[arstechnica.com]

A tiny David sticking it to a Goliath in a small ISP market. Yeah, I like these kinds of stories.

Lots of hurdles overcome. Here's what I saw from the article:

1) They were uncompetitive on product due to the deregulated DSL the FCC mandated, but were able to stick it out by providing good customer service.

2) They built their own fiber network, which freed them from having to pay $12/subscriber (WOW!) to the phone company to lease the lines.

3) The fiber network permits up to Gigabit speeds in some areas, but they don't charge an insane price for it. Instead, they price it more in line with what their costs are, which they reveal are going down. Does your ISP do that? Mine doesn't. Did you see where they have a history of lowering the monthly cost to their subscribers?

this sort of thing needs to happen to move tech forward. existing companies have no reason to provide this kind of service. particularly not cable companies.

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When I moved into my current home I wanted to use Sonic for DSL, but I'm so far out from the CO (~13,000 feet) that even the owner of the local infrastructure (Verizon) couldn't guarantee me DSL faster than 1.5 Mbps.

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RIP, Greg the DogSitter. You are missed.

I don't have their fibre optic, but I did replace my AT&T voice phone/ DSL line with their service over the same wires for 3x the speed (12mbps dl vs. 4mbps) at $15 less per month and no download limiting. Very satisfied.

It does seem as if a small private company could do it under certain circumstances if they wanted to. They mention Speakeasy, which puttered along for a long time with the goal of being bought out---they didn't really attempt what Sonic has done. Municipalities that are interested in this can sometimes do it but draw more legal challenges from the private sector when they do.

Sonic's example makes Chattanooga's recent premier service look way overpriced, and it's not as if the cost of living or whatever in eastern TN is anything like in the San Francisco area. If small companies (or munis) with über-fast speeds want to charge a lot for service "because they can" I think they're shooting themselves in the foot, and only giving the big providers time to catch up. That customer inertia thing is a killer.

It'll be interesting to see how Google prices it in Kansas City. Is it just me or does the cat seem like it's out of the bag on cost here?

Switched to sonic a few months ago and am very pleased with the service. No fiber, just DSL and phone for $40 a month. ATT was charging me $78 for the same, but slower DSL.

I already checked for Sonic service. I am too far away from the Sonic office to get 20 Mbps. I think the number of people in the S.F. area that can get their premiere service is in the single digit percentages. I do like to hear that there are success stories out there.

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in tha 510.

I'm very intrigued about this.

For DSL, sonic leases the telco lines, no? How can they provide more broadband over the same DSL line? I understand how they can charge less but I don't get how sonic can provide better throughput or lower latency unless they have separate COs.

This thread may be done, but to respond to Wailer, Sonic is implementing ADSL2 from the local Central Office. (ATT calls their implementation of ADSL2 "Uverse." )

The story is that the FCC "deregulated" but what that meant is that the incumbents no longer had to share infrastructure from new build-outs. (The US is the one of the few places in the world where this happened. In return, the incumbents promised complete build outs of new infrastructure...but gosh, now they have stopped. )

As a result, Sonic can use the local copper within a few kilofeet of the CO, and use ADSL2. However, anyone beyond a few kilofeet or behind a remote terminal cannot get the upgrade.

In the case of fiber, they are doing a complete new install but it is limited to one small town in Sonoma County.

I have used Sonic for a number of years, and they have been fantastic. But I am behind a remote terminal so if I need more than 6mbps I need to go to Comcast or Uverse. There are quite a few Bay Area types that beg Sonic CEO Dane Jasper to come to their town, but he just does not have the capital. Or the lawyers.