Sonic partners with AT&T, works to ramp up speeds

For years, Santa Rosa-based Internet service provider Sonic has positioned itself as an alternative to corporate giants AT&T and Comcast. Its Fusion service — phone service and broadband Internet — came at a competitive price, along with what many viewed as better customer service.

The problem was, Sonic’s Fusion service only worked if you lived close to one of its central offices.

To alleviate that Sonic has taken several steps aimed at both improving and expanding its Fusion options. These include deploying better broadband technology in Sonic’s central offices, as well as partnering with AT&T to offer the telecommunications giant’s fiber-to-the-node, or FTTN, technology...