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I used to be a big support of Sonic for years, but have changed my mind as of late. They skipped my block for fiber, and I thought there could be some issue (l
by rladd 7y ago
I used to be a big support of Sonic for years, but have changed my mind as of late.
They skipped my block for fiber, and I thought there could be some issue (like the fact that a Muni electric line runs down it) that might make it impossible for them to install it. So I asked their tech support if it was going to someday come, or never come.
Sonic would not give me any information. They wouldn't confirm or deny that they'd ever be able to install fiber. They said it would probably happen eventually, but refused to provide even a ballpark figure like "next month, next year, 2 years, 5 years or 10 years".
I finally got a response saying that there were overloaded utility poles on my block and the next block, and that was what was preventing them from stringing fiber. They even sent a map showing which poles were at fault.
So I went to the PUC and worked with them to get the poles replaced, all while sticking with Sonic's slow and expensive ADSL.
Once the poles were replaced, I went back to Sonic and they still refused to say if or when they'd be able to install fiber. Finally (several years have gone by now) someone from the responsible department said that there would never be fiber on my block because of the Muni electric line. What? That's what I asked in the 1st place!?!
After that someone else replied and said that they could actually do it on Muni electric blocks now, but they again refused to give me any semblance of a timeframe. Finally, someone else at Sonic admitted that it could be a very long time, perhaps more than 7 years, because "it's as time consuming to do permitting for a block as it is for a neighborhood" and my block wasn't a priority.
That's all fine, but if so why didn't they say so in the first place rather than giving me a run-around for 3 or 4 years? Wait, I think I know the answer: if they admit that fiber isn't coming any time soon (if at all) people might go to a competitor for faster service!
Pretty cynical, and not what I'd hope for in an ISP committed to transparency. But there you have it: as far as I'm concerned, Sonic just isn't as cool as they seemed.
TL/DR: If Sonic skips your block, they ain't coming back any time soon, if at all, even if the issue that made them skip is corrected.
- proverbialbunny 7y agoSonic, though, has encountered the same problems. For example, some San Francisco utility poles are too crowded to attach Sonic fiber-optic cables onto them. Yet, neither PG&E nor AT&T have a timetable when those poles will be replaced, Jasper said, leaving areas in certain neighborhoods where Sonic cannot reach potential customers. There have been advances in placing lines underground, specifically through micro-trenching where cables are installed in a small trench that is typically less than 12 inches deep by 1 inch wide. That would make the cost much more reasonable than tearing up and repaving city streets in a large construction project. But that type of construction isn’t allowed yet in San Francisco. Supervisor Mark Farrell has sponsored legislation to allow such work, noting that about 100,000 of the city’s 865,000 residents lack internet access. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7046772-181/sonic-battles-att-comcast-to?sba=AAS https://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7046772-181/sonic-bat...
- rladd 7y agoSure,there are all kinds of problems and all kinds of things that could/should be done to fix them. Micro-trenching would be wonderful. None of that excuses withholding information from customers to prevent them from being able to make an informed decision. By the way, the "crowded utility pole" issue was the problem on my block. The way I worked around it was to get PG&E to admit that they were also overloaded even for the wires they were already supporting. Then, when they are replaced the new pole has more capacity for some extra fiber.
- falsedan 7y ago> Wait, I think I know the answer: if they admit that fiber isn't coming any time soon (if at all) people might go to a competitor for faster service! It's the opposite: if they say they'll string fiber in 2 years, they get drowned by anrgy requests for status updates if they slip. It's lose-lose for them: commiting to a delivery date gets people angry at them if they slip does to regulatory/admin delays, not commiting to a date gets people fed up and impatient.
- rladd 7y agoWhat you're saying is the reverse of the situation I'm complaining about. I'm not saying that they should specify how soon fiber is coming. Yes, then they'd have a support issue as you describe. I'm saying that they should admit it when they know that fiber definitely isn't going to come any time soon at all, so that people can make an informed decision not to waste their time waiting for it to come.
- falsedan 7y ago> I'm saying that they should admit it when they know that fiber definitely isn't going to come any time soon at all I can't speack for Sonic but I feel like they might not know if something is impossible to deliver in the short term, and the amount of work to give you an accurate timeframe is non-trivial, so they don't do it. To them, there's probably no difference between the "we want to do it but we don't know by when" and "we want to do it but we don't know what's stopping us", since I guess all their delays are unknown unknowns. Sounds like you'll be waiting for microtrenching anyway, good luck