Sonic.net

Lol ok, I haven't seen a bill yet, so maybe they won't be charging me a rental fee. I don't have a Sonic provided router.

mystery solved! Can I remove voice service from my service? I'd rather not pay a fee for it.

No. The voice service is not optional although it is charged separately and incurs additional taxes and fees.

Thanks, just talked to billing, and obviously they said they are hearing this from many customers.
Who wants VoIP these days when we have super fast cell phone coverage? And the VoIP taxes are like ~$13 a month in Oakland!!!

I hope it becomes an option to remove it in the future, but I'm betting it might be part of the deal with leasing AT&T lines that we are forced to pay for the service?

charles2 wrote:Right, you cannot put a substitute in place of the Sonic-supplied ONT. But the $10 monthly rental fee is for a Sonic-supplied router, which you can return and replace with your own router.

The router costs vary from $4/mo to $9.50/mo depending upon which units and how many are deployed - but they are a pretty good value, particularly when you consider the advanced replacement, and waiver of technician visit fees. Bonus that support team here can troubleshoot because we've got a portal providing some visibility.

Thanks for the correct fees, Dane.

I didn't find a fees chart on the Sonic.net website. Might head off some of the repetitive chatter on the forum.

Basic question: Do i need a modem to plug into the ONT?

Or does the ONT function as a modem and all i need is a router?

All you need is a router -- an eero that Sonic rents to you by default, or one of your own choice.

As I understand the terminology, DSL over copper requires a modem to take in the signal and transform it for a router, while fiber srvice requires an ONT to take in the signal and transform it for a router.

I speak only as someone on the pre-order list for Sonic Gigabit fiber. I'll take the eero router at installation time, learn a bit how things work, then put a router of my choice in place of it and return the eero to Sonic. Sonic has a procedure set up for mailing it to them.

The ONT is an Optical Network Terminal.
It has a fiber on one side and a regular RG-45 network port on the other.
You could plug your computer directly into it. It's a bad idea as you would get a public IP directly and would not be protected.
Basically you can plug it into the WAN port of your router.

Again the ONT is loaned to you and is required.
The rented router is optional but heavily recommended and comes with free service calls if needed and is the best option for most typical users. If you decline to rent the router, you can use your own, but service calls that end up being related to an issue on your side of the ONT will be billable.