 Review by highhatsize 
UPDATED: 140 days ago
member for 8.8 years, 1468 visits, last login: 33 days ago
 San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
 $35 per month (month by month)
 about 4 days
 AT&T
 "Great technical support"
 "Not free. (Power to the People!)"
 "Great company. They can't help having to deal with AT&T"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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[UPDATE (SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2008):
Performance still peerless. Dane explained to me that SONIC does its own wire length tests rather than rely on AT&T so I guess that I am doomed to a 3M downspeed cap for as long as I use DSL. My speed tests to Megapath return a uniform 2550/435. That's nothing to shake a stick at and the speeds are even marginally increasing over time. For some reason, my yahoo email doesn't download graphics and Dane offered to troubleshoot this for me. I do appreciate the offer, but I'm not interested enough to spend the time. Last week I thought that I had lost my internet connection for the first time. However, it turned out that I had accidentally turned off the wireless modem in my computer.
I did get nailed with a price increase to $30, six months after signing up on a "no contract" basis, so that was a mistake.
No complaints. My modem seems to be the same one that AT&T Yahoo supplied to me when I had them as my IP. However, SONIC warrants it for 2 years rather than 1, (which is AT&T Yahoo's limit), so if it dies at the same time that the AT&T Yahoo one did I should be covered.]
I forget how many ISP's I have had now, probably ten or twelve. I relocated from the East Coast. This is the best one for service. Optimum had the best speed, but this has the best service. It is also, currently, the best value in San Francisco, (DSL Extreme may equal it. I don't know), because it gives you a free modem with a TWO year warranty as opposed to AT&T Yahoo's ONE year, and speeds at the same price as AT&T Yahoo. Moreover, it DOES NOT require an annual contract!
That being said, I think its attitude towards AT&T is too laid-back. If AT&T tells them that a connection is two miles from the CO, (as they did with me), they accept it. Since I previously had AT&T Yahoo from this address and was told by them that I was within a mile from the CO, someone is telling porkies. Or . . . perhaps there are two lines to the CO from this address and AT&T is keeping the short ones for their own customers? (They wouldn't do that, would they?) AT&T also kept me waiting an extra five days for a provisioning point at the local CO despite the fact that I had just freed up one by terminating THEIR dsl service.
I only wanted the 3M tier, so it doesn't bother me, but I think that SONIC and other independent isps should request oversight of CO circuits owned by the competing telco.
Of course, that may be pie-in-the-sky since I have read that the telco's obligation to provide circuits to independent isps will end next year.
SONIC's techs are very knowledgeable, very quick, and very INTELLIGIBLE, (a concern for those of us who have trouble understanding English as spoken in Mumbai). I hope the company sticks around.
[UPDATE, JUNE 12, 2009]
Don't know what happened with the telco wiring, but SONIC found me to be within the distance to qualify for 6M down service, (after finding me outside of that zone earlier), so I signed up. It's only $5 more to double my download speed so a true no-brainer.
My speed is around 5100/655 so I am well satisfied.
Smooth sailing.
[UPDATE: July 13. 2009:
Another one of those niggling billing problems of which SONIC.net seems unable to rid itself. I signed up for my own website for free over a year ago. When I saw that I had been charged $10 for it after the introductory free year, (I think that that was the reason I was charged),I called SONIC.net and canceled it. The charge was never deducted and I subsequently learned that by the time the charge appears on your bill it is too late to deduct it. Why not bill us for it a month in advance so that we can cancel before the telco bills SONIC?
Followup comments:  
DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| Sonic.net DSL quote:
Of course, that may be pie-in-the-sky since I have read that the telco's obligation to provide circuits to independent isps will end next year.
Thanks for your comments, we appreciate you taking the time to write. I'll chat with our team about your particular loop length if you'll IM or email me (dane@sonic.net) your Sonic.net username.
Regarding AT&T's obligation to offer ADSL circuits to ISPs, it appears that we'll be able to continue to load new circuits through mid 2010. After that point, they could bar new circuits, though in-service customers are not going to be affected.
Meanwhile, we've formed a CLEC and are working to deploy our own DSLAMs. The availability of copper itself will extend into the foreseeable future.
-Dane | |
| ewschulz
join:2008-04-24
San Pablo, CA
|  connection distance
I just wasted time with ATT trying to get my connection distance, only to be told that it proprietary information. The only thing I could find out is that I am on a remote hub and not the central office.
My point is that Sonic can not get that information if I can not!! | |
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