Can I use my own modem?

[lc94114]

Hi,

I believe I've been renting the Sonic modem for many years now. Do I have the option to use my own modem? If not, how do I get an updated Sonic modem?

Thanks!

[joeyyung911]

Uh...search. Of course you can.

[dane]

You can manage equipment in the Member Tools FYI. WiFi whole-home gear for Fiber and IPBB products, and modem/routers for the DSL-based Fusion product.

[ngufra]

On sonic dsl service, you can elect to use your own modem/router instead of renting.
On sonic 1Gbps fiber, the ONT is loaned, not rented, the router is rented and you can elect to use your own.

When you rent the equipment, sonic can better support you and run remote diagnostic and will come to your location to fix issues or send replacement equipment. If you elect to use your own devices, sonic will ensure service is good up to the dsl demarcation point outside your house or to the ONT and theoretically, if the issue if after that you are on your own though they may be able to advise you.

So if you don't know what you are doing, you should rent the equipment and pay the fee;
if you are more techncially minded and have a non-typical environment, you may want to provide your own equipment.

In the case of sonic resold service, i don't know.
In the case of sonic 10 Gbps, i think they provide a single device that does fiber media convert, analog telephone adapter and router. not sure whether not renting is an option in that case.

[daniel15]

In the case of sonic 10 Gbps, i think they provide a single device that does fiber media convert, analog telephone adapter and router. not sure whether not renting is an option in that case.

The ONT used for 10Gbps service technically can be used as a router, but there's various performance issues with it (for example, its NAT table is very small) so Sonic always ship them in bridge mode now and expect you to plug a router into the 10Gbps port. You can either rent a wifi router from Sonic, or buy your own (or build your own using a computer and OpenWrt, opnsense, etc). Their rental option is currently an Eero mesh wifi system. You do have to use their ONT, but you're not paying any extra for it.

[artakamoose]

In the case of sonic resold service, i don't know.

For resold service, you generally have to use the provided gateway since AT&T requires 802.1x authentication. There's no way around this for resold copper service. There are some options for getting rid of the gateway if you're on fiber, but it can get complicated depending on what type of install you have and/or how technical you want to get.