Sonic.net CEO Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

sonicnet — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:56:53 -0000

The view you see and messages you manage in the iPhone app, in the "Voicemail" folder via email (IMAP) or by calling *99 from your telephone is the same. You can access them various ways, they're simply various ways to manage messages in your single voicemail box.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Glenn — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:13:03 -0000

good ap but one problem. When you delete the call from Iphone it also deletes it from the server. Blaugh. need asetting to delete from iphone only.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Simon Waddington — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:07:15 -0000

+1 for the Android release. I'm going to take a wild guess that your typically Sonic.net user is more likely to be an Android user...

Re: 2012 Transparency Report

Sonic Customer — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:57:07 -0000

Can Sonic.net comment on the recent UK Guardian leak of Verizon turning over phone records to the NSA. Has Sonic.net been asked to participate in the PRISM program or any such program where records are turned over to any US government agency? Does Sonic.net give or otherwise release any phone or internet records to the NSA or any other other government agency?

Re: Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

sonicnet — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:15:49 -0000

This claim is a bit misleading. Sonic.net (and our utility subsidiary Sonic Telecom) is not a reseller of AT&T services - we are a full facilities based competitive local exchange carrier. This means it is our equipment in the telco central office building that customers are connected to, and our backhaul network, our IP transit, etc.

It's may be a bit confusing because we used to primarily serve customers using AT&T's DSL. That service was their equipment (DSLAMs) in the central offices, and it was their backhaul network. The customers were then handed off to us on large aggregation circuits at layer 2 (ATM), and we would do the Internet connectivity, services, sales and support. But it was, strictly speaking, resale a DSL line.

As a full facilities based carrier, the Fusion service is our own DSLAM (which uses newer technology than their old ADSL1 network, ours supports 24Mbps maximum instead of 8Mbps, and bonding for double that), our own voice service and switching, the backhaul network, and then as before the other portions - Internet, services, etc. We only rent the copper pair itself from AT&T - all of the equipment that connect to BOTH ends of that copper is all Sonic.

-Dane

Re: Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

Realist — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:55:08 -0000

I wish that the general population would understand that sonic.net is not even competition for AT&T. Back in 1996 when the telecom deregulation happened the ILEC's AT&T and Verizon etc... We're forced to lease lines to CLEC's sonic.net etc. so the fact is that sonic.net is more of a AT&T reseller then anything else. I have found NO other agreements between sonic.net and any other ILEC's plus sonic.net has almost no control over the way the lines are connected etc. they may be who the end user talks to and pays but in all reality it is still AT&T service. People need to understand that sonic.net is not competition.

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

sonicnet — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:43:54 -0000

The big inbound and output spike in the middle of the night is the Netflix Open Connect cache boxes being updated with new or changed content. There is both in and out during that interval because once one cache box has the new content, it pushes it out to the other cache boxes nearby in the network.

-Dane

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

Malcolm — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:26:53 -0000

Why the regular (rectangular) "output bits"? And why does it change width? Seems surprising that your network output would be so regular.

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

Gordon P — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:58:44 -0000

I know: :) Just being nosy.

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

sonicnet — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:19:53 -0000

Yes, the scale isn't included, we don't disclose that information. Our intent was just to show the relative impact from a typical week, to the two days after Arrested Development was released.

-Dane

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

Gordon P — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:51:06 -0000

Scale removed :(. What's the peak usage on the graph? 40gigabit? 100gigabit?

Re: Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

plwww — Thu, 30 May 2013 03:59:49 -0000

I love sonic.net, but I don't believe using "advertised speeds" is at all useful for actual comparisons(especially when criticizing policy, though it is indeed flawed). When I see real-world speed data, the situation looks far better for the U.S; we still aren't "leading" but we're usually above the average, and the top-end isn't too far out of reach. For example: http://www.akamai.com/stateoft... : On the map for "Average connection speed" Japan, leading in the "advertised speed" chart with ~150mb, instead comes in with 10.8mb while the U.S. gets a respectable 7.6mb. Sweden, second place on the "advertised speed" chart with ~101mb, comes in behind the U.S in the Akamai chart at ~7.2mb. Obviously, a single company's real-world data is also an incomplete picture of broadband speeds, but seems much more credible than the "advertised" speeds used in the post, and creates a much different picture.

Re: Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

Parker — Wed, 29 May 2013 23:08:30 -0000

What's interesting is in the United States, you would think just because you live in a city where there is a decent population density, that you would have more options available (or at least fast speeds available). Cities like San Francisco prove that to be wrong. While there are a couple of reasonably priced options (hi Sonic!), there aren't a lot of reasonably priced 50+ Mbps options. I lived in Madrid and could get 100Mbps for about $45USD/month. Most of the large cities in Spain could get something similar, granted my evidence is anecdotal. Having said that, we do have a much more stable economy than Spain, it's just interesting to see that in their cities they do have better options than most of us in the Bay Area.

Maybe the Bay Area is a unique case. I know Sonic would have started deploying Fiber already in San Francisco had it not been from slow moving political processes. However, other US cities don't seem to be faring much better.

Re: Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

Maenad — Wed, 29 May 2013 22:22:26 -0000

Please bring service to Carmel Valley, CA. I want my Sonic.net back. I'm stuck with AT&T out here, and using local Redshift on their copper.

Re: Sonic.net Traffic Leaps on Netflix “Arrested” Release

Paul Barwick — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:13:21 -0000

well I have to admit, part is that was me.

Re: Internet Video Needs a “Carterfone” Decision: Any Lawful Device

JDB — Wed, 29 May 2013 16:56:06 -0000

I stand corrected. And I must say, that policy is obnoxious.

Re: Internet Video Needs a “Carterfone” Decision: Any Lawful Device

JDL — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:50:09 -0000

Check out the rules for new customers. "Customers who wish to use their own equipment may do so, however, the equipment fee is required for service and the customer must retain the rented equipment."

So there is a $6 even if you don't use their modem.

Re: Internet Video Needs a “Carterfone” Decision: Any Lawful Device

JDB — Wed, 29 May 2013 02:18:29 -0000

Hey JDL, I think you've misread your Sonic.net agreement. I've been using my own modem/router on Sonic ever since I became a customer.

Re: Internet Video Needs a “Carterfone” Decision: Any Lawful Device

JDL — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:48:51 -0000

While I agree with this sentiment is this not also an argument for being able to use any compatible modem with Sonic.net. Instead users are forced to rent a modem for $6 a month. Perhaps give users the choice. Rent a completely supported modem for $6 a month or bring your own modem that we cannot support however you are welcome to use. I don't expect AT&T to support my answering machine or fax machine. But I am happy that the FCC allows me to use it despite AT&Ts best efforts.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Lucas Dohring — Tue, 28 May 2013 20:58:02 -0000

If you publish an API, i'll make an Android app.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Jordan — Sat, 04 May 2013 01:56:51 -0000

Waiting patiently for the Android release. I can see this app being extremely useful so I would be surprised if it wasn't popular with the iPhone users.
Thanks for the awesome service/ customer service Sonic!

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

sonicnet — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:30:51 -0000

Robert,
Best place to engage in discussion on another topic would be our forums.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Robert Thille — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:34:15 -0000

Dane, any chance we'll see an update on the Sebastopol Fiber plan?

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

Neal Baker — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 01:23:02 -0000

That looks awesome. I'll give it a try. I guess I should be less lazy and actually set up my voice mail account.

Re: Get the new Sonic Fusion app, free!

sonicnet — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:02:53 -0000

The quickest way to deal with large numbers of messages is via IMAP (email), you'll find all your voicemail messages attached as WAV files to emails in the Voicemail folder in your Sonic.net email account.