page: 1 · 2  |
 
gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
3 edits | Might be a good business deal For the first year only, not good for me but might be a good business package. Also if you already have dsl you are not eligible for this service plan. | |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA | Re: Not a good deal Actually, we don't know what SBC is offering yet... but if Sonic.net feels they can make a profit on $45/year, I expect SBC's pricing to be about the same.
-- Rob
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\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network | |
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deblin
Dark Side of the Moon
Premium,MVM
join:2001-09-01
Middletown, DE
| Re: Not a good deal It just doesn't make much sense...their current pricing for dynamic:
$26.95 - standard+
$36.95 - deluxe
$99.95 - expert+
I think that $99 expert+ promo is no longer available (at least according to their web page). But let's speak in terms of promo rates.
I don't understand why they'd offer expert+ for $45/mo. That's a pretty huge jump in my opinion. But if sonic can sell it for $45, you're right they probably will offer that as a promo rate, with perhaps $60/mo being the 'normal' rate.
So the question is, what will they do with static pricing?
The current dynamic(promo)->static deltas are:
$38 - standard+
$28 - deluxe
$60 - expert+
Notice the non-linear relationship. So assuming $60 more per month for the static expert+, can we expect $105($45+60)/mo for expert plus static? Or will it be $120($60+60)/mo? It will be interesting to see...also, I think they'll have to lower their deluxe static pricing, but SBC is weird about their static IPs, so who knows  | |
| | | | | | | | | | | 2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI
| Re: Not a good deal said by djrobx  :
quote:
And well, 6000/608 for $45 would kick Comcast square in the nuts!
-- Rob
Ouch, do we need to get that graphic? | |
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deblin
Dark Side of the Moon
Premium,MVM
join:2001-09-01
Middletown, DE | hehe very, very true | |
| | clos
join:2002-08-13
Los Angeles, CA | Re: Might be a good business deal Too bad they are not in my area. They only support the Bay Area in CA (what they told me). Oh well guess I'll stick with dsl extreme. | |
| | | Kavan
join:2003-01-19
Santa Rosa, CA | Re: Might be a good business deal Whoa, didn't know we made the front page. But in reply, we serve the northwestern lata, from about north monterey bay to eureka west coast, and the stockton/lodi pacbell lata. | |
| Cod
join:2000-07-05
Greensboro, NC
1 edit | yeah right. New customers only? Sounds like a marketing scheme to do one thing- boost its subscriber base and lock them into a 1 year contract...
I bet after that year is up they will be bumped down to 1.5/256.
Caveat Emptor | |
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gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
| Re: yeah right. said by Cod :
New customers only? Sounds like a marketing scheme to do one thing- boost its subscriber base and lock them into a 1 year contract...
I bet after that year is up they will be bumped down to 1.5/256.
Caveat Emptor
Quote from the advertisment:
Offer good only on new DSL circuit orders. Telephone lines with existing DSL service will not be able to take advantage of the special one-year introductory price.
So not just new customers but new DSL customers period.
--
Shoot Straight, Fly Crooked | |
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Augustus III
If Only Rome Could See Us Now....
join:2001-01-25
Gainesville, GA | ok let's play the numbers game. | |
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana | Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC OK it reverts to $70 in 1 year -- still beats $100 for the same thing from SBC. Who doesn't see what a deal that is (6mbs man!). | |
| | reelbigfish
join:2002-06-06
Boston, MA | Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC SBC's current price promos end Feb. 2nd, so I bet you will see some great deals on that day from SBC. | |
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gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA | Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC Yep, typically SBC has offered thier service $10 cheaper than others.
--
Shoot Straight, Fly Crooked | |
| | | | reelbigfish
join:2002-06-06
Boston, MA
 ·Comcast
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
| Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC I would say that SBC might me able to sell at or lower than these offers that DSLExtreme and Sonic.net, most likely between the two, but SBC won't give you static IP's, which falls in line with thier pricing. So for a residential, dynamic IP account, you might be able to get 6Mbps/608kbps for $50-$55, which is not a bad deal considering it is faster than most cable companies offer. | |
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deblin
Dark Side of the Moon
Premium,MVM
join:2001-09-01
Middletown, DE
| Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC Yep, I'm guessing $55-60 for their expert+ also. And I bet the expert plus static will be $120 or more. UGH. And if my 1.5/256/static remains $80/mo while people are getting 4x the bandwidth for $60/mo, that will irritate me enough to make me leave SBC. Charging for static service is one thing, but gouging the customer is another. I'm already reluctantly paying $80/mo for 1.5/256 with static IPs, but that would be a slap in the face | |
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SRFireside
join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX | Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from SBC Just be mindful SBC has been known in the past to oversell their network. You might want to check usage during peak hours, otherwise you might end up with empty bandwidth promises. | |
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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from S said by Nightfall :
I don't think I have met a broadband provider that doesn't oversell. Henceforth, the mixed reviews on EVERY broadband provider.
We don't overfill our network - and we post the stats to back it up. See »www.sonic.net/stats/ for graphs. If you dig into the Cricket section, and select Redback (DSL routers), then select our fullest one, which is DSL-GW2.SR, and note the octets on the ATM interface, you can see that we peak out at about 90Mbps. This is on an OC-3 (3xT3, or about 120Mbps max with ATM overhead - this means it's 75% loaded). We're at capacity on that unit, and are loading new customers onto the 200p-sf Redback, which is at just 14Mbps at peak!
Okie, I'll admit, that wasn't easy to find, and I knew where to look. Here's a direct URL so you can look at the graph yourself.
»tinyurl.com/3xcw9
The telltale sign of congestion and oversale in a network is flat peaks on a graph like this. If it "maxes out" for a few hours each day, you'll see a point where it looks like it's hitting a ceiling - flatlining at a max amount. That's bad - users will experience increasing latency and slower data throughput. Bad for gaming first, then bad for everything.
-Dane | |
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Sarick
It's Only Logical
Premium
join:2003-06-03
USA | Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from S That is some really good marks. Very few peaks. | |
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SRFireside
join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX
| Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from S There are providers out there you make sure they have bandwidth to spare, that's for sure. I worked at two local ISP's who did that. One made sure they had enough bandwidth so that even if all their customers (residential and business) blasted the max their would still only be 75% saturation of total available bandwidth. The other had it at about 50% saturation. The big boys are probably the ones who will likely oversell their bandwidth in certain areas. Like Nightfall said it's better to check the ISP in question on how they handle your area. SBC at one time only had 3 T3's to handle ALL of their customers in the Austin area. | |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
·PHONE POWER
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| Since you are into posting usage figures, I'm very curious about what kind of impact you're expecting to see from customers who go for your 6mbps deal. I've said many times that quadroupling available bandwidth should not come close to doubling the traffic that one consumes. However, these 6mbps circuits give a lot of potential for some serious bandwidth suckage!
For instance, when I had 4000/384, the total amount of I transferred isn't much different from what I transfer with 1500/128. I just did the same operations faster. But there will be people that just download everything in site because they can. And, it would only take 24 people downloading at full speed (~5mbps) to max out one of those 120Mbps OC-3, as opposed to the 92 (~1.3mbps) that it takes now. Can you afford to upgrade more rapidly to meet 6mbps demands (if they are actually much greater), even with what's seemingly a much lower margin?
Just very curious to hear what you think, since not too long ago you posted in a thread about "buying 6 mbps of transit" ( »Why is 1.5-6/384 service so darn expensive ) Have transit costs gotten cheaper to make such a deal work out better now? Sorry to ask so many questions, I just am very interested to find out what's triggered the sudden "generosity" and price drops from broadband providers in general. Thanks!
--
\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network | |
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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| Re: Great Deal -- Beats $100 for same thing from S It's a combination of two items. The first is that, as you point out, most folks don't consume more just because they have more. They get done faster whatever they were planning to do, but generally consume a fraction more bandwidth.
The average DSL customer on our network today uses about 1% of the bandwidth of their link. If this were to double with 6.0Mbps customers, that would still be a small amount of bandwidth.
The other factor is that inbound bandwidth has gotten really cheap to pick up at big transit facilities. Through our interconnections at various facilities in the Bay Area, we can get inbound megabits for silly cheap prices. Of course, we've still got to have an appropriately sized ATM uplink, and keep that from filling up, so there's some management to be done there.
Also note that SBC-ASI ATM OC-3 circuits are limited to 6000 PVCs - but with 6000 typical DSL customers on the link, we're finding that the bandwidth of the OC-3 (which should be 155Mbps, but is really 120Mbps after all the ATM overhead) generally gets utilized at less than 75%, even at peak!
The combination of these factors along with introductory promotional loop pricing from SBC-ASI is allowing us to get down to these new prices.
Hope that helps!
-Dane | |
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Healbot
Premium
join:2003-07-16
Vancouver, WA | yeah I got a feeling this is only for lower CA. Why do you guys get the good ISPs. | |
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jtudor
Xm 60's On 6 Freak
Premium,MVM
join:2002-12-07
Morganton, NC
| Re: yeah said by Healbot :
I got a feeling this is only for lower CA. Why do you guys get the good ISPs.
Cause they are Silicon Valley..... DOOOHHH!!!
--
Best of luck
"Do, or Do not, there is no try!" Yoda | |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | Actually, they are Northern California...North Bay
Sonic.net, Inc.
2260 Apollo Way
Santa Rosa, CA 95407 | |
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SRFireside
join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX | My theory is there are a bunch of CO's out there and lots of fiber to burn, so to speak. If you have a lot of supply there is more flexibility to make offers like these. | |
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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| said by Healbot :
I got a feeling this is only for lower CA. Why do you guys get the good ISPs.
Sonic.net is offering this product in California's LATA 1 and LATA 9. This is roughly Monterey to the Oregon border, along the coast (including the whole bay area, Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Lake, Mendocino, etc), plus the Stockton/Modesto area.
DSLExtreme is making a similar offering available in Southern California, at a slightly higher price.
-Dane | |
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cyberthugin
join:2002-03-12
Kew Gardens, NY |  Excellent
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ronpin
Imagine Reality
join:2002-12-06
Nirvana | Re: Excellent Pricey? -- not by comparison/price per megabit. How much is your cell phone bill? How much is a world of information at your fingertips "instantly" worth? There's no right answer -- but I'd trade my cell phone for 6mbs internet anyday. | |
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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| said by cyberthugin :
The only prob with $60 is kinda pricey, perfect for a business but dsl is not regulated like T1 line is?
It's $44.95, not $60.
You're right that it's not a T1 service, so repair by the telco is on a "best effort" basis. We certainly wouldn't recommend a DSL circuit for a mission critical application.
That said, T1 services aren't as well supported as they used to be either. Until a year or so ago, you'd get 24x7 support, with a four hour response. Now it's business hours only. Go figure.
The best solution now, I'd say, would be a very high speed DSL link like ours, paired up with an appropriate dialup backup. This could be ISDN at 128kbps, or dual ISDN at 256kbps.
For more critical applications which require more bandwidth, a T1 could be used to back up the higher speed DSL link. While that's kind of odd sounding (the expensive link is the backup!), it would provide speed in the ideal case, and if the DSL broke, the more reliabile T1 at a reduced rate of speed.
All of that said, while this is easy to set up for end-users accessing the Internet (they can be behind a NAT device which supports the two Internet access links), it's a PITA if you're hosting servers, as you've got to have the same IPs available on both links. This isn't something that we can economically support on a $45 link with dialup backup, but it is something that we'll do if there's a T1 involved.
-Dane | |
| thefett
join:2001-02-05
Auburn, NY | glass ceiling? of course with a nice connection as such.. will they also hit you with a glass ceiling download limit? | |
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See 9 replies to this post | |
tim_k
Buttons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow, Kasey
Premium
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA | I wish I'll be happy just to have something better than the 256k I now have. Give me low pings too. | |
| 
rameus
Bad Craziness
Premium
join:2001-01-28
Martinez, CA
clubs:
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Anyone see this part....... From Sonic.net promo page:
"This special offer is only valid between February, 2nd 2004 and February, 14th 2004. Orders may be placed now but will be held until February 2nd to ensure the special pricing is available from SBC. "
This tells me that if SBC does not drop pricing these orders will be cancelled.
Any bets?
--
One ping only, Please. | |
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See 12 replies to this post | |
Jestocost
The Poodle Bites.
join:2000-10-19
Saint Louis, MO | Add Ons? Sonic, huh. Wonder if that service comes with tater tots.
Caveat emptor. | |
| joeyboxers
join:2001-07-18
Detroit, MI
|  Newbie
I have sat on the fences now for about 2 years trying to decided if I want DSL or not. It looks like the wait may have paid off. As a new customer who has never had DSL on my line, I guess I qualify for Sonic's DSL offering.
I have to agree with some of you seasoned professionals here: I think SBC will "bust a move" on Feb. 2 also. I would rather go with SBC rather than Sonic, but if for some reason SBC does not compete with the 6MB Sonic offer, I will then sign-up with Sonic between their sign-up dates. What's that hurry? I've waited this long... what's another 10 days? As far as what the price is a year from now - why worry about it? Prices are going down, not up. If for some reason they won't keep the price the same ($45.00/month - which I bet they will), then I may just cancel at that time. Can't worry about the future.
Thanks for all the informative posts!
Jay | |
| | achuchma
join:2001-04-11
Tampa, FL | Re: Newbie If you are still in Detroit, you are well out of Sonic's service area. Sonic only serves Northern California. | |
| | | clos
join:2002-08-13
Los Angeles, CA | Re: Newbie hehe sonic only serves bay area as I found out... too bad they don't serve southern CA... | |
| indigo
join:1999-08-22
Covina, CA
| That is just sick I can't get anything faster than 1.5Mbps/512kbps for $150 a month from my ILEC, and there is no competition here because it's a Godforsaken Backwater. Would love to have this kind of choice, but as it is right now I would have to get a T1 to get decent broadband. | |
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kba4
join:2001-10-23
Canton, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| only in CA i just called their sales dept. and unfortunately this service (and all their DSL offerings) are only available in CA; and even then i'm making an assumption here- probably only certain areas as CA is a huge state.
too bad. i predict we'll be #11 in the world at best for some time to come.
--
the USA is a weapon of mass destruction. | |
| Zorglub
join:2000-11-18
Fremont, CA | Too far from CO for that speed Well, I'm 12000' from the CO, so either way, I can't access those nice speeds... | |
| djrobsd
join:2002-01-24
San Diego, CA
| It makes good business sense Guys, if you think about this, cable is killing DSL right now. 3mbps connection, and the average time from order to install on cable is 2 days in my area, Cox came out 2 days after I called them and activated the line. My DSL took 3 weeks to go live.
DSL = 1500 download speeds, but with overhead you get about 1100-1300, although my MCI dsl has been crappy and only giving me about 800kbps right now.
Cable = 3000 download speed, and they must adjust for overhead because I always get around 2900-2950 on my Cox cable modem.
It makes good business sense for DSL companies to offer 2x the bandwidth of a cable modem for only $20 a month more then most people pay for their cable. Plus by offering more value in having a static IP and allowing the client to run their own servers, they will surely win all the deals they can this way.
Of course, these new 6000 packages are not for everyone. How many people are 7000 feet from their CO? Luckilly I am only 6500 feet, so hopefully I am going to get a good speed.
DSL Extreme is telling customers their lines will be ordered on February 2nd. This tells me they must have worked out a "bulk" deal with SBC, "we'll place 1000 orders on this day for this service if you give it to us for x dollars". Either that, or SBC is really planning on dramatically reducing their prices. My guess is that no one was biting on their $100-150 a month DSL packages, and every one is biting on their $26.99 so SBC probably figures better to get $60 bucks out of the customer then $27. | |
| 
highhatsize
Norm, The Enourmous Basset
Premium
join:2001-02-08
San Francisco, CA
·SONIC.NET
1 edit | $40 Pricing Point Thursday, January 22, 2004, 1140 hrs. pst.
I had PacBell DSL 1.5/128 for a year for $40/mo. They bumped me to $50 so I immediately switched to DirectvDSL 1.5/128 for $40/mo. They tanked so I switched to cyberonic DSL 1.5/768 for $40/mo. If cyberonic raises their price I'll switch to another isp that offers 1.5 for $40/mo. I don't really NEED DSL. I just like it a lot. I'll pay twice the dial-up rate for it but that's all.
I wonder if the last few years have taught the isp's that there are a lot of people like me. If everybody on a promo $40/mo. rate bailed as I did as soon as the isp raised the price to it's "normal" $50/mo. rate, perhaps the isp's have decided that $40/mo. is the highest that most people are willing to pay and they will compete among themselves to offer the best speeds that they can at that price. San Francisco and most large cities are well served by both telephone and cable internet competitors. The shakeout of the weakest links is behind us. Those players now in the game are going to stay and they are going to have to offer us value just like any other mature competitive industry.
Perhaps the $45 Sonic offer, and the DSL EXTREME $60 offer are testing the wates to see what an isp has to offer to get an average customer to break the $40 limit?
--
Cordially,
SanFranSonny | |
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Sharingan
join:2003-08-17
North Hollywood, CA | Limits I wonder if they are going to do the same as dsl extreme. Limiting to only the first 1000 subcribers. | |
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bigdaddy17
join:2003-05-08
Miami, FL | wow great deal! hmm.. why is it that California gets all the good ISP's? This has to be the best deal I've seen yet for DSL. You cant beat that at all besides OOL. | |
| 
sickened
@emhril.ameritech
| upgrade SBC I think this is possible, but if SBC come out with a similar plan will I be able to roll my account over to that (I currently have the standard plus 1.5/256)?
Sounds like a pretty good deal if they match/beat it 
Throwing in a static IP would be nice surprise | |
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Sharingan
join:2003-08-17
North Hollywood, CA | Re: upgrade SBC is this promo only available on norther california, what about souther california | |
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ninersfan
join:2001-02-09
Hayward, CA
| Re: upgrade SBC | |
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thongsai
join:2002-07-04
Santa Rosa, CA
| Re: upgrade SBC umm all the dsl goes through phone company.. notice the date, feb 2.. that means sbc didnt set their price yet.. but it should be cheaper. im waitin for feb 2 then I will choose provider
--
»thongsai-roms.shorturl.com/ | |
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DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
| Re: upgrade SBC said by thongsai :
umm all the dsl goes through phone company.. notice the date, feb 2.. that means sbc didnt set their price yet.. but it should be cheaper. im waitin for feb 2 then I will choose provider
I'll get out my crystal ball and predict that SBC will offer an up to 6.0Mbps product with PPPoE and a single dynamic IP address for something like $0.04 more than our price, or $44.99, sometime around the first of February.
They will not include eight static IPs, nor shell access. They will not include Supernews access. They won't include VPN service for when you'd like to access securely but are on the road. And, they won't compensate you if you'd like to run a hotspot for neighbors with the massive amounts of bandwidth you now have.
I'd also predict that they will offer a five IP static product for $99.99 at this speed. You still won't get all that other stuff.
You're in Santa Rosa - stop by and see us, and hopefully we can convince you that our product will meet your needs.
For those of you in Southern California, DSLExtreme's offer is quite compelling if you want static IPs, and I know that they offer Supernews as well, though capped slower.
For those of you who are not in the Northern Cal LATA-1 (Monterey to the Oregon border), or LATA-9 (Stockton/Tracy/Modesto) that we serve, nor in the Los Angeles LATA that DSLExtreme covers, then perhaps an SBC product with PPPoE and all the Yahoo stuff may be a good option!
We'll see if my crystal ball is right sometime in the next week or two. Who knows - it's certainly all good news for consumers, which is excellent.
-Dane | |
| 
SirXILE
The SolWar 2-1
Premium
join:2001-02-24
Brooklyn, NY | Hm.. Kind of an amazing speed for a DSL connection. It's odd that the deal goes back to $69.95. Too good to be true!
--
There can only be one..."X.I.L.E" | |
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Sharingan
join:2003-08-17
North Hollywood, CA | Re: Hm.. ah great its only for northern california. Guess im sticking with adelphia. | |
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B3an
@comcast.net
| Re: Hm.. I sonics services available in Hayward, CA, specifically the enhanced package? is your service a 24/7 connection? and is it unlimited bandwidth? I couldnt find any info on your site for availability, so im asking here. Its to late at night to call you guys up, so im hoping this might be faster. | |
| | | | gounder
join:2003-01-22
Hayward, CA
| Re: Hm.. B3an Yes Sonic service is available in Hayward, I just ordered mine few days ago. I currently have Digizip which uses MCI and there service suck and would constantly loose connections in my area or at least mine does. I hope Sonic/SBC service is more stable and reliable.
I even qualify for there Enhanced package but would like to wait and see if my Basic service is stable | |
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furlonium
Computer Over? Virus equals Very Yes?
join:2002-05-08
Bethlehem, PA
| God, my mom lives in Tracy, and I used to live in Stockton....oh well, I was the only of my brothers that didn't move out there.
I should call my youngest bro (comp geek like me and tell him about the deal so he can order up. | |
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