerably *less* than I am, while getting 25x the performance! If Sonic wants to drive away the 90% of its customers that aren't on fiber and have no idea when if ever they might be, the new pricing model is definitely going to help with that.