About 150 Sonic customers in Berkeley Hills may have to find a new Internet service provider after the company told them it plans to cut their service due to a fire safety concern that calls for underground wiring.
But, while some customers were disappointed when Sonic announced last week that it plans to close its service on September 30, the company has backed off from the deadline and is now asking people not to stop their service.
Whether Sonic service continues for those customers, and for how long, will depend on difficult and ongoing negotiations between Santa Rosa’s Internet provider, city workers and contractors for the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. underground project.
«It’s a moving target, but the important thing is that we’re working together and trying to get this done,» said Berkeley Hills Council member Susan Wengraf.
City leaders and residents near Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Summit Road have spent more than three decades advocating for a project to run their electricity underground. Many wildfires in California, most notably the Camp Fire in 2018, were started by power lines damaged by storms, and PG&E has pledged to move underground wires in high-risk areas. These projects are expensive and complex, however, they also mean that telephones and internet, which are connected at the same rates, also need to travel underground.
Residents will still have Internet access no matter what Sonic does — AT&T and Comcast agreed years ago to put their lines in a new tunnel being built as part of the Berkeley underground project. But Sonic turned down multiple requests to join the tunnel, according to city spokesman Matthai Chakko.
The company instead explored whether it could continue to provide service through a process called «microtrenching,» in which workers install broadband cables in trenches that are smaller and shallower than usual. City officials say they worked with the company for months to determine how the method, which has never been used in Berkeley, would work. But Cooper Niswonger, Sonic’s director of marketing, wrote in an email to Berkeleyside that the company has failed to develop a microtrenching system that is «economically feasible».
Sonic’s email to customers last week hinted that the company had decided to give up on the area: Officials wrote that they had «exhausted a number of options» and confirmed that providing service to those customers was «no longer possible.»
This week, the company sent another message to customers, saying it continues to negotiate with the city on microtrenching options and is «pleased with recent developments» in negotiations to continue operations in the area. Sonic officials wrote that they «may continue to serve the community for much longer than previously communicated,» and planned to provide further updates before the end of the month.
Even if the small talk doesn’t go away and Sonic eventually abandons its service in an area where the high-speed wires are down, the company can continue to provide internet in the short term in the underground service for many years.
According to Niswonger, city officials told Sonic that the company would have to remove its lines from local electricity rates this year. Chakko referred questions about the deadline to PG&E.
Niswonger said the company is in «active discussions» with the city about the length of the lines, which would allow Sonic to continue providing service beyond the Sept. deadline. 30 which previously told customers.
In an email to Berkeleyside, Niswonger wrote, «Our main goal is to provide long-term support to our neighborhood, and if we can, we will. Once we understand this, we will follow you and our members.»
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