Sonic, a competitive residential and business service provider, is challenging Google Fiber's (NASDAQ: GOOG) entry into the San Francisco broadband market with a $40 a month, 1 Gbps service called Fusion.
"After years of planning and construction, I am happy to announce that Sonic has launched our Gigabit Fiber service in San Francisco," said Dane Jasper, CEO and founder Sonic, in a blog post.
Fusion also includes home phone service with nationwide calling, plus unlimited international calling to fixed lines in 66 countries and U.S. territories, including popular destinations such as Mexico and India.
The service, according to a blog post written by company founder Dane Jasper, is currently available for ordering or pre-ordering in San Francisco's Sunset and Richmond Districts.
Sonic encouraged residents to look at the Gigabit page on its website to see if service is available to their home and to look at other available Sonic services.
In addition to San Francisco, Sonic delivers 1 Gbps services in Brentwood and Sebastopol, plus business parks in Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Windsor.
Sonic initially announced it would build FTTH facilities in San Francisco in November 2014 as the next stop in its expansion plan.
What's interesting about Sonic's move is that it comes just as Google Fiber made a splash yesterday with its plans to deliver 1 Gbps service to select San Francisco housing projects by leveraging existing fiber that reportedly comes from what the service provider says is a private source to serve "some apartments, condos and affordable housing properties." Google Fiber did not disclose who it is renting the fiber from.
San Francisco has been a somewhat controversial market for broadband expansion with local environmental groups challenging incumbent telco AT&T from installing VRAD boxes to deliver U-verse services to local residents. In 2011, AT&T (NYSE: T) was ordered to halt its U-verse roll out due environmental concerns over the placement of its VRAD boxes.
Regardless of the approaches, the compelling issue is that local residents now have more choices besides local incumbent telco AT&T and cable provider Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) to get broadband service.
For more:
- see this blog post
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