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Review by unibroker 
member for 1.2 years, 271 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated a few hours ago
 Altadena,Los Angeles,CA
 $15 per month about 6 days AT&T "Very responsive and candid." "My error: Sonic did indeed tell me how to configure the gateway." "Glad I made the switch"
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Dealt with Sonic via email before I switched; impressed by their responsiveness. Didn't sugarcoat the fact that I wouldn't get higher speeds because of my distance from the remote terminal. It's only day one but I have high hopes/expectations for a more reliable connection than I got from the previous ISP.
Update: Continue to be impressed with Sonic tech support. Did continue to have connectivity issues so they coordinated a visit with an AT&T field tech and appear to have gotten to the bottom of it; solid connection in the week since that visit. Great to work with a company trying to resolve the problems.
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Review by Thadius856
member for 5.6 years, 11 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
updated 4 days ago
- Wheatland,Yuba,CA
- $20 per month
- AT&T
- "Low cost, reasonable TOS, no monthly bandwidth cap, reliable timeframe estimates, 100% uptime so far"
- "Lower upload speeds than expected, 100% uptime so far (2 weeks in)"
- "Worth the money if you don't upload lots of large time-sensitive files"
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Ordered DSL service from Sonic and local home phone from AT&T since Dry
Loop isn't available. That's ok because most of my AT&T wireless minutes
come from calling businesses while I'm at home anyway, so I can now cut
down the voice plan on my cellular $15 to help compensate for the $23
landline cost. The wife will be happier to be able to talk to her family as
long as she wants. We went with a pending-on-pending for the following
Friday (5 business days out). Both services came on some time while I was
at work on Friday, flawlessly. I ordered my own Zoom modem from Amazon to
save a few dollars and the carrier settings from the instruction manual
were dead on; I still called their tech support line to confirm them.
At $20/mo for 12 mos, the Elite tier 3-6mbit package was very attractive.
My connection has been testing at 4 - 6 mbit down at 2800 ft from the CO in
a (geographically) small town with a lower population. Upstream is between
384 and 786 kbit depending on time of day, which I find disappointing.
Compare to 12-16 mbit down and 2-3 mbit up from Comcast on a "Performance"
tier, albiet at a much higher cost. I'm told Extreme 105 is available in my
area, though there's certainly no fiber here and I doubt there will be for
a very very long time. However, with the difference in TOS, I'm not worried
about bandwidth caps or Comcast's historically shady practices of packet
shaping and that helps make up for it. I just wish Sonic's Fusion hardware
was installed at my CO for better speeds.
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Review by LeftBanker
member for 30 days, 26 visits, last login: 5 days ago
lodged 22 days ago
- Berkeley,Alameda,CA
- $39 per month
- "tech support is excellent even if they can't fix everything"
- "Depends on AT&T junk infrastructure"
- "Good deal for the money but don't expect anything like 20Mbps"
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Meh.
It's a great deal. Their Fusion service gives you DSL and landline service (with all the bells and whistles) for a modest price. You will not do better for cost.
The tech support is friendly, polite, patient and, unfortunately, wrong as often as not. I've had lots of stability problems and they've blamed everything they could think of. Every time we think we've got it fixed, it runs fine for hours, days maybe if I'm lucky, then I'm back on the phone to yet another tech who has yet another set of things that are wrong on my end.
If you're in their area, you're not going to do better for DSL. My other real option is AT&T and they're using the same crappy lines, so I wouldn't get better service, but I'd pay a lot more and have to deal with AT&T. Not even a close call here.
On the other hand, these guys are still limited in what they can do. You will get much more stable and much faster broadband from comcast. But, then again, you've got comcast--at twice the cost.
Finally, they advertise "up to 20Mbps". Sure. If you're in an apartment upstairs from to CO and have brand new copper running there. At my site, 3500 feet from the CO according to their calculations, I'm only reasonably stable at 3.5Mbps. If we push the limits, I'll get 5Mbs, but in a day or two everything goes to hell.
Bottom Line: I'll stick with sonic.net. You could do much, much worse.
Comments:
 klui
join:2001-11-08
San Jose, CA Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
| Around the same speed @ 3X the distanceJust a data point, my parents' Fusion connection is around 11K feet from the CO in San Francisco and they get around 3.2 Mbps. Originally their AT&T DSL could only get 1.5 Mbps. Lots of tweaking was required for their internal wiring since the house is so old but they're pretty stable now.
I just remotely pulled their modem stats and it shows
downstream rate: 3200 Kbps
upstream rate: 896 Kbps
noise margin 5.6 dB
output power: 12.5 dBm
line attenuation: 56.0 dB
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·SONIC.NET
| Re: Around the same speed @ 3X the distance I think those stats are very interesting. My line attenuation is quite a bit better (38-39dB), noise margin consistently 6-7.5 dB, distance from CO ~8K'. But I'm getting not as good upload and just about the same download speeds.
Just to head off the obvious inferences: Everything from the NID to the computer's NIC is new and has been tested repeatedly. It's all good. I get the same results at the test jack. The problem is clearly upstream and no one seems to know how to deal with it. | |
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Review by lukrats8
member for 288 days, 121 visits, last login: 8 days ago
updated 24 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $30 per month
- about 4 days
- AT&T
- "No mandatory contract, bundles, caps. Good E-mail. Honest support."
- "Depends upon AT&T RT and ATM network. Slow every night, for me."
- "Each technology and provider has it's own problems. Pick your choice."
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I have had Sonic.net DSL service over my AT&T telephone lines for about 3 years. It was OK.
My "Express-R" service now slows to 100K -500K (BPS), EVERY evening (5:30 pm to 12:30 am).
Ping times quadruple (15 ms to 60 ms) and packet loss goes up to 15% (on the last hop only).
Nominal speed is 1290K download during morning and afternoon. Upload is always 325K.
AT&T line technicians have investigated my POTS/DSL line 3 times since April.
They told me my phone line tests good enough for ADSL @ 3000K+ (even at 7 pm).
My telco wires & NID are 2+ years old; homerun is new, no bridges/taps, modem-30db SNR.
My DSL/POTS is serviced by older AT&T-RT equipment, so Fusion is not available to me.
I am told the RT is about 4000' from me. I am located on the western edge of zipcode 94116.
Sonic tech support and I seem to agree; the problem is AT&T ATM net congestion.
The ATM net transports my data from the local RT to Sonic's gateway across town.
Sonic admits they can't do much about that. AT&T won't commit to a repair timetable.
It's a good thing my lifestyle supports internet usage during the morning. I'm OK with it.
I will probably remain with Sonic. I am not comfortable with Xfinity, or U-Verse, etc.
Those services are subject to mandatory contracts, bundling, caps, and throttling.
I understand their customer service can be good, bad, or downright ugly.
Someday my fiber will come. (my apologies to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).
I admire Sonic, for what it's doing to remedy the disregard that telcos have for good service.
And the stand against the US Dept. of Justice is remarkable, even if they did get squashed.
Building out an independent telecomm network is amazing in this economic environment.
They are wisely cautious and expending capital slowly, as their market grows and evolves.
The take away I get from this is simply that DSL is complicated and has many components.
Even if your local copper wires are good there can be other bottlenecks to high speed.
Anyone who gets DSL service from my AT&T RT will likely have the same problems.
NO, I do not work for Sonic. They work for me. Your mileage may vary (as in "up to...").
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Review by zzuperman
member for 27 days, 0 visits, last login: 27 days ago
updated 27 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $15 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 4 days
- AT&T
- "Solid Customer Service. Affordable."
- "cannot renew the existing $15 legacy DSL (1.5mbps/384kbps) deal after 12 months"
- "Delivered what's advertised."
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Like many people, I was unhappy with AT&T's DSL service and my contract expired long ago; I paid about $30 a month for 1.5mbps/384kbps, and the speedtest told me I was often under 1mpbs on downloads. I had an outage for about 2 weeks due to an actual phone line problem outside of my house, and I got them to fix that for free since it was voice/line related. AT&T simply charged too much for the old legacy DSL service, and the down&upload speed was just horrendous. So, I took the opportunity to make the change. I had initially thought of signing up with DSLExtreme, but their customer service was not very good. I'm a simple user, and learned that where I live (zip 94134), the best I can get for the buck was the $15 a month for 1.5mbps/384kbps package. I called Sonic.net and they said I can use my existing 2Wire 2701 HB-G modem-router. Good, that saved me from paying the $14 shipping fee from Sonic sending me a new modem, and the extra cost of buying a new router. It took exactly 4 business days to get my DSL service switched; just as promised.
Speedtest: with Sonic, now I always get 1.32mpbs/320kpbs - I'm happy with that.
I was told by a Sonic rep that after my 12-month contract ended, I cannot renew the existing $15 legacy DSL (1.5mbps/384kbps) deal; most likely, by then if i continue, the service would go to $25 a month. I know the renewal option is available from DSLExtreme. Anyways, a year from now, I will see what services are available, and I can definite switch to whoever depending on the savings.
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Review by divn2it
member for 2.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 32 days ago
updated 32 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $40 per month
- about 7 days
- AT&T
- "AWESOME"
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Sonic.net is awesome. Fusion service $40/month for unlimited nationwide telephone (POTS) service and dsl broadband is great deal and the speeds are excellent. My downloads are in the 10-12 mbps range, upload a little over 1 and that is with a cap on the line to help with stability. More importantly their customer service is OUTSTANDING. I've had lots of trouble with my connection dropping and over a period of time, they have always been available to me, including calling me back, to try to figure out the problem. Today a tech came out and found a short in the telephone wiring in my building. Despite the fact that the problem had nothing to do with Sonic.net,. he fixed it for FREE and my connection is now both fast and stable. I use a combined modem and wireless router supplied by Sonic.net. Self install was a breeze, I have excellent coverage throughout my 1200 sq ft condo. I can't recommend these folks enough!
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 Review by warriors
member for 10.6 years, 2529 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 32 days ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- "are you kidding me? No data cap AND a static IP for $40 + tax?"
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Great tech support! They don't read from scripts! As soon as I told them my problem, they knew right away the cause of it! Not only did they fix my problem, they tweaked something to boost up my download speed as well!
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Review by hrioo
member for 7.9 years, 60 visits, last login: 34 days ago
lodged 34 days ago
- Glendale,Los Angeles,CA
- $20 per month
- about 10 days
- AT&T
- "No more disconnects finally"
- "None so far"
- "Excellent support"
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I switched to sonic.net from att because i was having constant disconnects with their att elite dsl service, which they could not fix. When my sonic.net dsl kicked in, i got the same disconnects, so i opened a trouble ticked and their customer support identified the problem and sent out an att technician to fix the it the day after i opened the trouble ticket.
Although i have not been with sonic.net for a long time, so far i am very happy with their service and support. I think they understand that by providing high quality service to their customers, they won't need to provide a lot of it, because if things don't break often, people will ask for support less often.
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Review by brycenesbitt
member for 11.2 years, 53 visits, last login: 33 days ago
updated 34 days ago
- Berkeley,Alameda,CA
- $51 per month
- (month by month)
- about 4 days
- AT&T
- "Flat rate adsl2 plus unlimited land line (not VOIP)"
- "Distance from central office matters -- the longer the slower"
- "A unbeatable value. Time to dump AT&T and Comcast"
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Moved into a new house, got AT&T U-Verse. After 6 home visits they could not get DNS to work properly.
So we got cable. It was OK, but expensive, and Comcast wants you to install spyware toolbars.
Enter sonic.net. They don't disclose everything up front, but the terms are really reasonable. Flat rate $40 plus tax for real voice plus internet, and good international rates.
Watch out for the length of time it takes to port your AT&T number over: better to have Sonic installed on a second line, so you are not out of service for 10-15 days. And ask UP FRONT how much speed you'll likely get, based on your distance from the central office.
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Review by braxus
member for 8.5 years, 173 visits, last login: 12 days ago
updated 39 days ago
- Los Altos,Santa Clara,CA
 Business customer- $1450 per month
- (36 month contract)
- about 84 days
- AT&T
- "Great scalable product. NOC/Tech Support Team is top notch."
- "Poor communication during installation phase"
- "Expect different experience during install phase vs. other dedicated business ISPs."
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Product: Fiber DIA (Dedicated Internet Access) Metro Ethernet
Hardware: Cisco ME 3400, Ethernet hand-off
Speed: 20Mbps symmetric (down and up)
Been using and recommending Sonic.net's services to friends for years. Throughout that time, they've been great when it comes to residential and business DSL service and support. We are already a customer with their business DSL service at one of our remote office locations. Service at our main office was up for renewal and Sonic won the service contract when we went out for bid.
---Pre-Sales---
Pre-qualification and gathering information relating what's available in our area went through without a hitch. Our sales rep gave us the info we wanted and there was never any pressure on signing that contract. Was notified of a 90 to 120 day lead time as a new fiber circuit would need to be run to our premises. Only one other company told us of that little factoid.
---Installation---
This is where I was a little worried. Many times, calls made to our account manager would go unanswered, even when we left a voicemail. Same thing would go for e-mail. Usually took a couple reminders for our account manager to get back to us. Status updates on where the installation process was also hard to come by. There were times where AT&T was able to give us a better understanding on what was happening than our Sonic rep.
One thing to keep in mind is that Sonic does not have any field service agents (at least in my area). They do not do final circuit certification hand-off on site. This was kind of surprising given that other service providers I've worked with in the past tend to send out a tech for final certification sometime during the install process.
---Hand-Off/Turn-Up---
Two issues during the turn-up phase.
1. The RX/TX lights on the Cisco ME 3400 was working but there weren't any packets moving. Turns out AT&T plugged their end of the equipment into some of Sonic's older equipment which was supposedly no longer being used for new installs. Think this is where final on-site validation could have helped. Other ISPs seem to do this for dedicated circuits... unsure why Sonic doesn't.
2. No communication when the circuit was going to be turned-on and handed over the us. Just got a call out of the blue one day letting us know it was up.
Thankfully during this process Sonic's NOC support staff was on the ball. These guys do know what they're doing and it's the main reason why I chose Sonic to begin with.
---Billing---
Hate to say it but this is where I find Sonic dropped the ball on again. Sonic has our credit card info on file given that we're already a business DSL customer at one of our other offices.
Made it clear to our sales rep that we needed to have the Fiber DIA product billed traditionally via an invoice sent by mail to our accounting department. Was told this could be done and we filled out the paperwork to make it happen. After all that effort, still got a charge of over $1,500 to my agency's credit card... thankfully it got declined. Furthermore, the agreed upon contract price doesn't seem to be reflected as well as we're being charged more than we should be.
Here's hoping it can be resolved ASAP.
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In a nutshell, Sonic will provide competitive prices and their support staff is one of the best I've worked with over the years. What they need to work on is communication with the customer during the sales/installation phase. It was difficult getting dates on when things should happen. At times I was wondering what the heck was going on as Sonic's usually on top of things. Partially due to the lack of communication, I needed to extend my current service contract with my ISP at a substantial cost for a month.
One thing to keep in mind for the prospective business customer... Most larger companies and government agencies like mine have the staff on-hand that can hop these hurdles along the way. Smaller businesses may find it challenging and confusing on what to do and what to expect.
Would I choose Sonic again? Definitely for DSL based services. For their enterprise connectivity services? Have to say I'm now a little more cautious given this experience.
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