Sonic Gigabit Fiber in Richmond CA 94805 area?

[fobkai99]

Update, there was a permit delay by the city so they had to reschedule my install. Line drop is today, install tomorrow 01/05.

[fobkai99]

I wasn't home for the install (my parents were) so I can't really comment on the process, but they arrived at 9am and didn't leave until just before 4pm. I'll have to sort things out with the new setup when I get home. Hopefully others have a easier install...

[knewman]

I wasn't home for the install (my parents were) so I can't really comment on the process, but they arrived at 9am and didn't leave until just before 4pm. I'll have to sort things out with the new setup when I get home. Hopefully others have a easier install...

Oh yikes, that's a long time. I made arrangements to be home during my appointment tomorrow, but less than 24h before the appt, it was moved to later in the week because permits haven't yet been secured. Still haven't had a line drop. I really hope that mine doesn't take 7 hours, but if all installations take that long, it could explain the very slow rollout.

[knewman]

Very happy with my installation experience here in 94805. It took many many months, and the first installation date got moved by a few days later, but installer Miles was here when he said he'd be, had a better idea than mine about hiding the fiber along the eaves of the house, and was quick and courteous.

I chose not to rent the Eero routers, but to instead keep my 5yo Orbi system. I am getting 900somethingMbps over ethernet through the router, which is such an improvement over my previous IPS, especially in upload capacity. I can now back things up to iCloud Drive or Google Drive as if they were a USB hard drive. Unreal.

Of course, in the middle of enjoying my first day with real internet, PG&E killed the electricity to the block for most of the day. I'm very happy with "only" 1Gbps but I think a UPS is the next networking purchase, especially as both Verizon and T-Mobile coverage has become mostly non-existent in 94805 in the last couple of years.

I really do think Sonic should communicate better about installation dates - people who've signed up should at least get an email when their availability gets pushed back a month. Other than that, I'm really happy with the service so far and optimistic that my neighbors will be able to sign up soon as well.

[jhattersley]

Good news for those of us up in the hills: some folks from CableCom (who I chatted with and were working on Sonic's behalf) were outside today stringing up new fiber. This was around the intersection of Kensington and Olive, just off Arlington across from Arlington Market. Not sure how long it'll be from neighborhood wiring to finished install, but exciting progress.

[jhattersley]

Follow-up good news: I just got an installation appointment confirmation this afternoon (for early July) Fiber incoming!

[jhattersley]

Install completed successfully! We're live in 94805.

Screenshot 2024-07-09 16.29.05.png (44.2 KiB) Viewed 1216 times

We had one hiccup on install day (the drop was not in place and they were unable to get a drop crew out) so my hookup was delayed a day, but otherwise everything went super smoothly. Sonic's techs were great and worked with me to use the conduit run I'd set up in order to bring the drop cable inside my network closet, which is near the attachment point on the house, so the termination box and ONT are both inside for easy access.

I'm seeing the numbers above using a UDM Pro with zero tweaks to try and goose the numbers. I don't think I'll even bother tweaking further--I'll have enough trouble saturating this connection for anything as it is

Very happy to be back with Sonic after being a DSL customer years ago. Thanks!

[dane]

Awesome, glad to see you're finally connected, and at great speeds! Please do tell your neighbors.

-Dane

[knewman]

I've been telling my neighbors, and this was the experience of one of them (from Nextdoor):

Hi neighbors! Question, if anyone in the city of Richmond had Sonic Internet service installed did you have to get a permit from the city to do it? I have waited for a month for my appointment today to get the internet service hooked up, they never showed up( between 8am and 12 noon) I called to find out why and the guy told me about the permit. When I first made the appointment they never mentioned this! Also, he said they texted me(I promise you they never did)! In fact I got an email and a text last Sunday reminding me of my appointment today!!
If you have Sonic internet service did you need to do this? So weird, yes I’ve been trying to reach the city about this too, and we both agreed that since Sonic has laid all the cable I think it must be cool with the city already!!!! Thanks

And then when I told her that I was pretty sure that the resident isn't responsible for permitting, she had this experience on the phone:

Many phone calls to the City of Richmond, I spoke with Hector Rojas, who knows everything about permits, really nice gentleman btw, he said he had never heard of this and we agreed that I should call Sonic to find out what specific permit I needed. I then spoke again with Robbie at Sonic who just kept repeating himself finally put me through to the most arrogant supervisor, who finally told me that they need to get the permit! Now I’ve already waited a month for them to come out, and without my knowledge rescheduled my appointment for July 26th! He said it can take a long time for them to get the permit to climb the telephone pole, wow! So how many more months I asked? He replied well have by your next appointment, a miracle I said! Anyway he ended up hanging up on me when I continued to argue about never getting a text or email about this and that my appointment had been rescheduled. I told him I did get an email and text confirming my appointment for today last Sunday ! Nothing else. I also said you should tell your prospective clients about this problem when they first call. I’m leaving out a large part of our discussion which didn’t go well. I told him I’m keeping that appointment but would be shooting out a post about the horrible customer service!! I’m sticking with them because I don’t want you to give xfinity an exorbitant amount of money each month!! So if you sign up with Sonic ask a lot of questions and make frequent calls to make sure they have their pole climbing permit! Thanks for letting me vent, I know this mess was hard to follow, sorry!

The communication from Sonic around installations is infrequent, sometimes inaccurate, and in this woman's case, rude and a waste of time. I know that Sonic currently has more demand than they can keep up with for new installations, but experiences like this will change that eventually.