[axoltl]

I'm half a block away from one of the blue lines, unfortunately the tool's only presenting me with DSL... I love Sonic, but I used to have their DSL service and it wasn't great. Not Sonic's fault, but San Francisco's copper is pretty horrible.

These days I have a Comcast business account, but I'd take any chance to switch back to Sonic.

[wahern]

Sonic installed my fiber service late last year. Last week AT&T was hanging fiber on my street. I chatted with the lineman and he was upfront (unsolicited, even!) that the only reason he was out there was because Sonic forced AT&T's hand. Previously AT&T was building out FTTN infrastructure in places like Mission Bay, but he said they've completely ditched that strategy and are switching to FTTH. However, Sonic appears to be methodically rolling out fiber street-by-street. The lineman said AT&T had him installing fiber in a more-or-less haphazard manner. I guess AT&T is literally freaking out, trying to catch up and perhaps head-off Sonic as best they can.

Anyhow, point being, while Sonic's methodical rollout might mean they are unlikely to reach you anytime soon if they've already passed you by, keep an eye on the AT&T trucks. They may decide to systematically install service to the areas Sonic misses, or inexplicably serve your street before another. AT&T is charging $90/month to Sonic's $40/month, with less guaranteed throughput, so it's particularly attractive for them to serve a block Sonic misses.

$90/month is still amazing, but I think AT&T's strategy is going to be much like Comcast's: $90/month for internet only, or $95/month for internet + network television. Either way you're going to be paying for the network television. But they want to induce you to be "officially" served so they have something to sell to the networks and advertisers.

[toast0]

> The lineman said AT&T had him installing fiber in a more-or-less haphazard manner. I guess AT&T is literally freaking out, trying to catch up and perhaps head-off Sonic as best they can.

When ATT did my street (in San Jose), they had cables labeled and made for each street with the right length drops to connect at each pole. It may seem haphazard, but there's enough planning in getting the cables made that there's probably some reason to the madness. Their FTTN was a mess of different speed tiers, many of which wouldn't be available for a given user, perhaps the precise cabling reduced costs enough for FTTH to be cost competitive enough to get installed instead.