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The Little ISP Around the Corner

The ISP industry is dominated by big-name cable and phone companies for broadband, and a handful of national dial-up providers such as America Online, EarthLink, and NetZero. But you can still get a reasonable deal on Internet service from a provider in your local area. While you probably won't pay a cheaper rate, you'll likely receive more attentive service--and enjoy the satisfaction of spending your money in your own community.

Staying Close to Home

"I like supporting a local business," says Paula Park, a Santa Rosa, California, resident and subscriber to local ISP Sonic.net since 2001. Although her access costs more than it would through the telephone company in her area, she's philosophical about accepting the additional expense. "The bigger companies have huge marketing budgets, and are able to undercut the little guys," she says. "At the same time, my expectation [for local businesses such as Sonic.net] is that they have to be better in order to compete. I've dealt with SBC. Their customer service is bad. They don't give you anything that they don't absolutely have to," says Park.

IDC analyst Steve Harris estimates that at least 7000 ISPs in the United States--probably a lot more--serve only local markets. Collectively, these companies own no more than 1 percent of the overall market, according to Harris. Why don't the locals own a larger share? Because typically their services are limited, and they take longer to start offering faster services to their customers.

Although Sonic.net started in 1994 as a small operation based in its founder's home in Santa Rosa, it is now a regional provider covering much of Northern California. By reinvesting profits back into the business, Sonic.net has evolved from solely a dial-up ISP to a full-service provider offering DSL and wireless high-speed services. It has 40,000 customers, supporting them with a staff of 65. Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper notes that 60 percent of the firm's business comes from DSL service.

Sonic.net also provides business-class SDSL, T1, and T3 service. DSL isn't cheaper from Sonic.net than from a larger ISP, but Jasper claims his company maintains higher customer satisfaction because it provides an educated, responsive support staff that is "closer to the customer."

Service a Walk Away

Park bears that out. "They have an office I can walk into," she says. "When I had a problem [with a DSL link], SBC couldn't tell me whether the problem was with the service or the modem. I took the modem to Sonic.net, and a tech came out and tested it on the spot. He also walked me through all the workarounds I needed to fix the problem with SBC--he taught me how to work the system."

Susan Silvius