Sonic.net

I am writing on behalf of the residents of the 1900 block of Yosemite Road in Berkeley, CA. When Sonic installed fiber in our neighborhood in about 2019 (?), Sonic did not install fiber on the 1/4 mile long portion of our street. We are 27 homes and potential fiber customers for Sonic (some of us are already DSL customers). Help us understand why you created our fiber-less island and what we can do to help Sonic fill in this gap in Sonic fiber coverage.

I have been a loyal Sonic customer since about 2019. Shortly thereafter, I was elated to witness the team of Sonic crews who installed fiber in the neighborhood. When I noticed they did not come to the 1900 block of my street, Sonic managers on site repeatedly told me it was because of a “bad pole.”

During that 2019 install, seemingly every street around me, the streets immediately to the North, East, South, and West, have Sonic fiber. We are a 1/4 mile long fiber-less island surrounded by a sea tens of miles wide of Sonic-installed fiber.
In a January 4, 2024 response from the Sonic team (Sonic #7372126) to my request for Sonic to install fiber, your team responded with the following:

]We appreciate your frustration with the DSL service, and the service availability with the fiber. To clarify, our Fiber engineering team has reviewed the address, and in order to expand into that area, we would need to perform undergrounded work to access the "island" of your neighborhood. While you have utility poles and aerial service at the local street level, our Fiber engineering team has determined that those poles are serviced through an undergrounded area that we cannot access and build out at this time.

Why exactly can’t Sonic access the underground area and what can the residents of the 1900 block do to help Sonic gain access? We are willing to lobby on your behalf and to ask local politicians for support. The street at the end of our street, Arlington Ave, does not have utility poles. The utilities are undergrounded. Does this have something to do with it? I believe Sonic provides fiber service on Arlington Ave. It just doesn’t make sense.

Last week, a Sonic technician and an AT&T technician visited my home to try to determine why my Sonic DSL connection regularly drops. Unfortunately, they failed. After five months of working with Sonic technicians on this problem, I have to give up my Sonic DSL; it is no longer reliable. (In fact, while writing this, I had reset my modem again, because internet dropped.) You are about to lose a loyal customer.

I know that another neighbor on my block who is a current Sonic DSL customer is similarly being forced to leave Sonic. We love Sonic’s great service. But without fiber, we are going to have to switch to an ISP that provides internet over coaxial cable. That’s sad for us and bad business for Sonic.

What is Sonic going to do to retain me as a customer and potentially gain 20 plus more customers on Yosemite Road?

Many thanks!

Thank you for reaching out and voicing your frustration regarding Sonic Fiber's lack of availability and expansion.

Our goal is to improve the quality of Internet service in America. The reason this can take so long is that we can run into obstacles that delay the build-out process, like overloaded poles that need to be replaced or fixed, permits from the city that requires special attention, or even the need for micro-trenching which requires shutting down streets and specialized equipment. Infrastructure construction is an enormous project, and expanding those services will take some time.

Your area's build-out seems to include underground and above-ground aspects. That said, the need for micro trenching in your area could be the leading cause. There are many reasons why micro trenching can prevent Sonic from building in your area. I have added a link below that includes all our forum posts discussing micro trenching and its obstacles. One of the most recent posts from our CEO Dane is linked here viewtopic.php?p=64241&hilit=microtrenching#p64241, which also breaks down the specificities needed for micro trenching as defined by the CPUC.

search.php?keywords=microtrenching

We hope to service your area in the future, but no concrete plans have been announced for a build-out in your neighborhood.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, but the language in your reply indicates you don't know what the problem is. You are just giving a generic response. That is disappointing.

Also, you haven't address the fact that you are about to lose a customer or two or more who subscribe to your DSL service.

I would have hoped for more from Sonic.

We're having GIS engineering look at this now. Seems to be a combination of inaccessible poles in back yards, plus in one spot a low clearance for existing cables which preclude addition of a new cable. We're trying to determine if we can work around any of these issues in hopes that we could reach at least some of the five homes which have been left out of the network today.

Update: We're going to get a crew lead to visit the site in the next few days and see if we can reach any of these homes.

I greatly appreciate your response and your willingness to have a crew look at the situation.

All of the poles on the 1900 block of Yosemite Rd. are on the street. There are not any poles in back yards.

I have spoken to neighbors up and down the 1/4 mile long street; only one neighbor on the north end has been able to access Sonic fiber, from a pole on a neighboring street. The 20 plus other homes, to the best of my knowledge, cannot access Sonic fiber. I hope I am wrong. Let's see what you crew finds out.

Thank you.

whumnicky wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 5:23 pm I greatly appreciate your response and your willingness to have a crew look at the situation.

All of the poles on the 1900 block of Yosemite Rd. are on the street. There are not any poles in back yards.

I have spoken to neighbors up and down the 1/4 mile long street; only one neighbor on the north end has been able to access Sonic fiber, from a pole on a neighboring street. The 20 plus other homes, to the best of my knowledge, cannot access Sonic fiber. I hope I am wrong. Let's see what you crew finds out.

Thank you.

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood. I looked at 1900 Yosemite and saw a group of five homes there that don't have access. They 1874 Yosemite through 1920 Yosemite. It appears that some may be servicable from existing poles on Yosemite x San Fernando, so we're going to go check that. Some of these do have poles that are inaccessible, along Indian Trail, and running North from the middle of that trail.

But perhaps you're asking about addresses starting at 1937 Yosemite, and running South along that road? If so, the reason for the network not extending there appears to be a low mid-span cable at the pole spanning the intersection of Yosemite and Contra Costa Ave. In other words, the existing cables are a low as is allowed and cannot be lowered further without creating a clearance issue. And there is apparently no room above the existing cables that is adequately clear of the power lines for the placement of a new cable.

I'll ask engineering to take a look at this segment and see if we can do anything regarding making it fit with adequate clearance. But FYI, that's why it wasn't built initially in that segment, from 1937 Yosemite "upwards" in numbering (and running South.)

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes. I am referring to the homes starting with 1937 Yosemite Road and running south from there to 1994 Yosemite Road. Those homes are not serviced by Sonic fiber.

That would explain why your crews told me there was a "bade pole' years ago. I imagine you could also access your fiber network from the South end of Yosemite where Yosemite intersects with Arlington Ave., near 1994 Yosemite, but those lines on Arlington Ave. are undergrounded. I wonder if that is why your customer service department cited a "vault" as being the problem?

Again, we greatly appreciate you taking a look. If there is some way it could work out, you would make us extremely happy.

Thanks again!

Jumping into this thread to join William's plea to resolve this issue. We love working with you at Sonic, and the number one reason is that we usually get humans, and reasonable human responses when we have issues with our service. And issues with our service are definitely what we're having. We're at 1963 Yosemite -- one of the houses to the south of William that you both mention -- and my wife works from home many days; she's been complaining about our internet recently, and feels, as does William, that we'll likely need to switch providers if this can't be resolved. We really don't want to have to do that -- as I say, we've valued our time (many years, two different houses) with Sonic, and been vocal supporters when folks have sought internet providers. (I can even promise you a new customer at 1937 if you're able to get fiber onto the block -- the new owner there is a friend who wants to work with you but wasn't willing to deal with the low speeds; he said he'd switch to Sonic if the situation were resolved.)

I'm grateful that you'll look into this situation again, and feel hopeful that you can find some resolution to it. That would be an ideal Sonic anecdote to further boost your reputation! It feels like it should be resolvable, especially by good folks such as you.

Based on the information you provided, I looked at the poles and existing lines you described. While I am certainly not an expert, the poles looked OK but the existing telephone line and coaxial cable sag due to tree branches rubbing on them. The lines run through many tree branches. (I have photos but was unable to attach them to this posting.)

Assuming the tree branches are the problem, that could be good news - tree branches can be trimmed. We would be willing to contact the City of Berkeley and/or PG&E, whoever is responsible for trimming the trees, on Sonic's behalf. Please let us know if we can help.

Thanks again for sending a crew to look at the site. We look forward to their feedback.