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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

#81

Post by bane »

I worked at an ISP back in the late 90s. We were in the same building as our backbone provider and they simply drilled a hole in the floor and dropped an Ethernet cable down it for us to get our connection. We replaced our custom built dialup racks with something fancier and supported ISDN for the handful of customers who wanted it. The coming of DSL and cable internet was the writing on the wall to get out. The owners sold it to a larger ISP during a frothy period of mergers and acquisitions while the marketplace tidied itself up.

There used to be dozens of ISPs you could choose from in a big market. Sigh.

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

#82

Post by proverbialbunny »

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 switched over to Sonic 1gpbs service last month. I'm in the SF/Bay Area too.

Out here it's $80 a month for the first 12 months, and then $90 a month, but the only hidden service fee I'm getting is the $9.95 a month modem. I can buy one for $70, but tech support told me I'm not allow to remove the modem they issue, which is odd. They didn't say my service would cost $10 more a month.

Still, $90 a month is cheaper than Comcast and AT&T. All you guys paying $40, and even if it turns into $75 is a sweet deal. It's one of the best deals in the country.

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

#83

Post by schoen »

fletchowns wrote: post #47
floren wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Sonic in Livermore because despite the relatively low speeds, I didn't have to reboot the modem every week like Comcast!

I never use ISP provided equipment, I always use my own. Except when I had AT&T U-Verse, since I was forced to use their proprietary 2-wire modem (which was absolute garbage and required weekly reboots). However, with Comcast, I can use my own NETGEAR DOCSIS 3.1 modem which has been absolutely rock solid, I have never rebooted it in the two years I've had it.

> I have never rebooted it in the two years I've had it.

That's awesome, but perhaps it needs a software update by now?

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

#84

Post by cbhl »

terinjokes wrote: post #51
inferiorhuman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on whether you get ADSL (6 Mbps per copper phone line, resold AT&T, but a real phone line) or Fiber Optic (gigabit fiber optic to the apartment, but you get an additional box that exposes a phone jack plugged into the ONT in the closet, so presumably VOIP). ADSL2 goes up to around 20 Mbps, VDSL up to around 50 Mbps. Sonic may or may not still sell bonded DSL service. I believe the only resold AT&T servic…

Where I was living in SOMA, it was resold U-Verse that wasn't even FTTN. It was several thousand feet of copper back to the central office. No one knew the exact length, as those records were lost. Was ecstatic finally moving away from that place to somewhere else.

I've had ADSL2 and VDSL on Bell Canada lines in Ontario, but last I checked (maybe four years ago?) I was under the impression that in SF proper AT&T wasn't able to get permission to build out the nodes to do FTTN/VDSL in many parts of the city.

Since then, I've only lived in new construction where they have fiber to the unit...

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

#85

Post by Rediscover »

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…

> Who in 2019 needs a landline?

Certain first responders, eg those who handle oil spills on mountains in the Pacific North West.

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

#86

Post by jjeaff »

zonidjan wrote: post #71
reaperducer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

illegal exclusive line ownership agreement that my commercial landlords signed with AT&T. Exclusive, yes. Illegal? Not really. Every apartment building I've lived in has had an agreement with one provider. They don't want to rip open the walls for every company that wants to put in a line. And these days with the way internet providers come and go, I don't blame them. If you rent, you don't own the building, so you h…

It is, in one sense, illegal. "The NOI provides a history of FCC regulations in this area, noting that in 2007 and 2008 the commission “prohibited providers from entering into or enforcing exclusive agreements to provide services to customers in commercial and residential MTEs.”" - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/exclusive-broadb... What's not illegal is landlords accepting free services from the ISPs in…

In San Francisco, if your sole reason for buying a house is to choose your ISP, it would be cheaper to launch your own wireless isp.

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

#87

Post by proverbialbunny »

nominated1 wrote: post #13

Visits site > Clicks Check Availability > Enters Address Info > Clicks Check Availability > Google Captcha > Selects Audio (because I've been caught in a loop too many times) > Clicks Play > Enters Text > Receives "Try Again Later..." > Closes Tab There has got to be a better way. I mean Sonic just lost a potential customer because I won't "Try Again Later". Ubuntu + Firefox FWIW

I don't get a captcha. Odd.

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

#88

Post by proverbialbunny »

rladd wrote: post #54

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…

Sonic, 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-bat...

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

#89

Post by proverbialbunny »

dredmorbius wrote: post #29
rocky1138 wrote: post #28

Do any ISPs still offer shell accounts?

Here's one that does ;-) https://www.sonic.com/shell-access

Does anyone have experience with the usenet access it says it provides? I can't find any information on google.

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

#90

Post by PopeDotNinja »

awongh wrote: post #76
scurvy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the reason to not like Comcast? For me it was Sonic at $90/mo for 3 maybe 4mbps (not a lie), or Comcast at $80 for 300mbps. It's a no-brainer there. I'm not doing anything illegal so I don't care about Comcast cracking down on torrents. The data caps are high enough that I can't hit them in my max-2 simultaneous Netflix streams. Comcast let me buy my own modem instead of using theirs. The only time I lost Comc…

When I lived in SF I had monkeybrains, I was happy with them, and very happy not to give comcast my money.

How fast were upload speeds with Monkeybrains?
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