I tried to get Sonic at 100 Grand Avenue in Oakland after they put fliers on homes and businesses all around saying "We are coming to Oakland with our own fiber and offering gigabit!" (they have been in Oakland for a long time with their AT&T DSL product). Turns out, they decided to not install to my building (254 unit high-rise), most likely due to a, what I believe to be, illegal exclusive line ownership agreement that my commercial landlords signed with AT&T.
Thankfully, a recent entrant to the inner Bay Area market, Wave G (which has roots in Astound, a name those of you with connection to Walnut Creek might recognize, and RCN) is now providing me symmetric gigabit point to point internet for $80/month with no caps. Just very glad to finally be rid of Comcast.
I will say though that I've previously gotten Sonic at business addresses, both DSL and Fiber, and they have been super great. Glad to see the small guy winning in such a competitive market as the Bay Area.
I was a happy Sonic subscriber for a few years until I moved. Regardless of the company you use I’m really pleased to hear it’s NOT Comcast/Xfinity/TWC/etc. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, and fuck them.
The origin of waveG is in Seattle's condointernet and spectrum networks (as54858 and as11404), which were acquired by wave in 2013. Wave also bought astound and cascadelink. Wave later merged with rcn and grande.
illegal exclusive line ownership agreement that my commercial landlords signed with AT&T.
Exclusive, yes. Illegal? Not really. Every apartment building I've lived in has had an agreement with one provider. They don't want to rip open the walls for every company that wants to put in a line. And these days with the way internet providers come and go, I don't blame them.
If you rent, you don't own the building, so you have no say in the matter. If you own a condo, then you can at least influence the board. If you want more control over your home's internet service, buy a house.
The only way around it is to go wireless. Back when WiMax was a thing, the building I lived in had an exclusive deal with AT&T, which could only supply 768k DSL. I got around that by going with ClearWire's WiMax.
Here's the facts I am aware of, with a massive caveat that this was a few years ago and my memory is pretty fuzzy on it:
- When the building was under construction, Comcast paid some amount of money for coax to be installed. Maybe it was extra coax, maybe it was a headend for the building, I don't know specifics, other than Comcast paid the building owners
- In exchange, between 2008 and 2013, Comcast had a exclusive line agreement, only allowing AT&T access
- In 2014, the Comcast contract expired and AT&T created a exclusive lines agreement with building management, only allowing Comcast to exist
- Based on this [0] statement from the FCC, these exclusivity agreements are illegal in apartments
- At the time that I had looked into this, around 2012, I was attempting to get WebPass (pre-Google acquisition) to come into the building. Turns out that my building was a top sales prospect for them, so I worked with their chief sales officer and chief legal officer to craft letters to my management about the exclusive agreement, although never followed through when WebPass had pushback from the company at other properties than my own.
- Wave G was able to install its own hardware (routers on every floor) and ethernet from the antenna on the 23rd floor all the way down to ground level (in preexisting conduit that was installed at construction time) in April 2019. Wave G was only able to do this after executing a side agreement with my building management to gain access. They were willing to do whatever it took to get into the building because we were blocking (physically with height) line of sight to their tower in downtown Oakland and needed to use our roof as a hop. I assume they paid a good chunk of cash to get in.
Just a note, the building owner is Essex Property Trust, a publicly traded REIT with quite a few buildings on the west coast. One other thing, this exclusivity thing is a real issue in Oakland specifically which is why EFF created OICC [1] which I provided my feedback to.
Tearing up walls is absolutely not necessary. Structured wiring in the building with an MPOE room for cross connects to the carriers is how it works. This is what usually happens regardless of contractual arrangements.
More accurately, the landlord wants to maximize their revenue while minimizing costs. So they sell out their tenants by signing an agreement with a carrier to build the wiring in exchange for exclusivity.
Yes, the building has excellent structured wiring which is how Wave G was able to install without having to do anything more than bolt a few racks to walls and run fiber through existing conduit.
It is, in one sense, illegal. "The NOI provides a history of FCC regulations in this area, noting that in 2007 and 2008 the commission “prohibited providers from entering into or enforcing exclusive agreements to provide services to customers in commercial and residential MTEs.”" - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/exclusive-broadb...
What's not illegal is landlords accepting free services from the ISPs in exchange for their tacit agreement to not allow any other ISPs in. While, of course, saying to tenants that "you can choose any provider you want".
"Go buy a condo or a house" is not an option for the vast majority of people living in apartments. Otherwise, they wouldn't be living in an apartment.
Comcast never explicitly signed contracts barring landlords from allowing competing services in, mainly to reduce the scope of legal culpability if it somehow came to such a thing
They would offer very generous (read: free) services to the landlords of buildings however. Especially in large complexes like the one I lived in northern Seattle
Thankfully, a recent entrant to the inner Bay Area market, Wave G (which has roots in Astound, a name those of you with connection to Walnut Creek might recognize, and RCN) is now providing me symmetric gigabit point to point internet for $80/month with no caps. Just very glad to finally be rid of Comcast.
I will say though that I've previously gotten Sonic at business addresses, both DSL and Fiber, and they have been super great. Glad to see the small guy winning in such a competitive market as the Bay Area.