Sonic began as an effort to bring network connectivity andInternet access to staff and students at the campus ofSanta Rosa Junior College. In 1994, Sonic began formal Internet operations by way of a partnership between Dane Jasper and Scott Doty, both of whom had worked on the network at the college.[4] In 1995, Sonic moved into its downtown Santa Rosa location.[5]
In 2011, after becoming concerned about increasing requests for users' data by private law firms, mostly related tocopyright infringement involvingpornography, Sonic cut the time it stores logs of user activity to two weeks.[6][7]
Later in 2011, the US federal government forced Sonic andGoogle to provide e-mail addresses of people who had corresponded withWikiLeaks volunteer andTor developerJacob Appelbaum. Sonic and Google fought the secret court order, which CEO Dane Jasper characterized as "rather expensive, but the right thing to do," and the court agreed to lift the seal on the Sonic order to give Appelbaum a copy of it.[8][9]
In 2012, Jasper toldTorrentFreak that Sonic would not be participating in the so-called"six strikes" plan, in which major US internet service providers would begin to warn and punish people suspected of infringing copyrights, saying that ISPs are not equipped to police the actions of individuals, and that theMotion Picture Association of America (MPAA) andRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had not invited small, independent ISPs to participate.[10]
In 2013, Sonic's CEO Dane Jasper made comments about expanding into Los Angeles.[11]
In late 2013, Sonic began making fiber-optic connections to its existing data network passing 700 homes in Sebastopol.[11]
In late 2014, Sonic.net rebranded as Sonic, after acquiring sonic.com and the @sonicTwitter handle.[12]
In April 2015, the company partnered with AT&T to expand service, usingfiber-to-the-node. Due to this partnership, Sonic customers connected via that service are required to comply with AT&T's upstream policies, and may be subject to government spying. Sonic customers can utilize a VPN to avoid AT&T policies, and Sonic requires a lawful court order for any information requested by law enforcement.[13]
In December 2018, Sonic announced a partnership withEero—now owned byAmazon—creator of the first whole-home WiFi mesh system, to improve WiFi connectivity across the entire home.[14][15]
Sonic has 175 employees and generates $21,000,000 annually in a 2009 fiscal report. 4 million people across theSan Francisco Bay Area are using Sonic.net services.[11]
10 Gigabit Fiber – Residential product.[1] Sonic'sXGS-PON implementation uses many components of their Gigabit Fiber offering: they use a transition box to terminate their fiber between their drop cable and customers', use of an ONT[16][17] and a variety of residential gateways.[18] Sonic only rents the eero Max 7 at $20/month as the only gateway that supports 10 gigabit; however, customers are free to provide their own gateway to avoid any monthly equipment rental fee. As of 2024, Sonic has focused on building only 10 Gigabit service and there is no longer a telephone requirement for 10 gigabit service. Per one of their sales people, the OLT splits each fiber to 32 customers.[19]
Gigabit Fiber – Combined voice (VoIP) and data service offering up to 1,000 Mbit/s per line usingPassive Optical Networking,[1] with unlimited nationwide land line voice. Sonic has full control of the line: subscribers are on Sonic's IP space. Available in select markets, currently only Northern California locations.[20]
FusionADSL2+ – Combined voice (POTS) and data service offering up to 20 Mbit/s per line, with unlimited nationwide land line voice. Sonic has full control of the line: subscribers are on Sonic's IP space.
FusionVDSL2 – Combined voice (POTS) and data service offering up to 75 Mbit/s[21] with the same limitations as Fusion ADSL2+. This subscription is served from a CO where Sonic has full control of the line cards and therefore remove any artificial limitation in speed that a subscriber can get. The requirement for getting this service is an individual has to be relatively close to the CO, up to 4000 feet.[22] X2 is also available which will roughly double the speed.
Fusion FTTN (VDSL2) – Combined voice (VoIP) and data service offering from 20 Mbit/s up to 75 Mbit/s through bonding (X2), with unlimited nationwide land line voice. This is resoldAT&T U-verse. Single pair connection is limited to 50 Mbit/s even if the line is capable of more than that; bonded pair is limited to 75 Mbit/s. Sonic has some control of the line such as not enforcing transfer caps, but customers are on AT&T's IP space. VoIP connection defaults to G.729ab[23] and uses less than 50 Kbps.[24]
FlexLink – Midband Ethernet service offering symmetric speeds from 1.5 Mbit/s to 500 Mbit/s.
AT&T DSL –ADSL service delivered over anAT&T voice line. This service is obsolete and Sonic is no longer accepting legacy ADSL1 subscriptions.
Hosting – Website hosting services.
Colocation – Datacenter colocation in Santa Rosa, CA.
