For seventy-plus years a member-owned co-op in Abbeville has been laying fiber down roads the big carriers ignored. When Hurricane Helene knocked the region offline, its offices became the place people went to charge a phone and find a signal.
Sonic is the largest independently owned internet service provider in California, founded in 1994 in Santa Rosa. It builds and runs its own fiber-optic network, selling fast, flat-priced gigabit and 10-gigabit home and business internet with no contracts, no data caps, and a privacy stance that has earned it a perfect score from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. After more than 30 years serving the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonic began its first out-of-region expansion in 2026, lighting up fiber in Los Angeles and Dallas.