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Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

sfchronicle.com

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Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#21

Post by fletchowns »

__sy__ wrote: post #4

Just wanted to chime in about how happy with their residential service in SF. I have their 1Gbps package. With Comcast, this would most often translate to a real-life asymetric 250mbps download, 50mbps upload speed. With Sonic: I'm consistently getting SYMMETRIC 900mbps+! It's insane and comes in real-handy when you're pushing a few gigs of file from your home server to AWS... Edit: I have cat6 ethernet wired through…

I would happily switch from Comcast but when I check availability for where I live in Livermore, they only offer 50Mbps. Currently paying ~180/mo for Comcast gigabit and TV (and phone that I don't use). I would fork over quite a bit for symmetrical gigabit, very jealous!

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#22

Post by zalthor »

Maybe I'm being too picky? Or a maybe I'm just in the minority, bit I don't really like using Sonic. I mean, their internet works, and customer support is fine (but I've had as good a service from Comcast too).

What I find annoying from Sonic is their billing process. I dislike that they foist a random router onto you and charge you $10 a month (and charge you if you want to return it). I also dislike that they force a landline on you and charge you another $10 on you. Who in 2019 needs a landline? What I find somewhat dishonest, is how the sell it. I get that most advertising is not supposed to reflect reality, but it's sort of strange that you get excited about ads that say and "1GBPS internet at $40 a month" and only a year later realize that you're paying $75 a month instead. And that's something that's public, who knows what else about their business is as deceptive.

I suppose that's why Sonic has survived. I suppose that's the kind of business you need to run if you want to have a successful ISP.

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#23

Post by nudiustertian »

zalthor wrote: post #22

Maybe I'm being too picky? Or a maybe I'm just in the minority, bit I don't really like using Sonic. I mean, their internet works, and customer support is fine (but I've had as good a service from Comcast too). What I find annoying from Sonic is their billing process. I dislike that they foist a random router onto you and charge you $10 a month (and charge you if you want to return it). I also dislike that they force…

> I dislike that they foist a random router onto you and charge you $10 a month (and charge you if you want to return it). I also dislike that they force a landline on you and charge you another $10 on you. Who in 2019 needs a landline?

I've never used Sonic but this describes my Comcast experience completely. Frustrating that we cant get away from these trappings

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#24

Post by yellowapple »

My initial experience with Sonic was kinda abysmal (real annoying to have to take 4 hours off work only for the tech to never show up), but it's since proven to be pretty solid (at least for DSL), and even with the tech no-show it was pretty great to just be able to text them back and get what seemed to be a response from a real person almost immediately.

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#25

Post by mrigor »

zalthor wrote: post #22

Maybe I'm being too picky? Or a maybe I'm just in the minority, bit I don't really like using Sonic. I mean, their internet works, and customer support is fine (but I've had as good a service from Comcast too). What I find annoying from Sonic is their billing process. I dislike that they foist a random router onto you and charge you $10 a month (and charge you if you want to return it). I also dislike that they force…

You don't have to rent their modem

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#27

Post by gravitas »

Hopefully of interest to HN readers, Sonic has frequent flyer miles with the EFF as being one of the best privacy-oriented ISPs around, fighting gag orders for customer information, offering VPNs, etc. - this article briefly skims over that, easy to find more info in searches. ( https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-2017 ) Probably one of the first all-Linux ISPs to boot. (disclaimer: I've had a Sonic account for just a bit over 24 years, I'm biased)

Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived

#30

Post by Avamander »

zalthor wrote: post #22

Maybe I'm being too picky? Or a maybe I'm just in the minority, bit I don't really like using Sonic. I mean, their internet works, and customer support is fine (but I've had as good a service from Comcast too). What I find annoying from Sonic is their billing process. I dislike that they foist a random router onto you and charge you $10 a month (and charge you if you want to return it). I also dislike that they force…

10$? Do you get a dedicated landline-line or is it actually just VoIP?
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