Many Sonic Telecom Customers Oppose USTelecom Forbearance Relief Bid at FCC
Sonic Telecom customers are concerned about a USTelecom petition that seeks sweeping FCC regulatory relief for its large incumbent telco members. They fear their rates will rise and their service will be harmed if the FCC grants the forbearance petition to free the ILECs from wholesale duties to lease out their networks as discounted unbundled network elements. Local competitors such as Sonic, a northern California broadband and voice provider, can use UNEs to reach customers where their fiber-based offerings aren't available.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
"We urge you not to grant USTelecom's petition," said Bruce Lamar, president of Richard Hancock, a commercial wood-framing contractor in Santa Rosa, California, in a letter to the FCC. "We chose Sonic because they offered a better product for less money. We also feel their customer service is more prompt and more personable. ... Please do not end the ability of providers like Sonic to offer an alternative."
Sonic customers weighed in heavily against the petition in reply comments that included more than 8,000 letters from individuals that Incompas facilitated and said were in opposition (see 1809060031). Our review of docket 18-141 confirmed consumers and small-business owners wrote personalized letters raising objections. Of the 125 individual comments we spot checked, 59 touted Sonic's broadband and voice service, another 51 also came from the greater San Francisco Bay area, seven came from elsewhere in California and eight came from Washington State, Oregon and Kansas.
Many noted Sonic competes with AT&T and Comcast. "They're a good, small, local company," said Lamar by phone Friday. "It was David versus Goliath and I was trying to be on David's side." He said he wrote his letter after Sonic contacted him via email: "They provided a template. The story was mine." He said his company, which employs about 100 carpenters and support staff, used to get phone service from AT&T and internet access from Comcast, but switched both to Sonic when prices kept rising. He said Sonic's phone rate was roughly one-third of AT&T's original renewal offer of about $1,500 per month, though the incumbent unsuccessfully made better offers once informed of Sonic's price.
"Sonic offers competitive prices" and "unmatched customer service," wrote Casey Lanski, co-founder of Retrograde Coffee Roasters, a cafe in Sebastopol, California. "AT&T can not cater to our needs: their data plan is too slow." If Sonic's service is jeopardized, "the cafe may have to raise costs on coffee and food," Lanski said. "We used AT&T for our phone service, but had so many time-wasting issues with them we decided to switch," wrote Mary Jo Winter, of Management Connections, a temporary-employee provider in Cloverdale, California. "Not only was [AT&T's] service awful ... their rates were ridiculous." Individual consumers voiced appreciation for Sonic's residential fiber service and UNE-based DSL service over copper. Some were hopeful Sonic would yet reach their areas.
"Consumer opposition to AT&T’s ‘competition cut off’ is nationwide," emailed Incompas CEO Chip Pickering. The group's tally showed the FCC received letters from consumers and small businesses in 33 states, with more than 200 from Oregon, 125 from Washington and 60 from Kansas. "The thousands of letters from California alone are evidence that UNEs and competition policy are a bridge" to better, cheaper fiber broadband "and vastly superior customer service," he said.
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., cited concerns from their constituents in a letter posted by the FCC Friday opposing the USTelecom petition.
ILEC unbundling discounts aimed at "jumpstarting competition" are outdated due to widespread competition from cable companies, CLECs, wireless providers and others, AT&T argued in a reply it referred us to. Opponents such as Sonic argue the "tiny portion" of UNE-based "facilities used by CLECs to serve end-users justifies the continued application of those regulations," it said. "But under the forbearance standard, the critical question is whether these requirements remain 'necessary' to protect consumers, rates, and the public interest--not whether individual CLECs still sometimes use the regulated facilities. The forbearance standard is unquestionably satisfied here."
Comcast didn't comment Friday. Sonic filed initial and reply comments and USTelecom filed a reply.