Yeah I don't regularly come that
I have Sonic. I talked to the CEO, their gigabit fiber lines are not leased. Their old DSL lines were, but I believe they piggy backed off of all the permits that AT&T pulled (meaning they didn't have to do work, just copied them and got cleared easily since AT&T just got cleared).
That's the thing... THEIR fiber is not leased, yes they run their own fiber. However running fiber is expensive as all hell, so a vast majority of their customer base is via AT&T's Uverse, including Gigapower. THEIR fiber is actually really cheap in comparison, I recall it was like $40 or 50/month or something insanely low, when they lease through AT&T it's all AT&T lines at AT&T pricing*
Unfortunately Sonic doesn't have THEIR fiber in my area, and quite honestly probably never plans on doing it if they can simply lease AT&T stuff to do the same thing.
Sonic is incredible. Not only is the speed and performance great, but I really like the way the company runs. Good people at the top of an organization that we have transparency into is probably the best sign of a potential great long-term success.
I don't deny Sonic is great, I stuck with them for more than a decade back in the 6Mbps DSL days, waiting for them to do more, unfortunately they never did. Now I have the chance, and Sonic does something that really pisses me off, they bundle everything with voice, which means 1) you rent their ATA $6.50/month, 2) You are now subject to all the federal, state and local taxes that comes with a phone line which for San Francisco is just over $13/month, and this is not something they will budge on at all, they claim this is done to make their practices "easier" for all, they also claim reduces cost which I don't get because their base price is identical to AT&T (for my neighborhood) so the addition of the phone adds about $20 to the price, then they also lease their fiber gateway which adds another $9.50 a month which AT&T gives for free, so at the end of the day sticking with Sonic will end up costing me $30 more per month (33% increase over AT&T). Now I like them for their policies and all, but the forcing of a voice line really is the breaking point, I already get charged all those fed/state/local taxes on my cell phone, I refuse to be taxed twice.