New Sonic website: sneak peek!

[tara.sharp]

Sonic has some exciting news to share! We’ve been working on a new website and just launched our beta site. Since you’re our most loyal and supportive Sonic fans we want to share an exclusive sneak peek of the new site with you.

Please check out http://www.sonic.com and let us know what you think. We always appreciate your opinions, so feel free to report any problems, bugs or even compliments to [email protected].

Thank you for being such an active and valued member of the Sonic community.

Tara Sharp
Marketing
[email protected]

[polpo]

Congrats on getting .com

[parker_day]

I think it looks great. Very modern. Great job on the rebrand Sonic!

[dkenglish7]

It's pretty, but it makes me hungry for the 1GB fiber you don't offer in my area. And I could not find any link back to these forums on the new Support page.

[theyipper]

I'd get rid of the Drupal meta tag info, or at least somewhat hide that you're using Drupal.

[kevinmcm]

Sorry I'm being mean but...

That's the "instant web site" template for the year 2014 with only 15 days left until 2015. If I visited sonic.com for the first time I would be very suspicious of its legitimacy. Scammers know this template well.

The "HOME" link next to the SONIC icon is confusing. I though it was the Sonic home page link rather than the customer services link.

Most of the web site is stock photos of 25 year olds chillin' and dancing. Every vaguely defined startup and scammer has these and they say nothing specific about Sonic. Everybody knows what stock photos so you're not fooling anyone into thinking that they're photos of Sonic customers.

Eliminate adjacent redundant links because it makes the site seem like it's trying to stretch limited content.

The primary link of "Get Sonic" drops you into a "Check Availability" page. That's a dead-end for anyone still unsure about your services. There should be a brief itemized summary of services there as well as links back to more information.

I dislike the new logo. The old one was stylish and retro while the new one looks boring and retro. The last thing that Sonic needs is reinforcing their boring and retro traits. Single-digit speed ADSL, old servers, and decade old promises of fast internet are killing you. And then there's a black and white photo of a 1980s telephone on your home page. And there are IBM/Microsoft blue highlights from the days of "NO CARRIER".

Silicon Valley isn't on the top-10 list of cities for fiber. Given that it's taking 5+ years per city, I should find another ISP for the next 50 to 300 years.

The "join together" video is more of the same old plan that isn't working. Nobody wants to buy ancient internet connections with the promise that it may get faster for their grandchildren. Go public if you want investment money to expand. You could even do something hip like raise money on a per-neighborhood basis with Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.

[scott]

Still trying to wrap my head around the criticism of "single-digit speed ADSL" when we are rolling out VDSL, and have been selling ADSL2+ @ up to 20Mbps (actually faster than that, but that's what we advertise), and 40Mbps bonded for businesses.

Still, good criticisms, even if I disagree with them. I believe we are not only moving in the right direction, but have an exciting 2015 ahead of us, with a lot of long-term, fast-bandwidth solutions finally coming to fruition.

And considering how the market is polluted by monopoly-heavy regulatory ideas, such as the disasterous "multi-mode competition" and the FCC's forebearance of fiber tariffs, I'd say we're not doing too badly, truth be told.

We're still feeling our way with our new marketing campaigns, but that doesn't change the same great service we're known for. I once had a business partner tell me -- before we had a marketing director -- that Sonic was successful _despite_ our marketing. Hopefully things are now changing.

[kevinmcm]

The problem with upgrading from ADSL to ADSL2+ to VDSL is that each upgrade has a shorter range that serves fewer people. In places like the South Bay, such upgrades might serve nobody at all because the POPs are in commercial zones.

[scott]

I hear you about the inherent limitations with xDSL...something we are addressing with a new product that should blow the doors off of the issue.

When we talked about our 120 day plan during our Nov. staff meeting, this was one new change we discussed...and Dane later said that we could discuss those plans, so I don't think I'm telling tales out of school that it is dsl via fiber to the neighborhood.

"When?" you may ask, and rightfully so. Well, you've already heard our laments about fiber forebearance...and sometimes, if you can't beat them, then it's time to make a deal.

So "when" is extremely soon...and "how" is by using the same remote terminals that AT&T uses for their flagship product. We're already doing test installs with Sonic employees, so that should give you an idea how close this is.

[Guest]

Could one then assume that your remaining legacy DSL customers behind AT&T RTs will soon be able to move to Fusion?

A deal? Did you have to give up your first-borns?