htyaoma

August 25, 2011 at 4:40am

This post has helped me with a term paper I am writing. Thank you for giving me another point of view on this topic. accounting

pj02143

June 15, 2011 at 12:29pm

I would love to see this in my area. I pay more now for the fastest internet in my area which unfortunately is satellite.

Zxeses

June 13, 2011 at 1:45pm

Thankfully Sonic.net has no data caps.  As a long time customer and current Fusion subscriber, I can attest this service is reliable and fast.

JoBlo

June 13, 2011 at 12:43pm

There is this whole idea behind "internet engineering". Big companies have business models in place that try to convince their customers that the internet is a consumable resource that needs to be dished out. This applies to ISP's and other communication companies, and cell providers etc.

The thing to remember with developing high Internet speeds is the cost per data transferred. It does cost money to keep power to the servers, and networking gear, but where I think ISP's (and cell phone providers) is not understanding that the current model is total garbage. They have built themselves into a corner with their models, and there really is no real solution to reslove it unless they want to risk huge infrastructure upgrades. Being that the big players are public companies, it is impossible for them to justify the "chance" of doing something that the customers actually want, over forcing what they want onto the customers. It's politics.

fiber costs less to maintain, and has way less stability problems under load over traditional copper lines. So with this information, it is more cost effective to run fiber from day to day over copper, and since the physical size of fiber over the raising prices of the less efficient high power requirements to maintain copper networks, you get more bang for the buck traffic wise per same physical space. The logistical point from actually moving everything to fiber is the cost to install it. I think Sonic has the right idea behind what they are doing. It will cost them upfront to upgrade the infrastructure, but there is such a huge void in ISP competition right now, that people will flock to what they have to offer. Sonic also doesn't have huge internal political problems to deal with like the big ISP's do.

It would be very interesting to see the cost of running current high cost copper lines, against the cost of installing much faster and reliable fiber, which has a fraction of the physical power requirements to maintain, over say, a 5-10 year projection in high density locations.

With the work I do online, I am seriously considering moving to a location that has better internet over my craptastic Comcast connection that bogs down in the late afternoon like rush hour traffic.

hador_nyc

June 13, 2011 at 10:03am

I CALL OUT THIS CANADIAN. They are called telephone poles in America, and more importatnly California where this is about.

Marthian

June 12, 2011 at 9:23pm

Sure there's faster internet services available, but I'm worried about caps.

Right around my place, Cableone offers no cap and 10mbps and then 50gb cap and 50mbps.

Holly Golightly

June 12, 2011 at 8:33pm

Okay, for a second, I thought they meant Sevastopol Ukraine. There is even a Saint Petersburg Florida, which has the same name for a city in Russia. Pretty interesting.

Back to the subject. Companies like Sonic need to be everywhere. I love it when a company stands for their consumers, and not the dollars. Of course, they can still be profitable, even at $50 a month. As long as they keep getting more, and more customers, they should be fine. 

I think if they want to be able to generate the quickest profit, they need to aim at establishing a network in more densly-populated areas. Just about any major city will do. Hopefully they can get every single resident in Sebastopol to sign up. Generate more profit, expand, repeat.

duncansil

June 12, 2011 at 7:09pm

Anyone remember when it cost over $5000 to build a decent computer, now done for 1/5 that at 10 times the performace? The same is about to happen to broadband, if competition is allowed to flourish.

Markitzero

June 12, 2011 at 6:29pm

were i live i california the only landline internet that you can get is dialup and  at minimum  $80 with phone and ISP eaither thtat or wireless connection and 3 only satellite, 3G, WISP. Satellite and WISP can be very expensive likw WISP can be over $120 and 3G were I am are saturated and i get under 30KB/s and alot of time it go under 15KB/s on 3G. Were I live it is a monopoly for broadband and verizon is the only one  and they dont want to upgrade for more broadband  so they only offer is dialup

triplemonitordude

June 12, 2011 at 4:47pm

In Chattanooga, TN you can get 1gb/s for $350 a month through EPB.  It was the first in the USA to offer it.  I'm on their lowest package, and I get up to 30 mb/s up and down.  

If your curious...
https://epbfi.com/you-pick/#/fi-speed-internet-100

Brock Kane

June 12, 2011 at 4:42pm

Well, there is Hope, right? We can't give up on this, and let Comcrap monopolize the broadband world, while raping us for all we're worth!

You Go Sonic!

szore

June 12, 2011 at 3:24pm

free market rules

Cooketh

June 12, 2011 at 2:22pm

Offering 1Gbps to 700 homes is quite easy. It gets more expensive and complex when you look at the 15-20 million subscriber mark. This isn't some super holy bold move sonic is making. Known fact, smaller subcriber base --> less cost more speed.

lindethier

June 12, 2011 at 2:10pm

If only...

kixofmyg0t

June 12, 2011 at 1:14pm

Comcast and other ISP's will bitch to law makers about this. Expect Sonic to go out of bussiness shorty after from the BS red tape and fine's and fee's brought up by the other ISP's 

 

It's a nice thought but no one will get rich off of this. If no one make's huge million dollar profits then it gets buried.

zaphodbeeblebrox 42

June 12, 2011 at 12:20pm

1Gbps: all the faster to reach ur band cap...