Back in the day there used to be lots of dial-up ISPs (Internet service providers). And then technology advanced and we got DSL (digital subscriber line), a way of sending data over a telephone line at much faster speeds. At that point the phone companies could give the finger to all the dial-up ISPs as they were not allowed by law to use the faster technology.

But one small company became a phone company in Santa Rosa, Sonic Telecom. Since they were a phone company they could put their equipment in any phone exchange, paying rent of course. They started renting wires from homes to the phone exchanges and providing their own phone and Internet service.

Now since they provide phone service they are a utility. This means that they can run fiber optic cables on the utility poles and bring FTTH (fiber to the home) or FTTP (fiber to the premises) as opposed to FTTN (fiber to the node) which is generally what AT&T does.

What is FTTN? Fiber optic cables are run from the exchange to a box at the curb in each neighborhood. Inside the box are electronics to drive wires to each home with the signals from the fiber from the exchange. This is generally not as fast.

But to get to the Mouse's situation. Sonic is connecting fiber to homes in several cities in the Bay Area. As previously mentioned, in order to run fiber they must be a phone company. That means that they must provide phone service, and that means you have to have a land line to get Internet service. They call the package Fusion.

I just got upgraded to their fiber Fusion service. So what do you get?
1. A land line with unlimited calls to The US and Canada. Also free calls to land lines in 60 countries.
2. Symmetrical Internet at 1Gb/s. That's 1,000,000,000 bits per second.
3. A bunch of other things that some need and others don't.

On the down side you have to pay all the taxes charged to phone lines. So...
The basic fee is $40 per month, but by the time you add all the taxes and (if you take the option) router rental you are over $60 per month.

But it is Wicked fast...