Seeking feedback from non-Sonic members - Why not switch to ultra fast fiber internet?

Since building our fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, we have managed to get many households to switch, but about half of the households in Sebastopol are still using Comcast or AT&T instead.

That is a bit of a mystery here at the office, so I am seeking feedback and ideas from folks who have available Sonic fiber, but who have chosen not to subscribe for some reason. Give us some insight!

Please respond here if appropriate, or feel free to email me directly, [email protected].

Check to see if our ultra fast fiber service is available to your home here

Thanks in advance for any feedback and advice!

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Posted in reply to the post by danejasper:

Since building our fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, we have managed to get many households to switch, but about half of the households in Sebastopol are still using Comcast or AT&T instead.

That is a bit of a mystery here at the office, so I am seeking feedback and ideas from folks who have available Sonic fiber, but who have chosen not to subscribe for some reason. Give us some insight!

Please respond here if appropriate, or feel free to email me directly, [email protected].

Check to see if our ultra fast fiber service is available to your home here

Thanks in advance for any feedback and advice!

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I live right in Sebastopol and according to your website, I don't have the option available to me. While I love Sonic, it's been a problem to have limited, affordable access to high speed internet that isn't Comcast. I have Sonic now and it's decent. Dane, I understand your feelings, but all you have to do is look at your map. I'm in an apartment complex right in town. I barely get cell service here, which is a bit bizarre. So I rely on my wifi quite a lot.

If there's an option that would actually be available and not cost more, that would be worth considering. But right now that option hasn't presented itself.

Jessica

Isn't available for me either, and I dunno how one gets closer to downtown while living in a home.
Thanks for wasting my time with an advertisement for a service I can't get.
Glad you're happy with your local monopolistic source of internet pixie juice.

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Posted in reply to the post by danejasper:

Since building our fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, we have managed to get many households to switch, but about half of the households in Sebastopol are still using Comcast or AT&T instead.

That is a bit of a mystery here at the office, so I am seeking feedback and ideas from folks who have available Sonic fiber, but who have chosen not to subscribe for some reason. Give us some insight!

Please respond here if appropriate, or feel free to email me directly, [email protected].

Check to see if our ultra fast fiber service is available to your home here

Thanks in advance for any feedback and advice!

---

Dane,
Thanks for asking.

I have found that your service area coverage map page is *borked*. It never gives me the option to even find out when the Sonic coverage is available for my area, it fills in another address nowhere near here for the reply email. And that is not just at my current address but at EVERY address in Sonoma County that I have checked on while working there, except Icssoma Farms -- then I got very spoiled with your great tech help. I have tried to add at least 10 customers to Sonic. You can ask Glen U. he'd answer, even though he's no longer working for Sonic as a Tech either... hmmm...

Secondly, you have lost confidence in security issues from a very influential computer professor.

..and if you can assuage all these comments and the security complaint I'd still love to work for Sonic, but not until I know why the coverage map ALWAYS shows High Speed not available to most, to me not available at ALL, and then enters in an address not anywhere near for emailed "updates" of service...
(I still haven't even gotten to experience Sonic's high speed service, since you obviously did not have that to Icssoma Farms circa 2013-14.)

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by danejasper:

Since building our fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, we have managed to get many households to switch, but about half of the households in Sebastopol are still using Comcast or AT&T instead.

That is a bit of a mystery here at the office, so I am seeking feedback and ideas from folks who have available Sonic fiber, but who have chosen not to subscribe for some reason. Give us some insight!

Please respond here if appropriate, or feel free to email me directly, [email protected].

Check to see if our ultra fast fiber service is available to your home here

Thanks in advance for any feedback and advice!

---

The fiber network reach is quite limited. It only reaches homes inside the City of Sebastopol and which have overhead (aerial) utility wiring - and even among these, there are some gaps in coverage due to engineering issues or underground-fed segments.

What I am trying to develop an understanding of is, for those who CAN get the fiber, why would they be staying with Comcast or AT&T? It seems like they're be paying a lot more for much internet lower speed. Maybe folks are unaware, or too busy to switch, or don't understand. It's not clear to me, hence the question.

Yeah. I don't want to get Comcast but it is currently the fastest to my house. I currently have Dual Bonded DSL with ATT but there are times when the stream just drops out. It must be because I am located 3000 feet from the cabinet, which is served by a fiber trunk. Recently a new fiber line went in up the street on poles. Massive black cable with in line distribution boxes. I don't know if it's ATT or Sonic but the neighbor that spotted me spotting the hardware told me she just got Sonic fiber and I saw the fiber lines going to her house. The fiber lines are more brittle and need to be taken up a certain way, and slack is carefully taken up with little spoked wire spools between the poles.

If I stand in the middle of Woodland Avenue and look up to McFarlane, I can see the new fiber trunk.

I'd love to switch. One of the things that attracted me to Seb-town is the availability of fiber to the home, and a net neutrality provider that is part of the community. I've been watching the Sonic story for almost 17 years, back when they were headquartered in downtown Santa Rosa.

So please don't tease me as if it's an even playing field out there. It isn't and your simplistic plea just pisses me off.
If you really mean what you say, then find a way for me to get fiber a half-block down Woodland.

I'll bet every homeowner on this block would love to switch.
I am ready for the future. I've been ready for years.


stephen barncard

Got it. But only now. In response to your original post i followed the links and was informed in an opaque way the the service available to me is sonic dsl, something used of and on for twenty years and currently by the granny, i have comcast cable, more reliable, a little more $, faster but the customer service sucks (compared to sonic). The granny would propably use comcast it the cable went there.

Initially excited, then i was process annoyed. Wish your internet intake was more exact, it was bait and then same old switch. Are you going to keep expanding the overhead fiber? My needs are minimal, but my neighbor, the rich guy who sold his wireless com startup for 40 mill in 2000 to retire (so the rumor goes), might be really excited. I blame him for the slow times (total projection), because i am end of the lines.

If you want to get more participation in your fiber net go door to door. Keep up the work to connect the world. You are one of the best and i wish your business well, and wish you closer to me.

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by danejasper:

The fiber network reach is quite limited. It only reaches homes inside the City of Sebastopol and which have overhead (aerial) utility wiring - and even among these, there are some gaps in coverage due to engineering issues or underground-fed segments.

What I am trying to develop an understanding of is, for those who CAN get the fiber, why would they be staying with Comcast or AT&T? It seems like they're be paying a lot more for much internet lower speed. Maybe folks are unaware, or too busy to switch, or don't understand. It's not clear to me, hence the question.

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Try having a booth at the Sebastopol farmer's market and sign people up there. How about an introductory discount?

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by danejasper:

Since building our fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, we have managed to get many households to switch, but about half of the households in Sebastopol are still using Comcast or AT&T instead.

That is a bit of a mystery here at the office, so I am seeking feedback and ideas from folks who have available Sonic fiber, but who have chosen not to subscribe for some reason. Give us some insight!

Please respond here if appropriate, or feel free to email me directly, [email protected].

Check to see if our ultra fast fiber service is available to your home here

Thanks in advance for any feedback and advice!

---

For me it's that advertised speeds are lower than comcast clocked speeds. If this is BS I am happy to dump comcast but we often have two netflix streams going at once.

The highest comcast speed in Sebastopol is 200mbps for $70. If you are in the service area of sonic's megabit service, it's 1,000mbps - 5 times the speed of the fastest comcast speed.

Not in service area I guess. The max seems to be 50 mps.

Hi! Just want to say I have had excellent service from Sonic at my Sebastopol home for years and the tech help is always available, respectful and knowledgeable. I am wondering how the service is in the NOPA neighborhood in SF and the city in general.
Looking into getting out of the contract with Comcast in my other communal household in Sf as Comcast is unhelpful, expensive and sooooo slow!
Thanks, Dane for giving us this alternative.
I would suggest anyone who can get the service from Sonic should.
Best, Magick