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Good news if you’re from the Bay area: blazing fast broadband might just lie in your future. Yesterday, Sonic.net – the modestly sized, ISP that was chosen by Google to build a fiber network for Stanford University – announced plans to bring a fiber-optic network capable of 1 Gbps speeds to the city. Sonic already offers it in another city for just $70 a month (including unlimited domestic VOIP), and hey! The company doesn’t impose data caps either. Don’t get too excited yet, though – the company still has some big hoops to jump through to make it happen.
According to PC World, aside from the significant costs associated with rolling out new fiber to over 800,000 people, the biggest issue will be convincing the city to allow building permits for the 188 utility boxes needed to run the fiber around the city. AT&T is currently locked into an ongoing dispute with community leaders about its need to stain the city sidewalks with boxes in order to bring the high-speed U-Verse service to San Fran. (Admittedly, AT&T needed nearly four times as many boxes, at 728 total.) Sonic.net plans on taking a wait-and-see approach before bugging administrators to approve its permits.
Utility boxes can detract from the look of city sidewalks, but man, capless 1 Gbps speeds sound alluring (especially when a $70 internet plan from Comcast nets you only 25 Mbps). Are there any San Francisco natives reading this? What do you think?
Comments are closed on this article
noobstix
December 16, 2011 at 10:26am
This really is a great deal compared to Comcrap. Although most (if not all) of my connection issues were solved by getting a new router earlier in the year, their service is still prone to dropouts and massive amounts of lag (especially around the holidays). I would take better service from 50 miles away than crappy service from only 10 miles away (I live about 50 miles from The City).
t.y.wan
December 16, 2011 at 4:25am
Do they include a "$1500" hidden installation fee that is paid after the first month of usage? I have a few "friends" that have problems with their "Gigabit" internet service...
Wily_One
December 16, 2011 at 1:10am
I live in the Bay Area, but not in the city of San Francisco. So how is this great news for me?
Markkus Rovito
December 15, 2011 at 2:27pm
I live in San Francisco for many reasons. I really like it here. But a few hundred utility boxes are the last thing anyone should worry about staining the sidewalks. There are plenty of literal stains that deserve much more scrutiny than this. Frankly, this city is probably one of the filthiest in North America. There are entire blocks that smell like neglected latrines. It's not just gross; it's embarrassing for the city.
I'd sign up for this service immediately, but TechLarry is probably right. Many a palm will be greased by our corporate oppressors to fight progress.
US_Ranger
December 15, 2011 at 10:47pm
This man speaks the truth. On top of the smelly streets, the amount of perma-bums on every corner are much more of a problem than utility boxes from a company that would bring money and jobs to the city.
joe2
December 15, 2011 at 11:43am
sonic.net is awesome
did a lot of research before getting cyberonic DSL in 2003 or so, for the cheapest price i could find (3MB for $50).
then last year sonic.net started offering UNCAPPED dsl for $40 - ten dollars less! speed depends on distance from CO of course but overnight we more than doubled our download speed for less money.
at first i had an issue getting disconnected from online games because the network settings for our connection were too aggressive but a phone call later fixed it.
this is the ONLY uncapped dsl product in the US that I am aware of. the ceo is a real visionary - he made a blog post saying bandwidth throttling was basically a marketing scheme to force people to pay for higher speeds and he wasn't having it.
lowest price
highest speed
customer friendly policies
great support
pretty much the best ISP company ever! yay for sonic.net :D
Brad Chacos
December 15, 2011 at 12:28pm
I have Fairpoint and it's uncapped, too. That's a great story you have there, though. Who doesn't like more for less?
TechLarry
December 15, 2011 at 11:39am
Every Cable and Telecom company in the area will be waving (no, shoving) lobby dollars at the local politicians to ensure this never, ever happens.
It's the 100mpg carburetor of our time.
bling581
December 15, 2011 at 10:39am
Jealous. I pay $55 for basic intenet with Time Warner and it's only like 7mbps.
Holly Golightly
December 15, 2011 at 9:46am
I think that is a great deal for the speed. But to be honest with you... I am beginning to find 4G LTE+ Wide Channel more attractive than this. It is 4x faster than standard cable and I can take it with me anywhere I go. As tablets become more mainstream, I question the future of these fiber optic cables everywhere. I am sure they would be great for schools and libraries, but definitely not beneficial to the mainstream user. Still, I would like to see a 1Gbps fiber optic service here in New York City. Just not sure how useful it would be for most customers with their iPads and what not.
