I've been fighting to get Sonic into my building since it was made available in my area - July 2016, so almost 2 years now. Until a few weeks ago, it was tied up in HOA approval. For almost 2 years, I have been advocating and working for Sonic: planning different routes for entry, visualizing pathways into each unit, discussing logistics for minimizing new holes created, and coordinating with the HOA board and residents.
In every HOA meeting, I brought up the possibility of approving Sonic for install, and in each of those meetings I was asked what the cost would be. I confidently answered "$40 a month" every time. I've been pitching to my neighbors that approving Sonic would not only be future-proofing the building, but for the current residents it would be an amazing service at an amazing price.
I now have to tell them that the cost of service will actually be almost 1/3 more than I originally told them. I can't tell them that the prices have increased nor can I tell them that I was misinformed. The cost of the service is truly "$40 a month". I'm going to have to tell them that there are hidden fees and that I did not do my proper research. Ultimately I will be damaging my reputation with my HOA who also happen to be my neighbors.
Personally, I will not be using the voice service because I have no need for it. To me, It's strange to encourage someone to have a land line by forcing them to pay for it, regardless if there are good intentions behind it. If somehow during an emergency, all other means of notification fail, the voice line will not benefit me because I will not have anything connected to it. To me, this is the same as forcing me to pay for a TV package that I will never watch in the hopes that emergency alerts will be delivered through it.
I understand the motivation behind bundling voice with internet and the positive intentions behind it. If a household finds out they have the service and wants to use it, that is a good thing and they can continue on paying for it. However, if a household has no use for the service and finds out that it will cost them money to keep it, I personally think they should have the option to separate it and would hope that my reasoning can be interpreted as common sense.
I was under the impression that I finally found an honest telecom company that stands for net neutrality and wouldn't have such types of hidden costs. I thought Sonic could be serious competition for Comcast and AT&T and would finally bring a fair model for internet service to the country. I still hope for that.