US ISP Sonic.net offers 1Gbps fibre for $70

Santa Rosa, US-based internet service provider, Sonic.net, is looking to disrupt the traditionally expensive local market by offering a 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home connection for just $69.99 per month.

The company said on its blog that it has completed construction of it the first phase of its Fusion Fiber Broadband+Phone service. However, the network will only be available in a limited area to users in Sebastopol, located in the Sonoma county area, with just 640 homes connected by end of the year.

For the lucky few however, it will offer a new level of connectivity in an area where even other fibre connections topped out at 150Mbps. “Speed will no longer be a factor. You’re completely connected,” Dane Jasper, co-founder and president of Sonic.net told local news website The Press Democrat.

The price contrasts markedly with the norm with most ISP offering far slower 100Mbps connection for around $100 and the package includes two phone lines and unlimited phone calls. Sonic.net itself offers 40Mbps broadband for virtually the same price of $69.95, using two phone lines of 20Mbps each.

Up to now Sonic.net’s service has piggybacked off AT&T copper, but its fibre optic service will be based entirely on its own network.

The company has a track record with fibre connections having previously secured the contract to manage Google’s own 1Gbps fibre network at Stanford University.

Sonic.net said that the Sebastopol roll-out was a test project and that fibre optic networks would follow in the Santa Rosa or San Francisco area.