Sonic disrupts 1 Gbps fiber pricing model with $40 business offering

Sonic.net, a competitive broadband provider, is putting network facilities in place in Santa Rosa, Calif., to offer a 1 Gbps-capable fiber to the premises (FTTP) and hosted PBX service bundle for $40 a month.

The new service, according to a report in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, will be supported by 3.5 miles of fiber being laid at a local business park south of Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa and along the Highway 101 corridor. It expects to begin offering services by November.

Dane Jasper, CEO and founder of Sonic.net, confirmed with FierceTelecom via Twitter its plans, saying that "basically it's free Gigabit access (1000/100) for business when bundled with Hosted PBX at $39.95 a seat."

In addition to serving businesses, the service provider said it will extend the fiber-based services to area residential at a later unconfirmed date.

Sonic.net is no stranger to delivering low cost higher speed fiber-centric broadband services. In 2011, Sonic.net launched its 1 Gbps FTTH service for consumers who reside in its Sonoma County service footprint. Earlier, it signed an agreement to manage and operate Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) FTTH project on the Stanford University campus.

Under its initial 1 Gbps plan, consumers could pay $69.95 a month with two phone lines and unlimited long distance calling, while the 100 Mbps speed tier will cost $39.95 a month with one phone line and unlimited long distance voice service.

Offering lower-cost 1 Gbps-capable FTTP-based services has become the latest competitive heat in the broadband race. Two municipal FTTH providers-- Utah's UTOPIA and Chattanooga's EPB Fiber--recently announced they were cutting the price of their 1 Gbps service to $65 and $70 a month, respectively.

For more:
- Santa Rosa Press Democrat has this article
- Broadband DSL Reports has this post

Editor's Corner: Has Google Fiber set the pace for 1 Gig FTTH pricing?

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