After a five hour installation job – apparently, many are longer — I am now among the first in San Diego County to have AT&T U-Verse, a new fiber-based service with a node down the street. They are definitely not calling it “IPTV.”
The service provides cable modem-like speeds for Internet, a wireless router, and 400 channels of video, including 25 HD channels. A free Digital Video Recorder is also thrown in. After one day, I can report that the picture looks great on my new HDTV, and the Internet speeds are good, too.
For AT&T, U-Verse is considered critical to its future in media and communications. Accordingly, the company’s vision isn’t just confined to TV and Internet. This spring, for instance, AT&T showed off a TV version of Yellow Pages.com (although it isn’t expected to be widely deployed for several years).
That’s basically it for the local connection – although home shopping efforts, launching down the road, are probably going to be tied in with the Yellow Pages service, and might have some local capabilities. Three colorful buttons in the middle of the universal remote have been expressly reserved for shopping. Traffic reports are also promised.
Beyond local, there will also be voice services. Today, I found out (by reading my instruction manual) that AT&T plans to introduce a full line of U-Verse Voice services – just like Time Warner, which competes against it locally. (The current absence of a phone tie-in is actually kind of strange). AT&T will also be introducing the ability to show your Yahoo! photos on TV.
My friendly pair of installers – AT&T employees, not freelancers — told me the company provided them with three weeks of classroom training, but nothing in the field. So they were pretty much learning on the job. But they were good.
AT&T followed up on the installation with a college student, who came around to show my wife and me how to use the DVR features, etc. For instance, I learned that I can program the DVR directly from My Yahoo! That is cool — especially when I am travelling. Their excellent care made me kind of melancholy, because I am not used to getting such good service from AT&T.
I’ve got the complete package for two months for just $74, and there is no contract. And I get $50 for every neighbor that I refer. I think there will be several. Let’s see how Time Warner competes against it. This is one war that I am looking forward to.
Hi Peter… I participate on the Burlington Telecom advisory committee here in Vermont. We’re on the cutting edge of providing triple play fiber to the home service… ahead of AT&T and even Verizon. It’s fascinating to see that a progressive municipality can get out front of the private sector behemoths. Our take rates are exceeding expectations. Perhaps the most exciting part of this… we’re on schedule to divert significant sums of money that were destined to leave the state in telecom fees, keeping it local instead, all while fostering local economic development and getting the citizens the latest and greatest telecoms infrastructure and features. I was a beta tester here and have been on the service for about 18 months… love it. BT is one of the reasons that Front Porch Forum is possible (my broadband is fast, dependable and affordable… much better than the Comcast or Verizon current offerings here).
Further, a colleague shared…
“AT&T chickened out on doing full FTTH (fiber to the home) and is going for a hybrid. The capability is far less than FTTH but so is the cost of retrofitting their network. Verizon made a different call: i.e. that sooner or later they (and everyone else) would be forced to go FTTH so they might as well bite the bullet and get a jump on their competition (seen mainly as the Cable TV companies) and do it now. Wall Street considers that the jury is out on which company got it right–but the telecom officianados are pretty unanimous that Verizon’s strategy* is the horse to bet on.”
Cheers. -Michael
P.S. Robert Scoble cornered me recently for a video interview about Front Porch Forum… http://frontporchforum.com/blog/?p=233
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Michael Wood-Lewis
Front Porch Forum… helping neighbors connect.
FPF progress: http://frontporchforum.com/blog
Member quotes: http://frontporchforum.com/testimonials
Media reports: http://frontporchforum.com/about/press.php
I signed up for the AT&T U-Verse package, ordered my 1080p Hi-Def 47″ TV and coordinated everything to insure that the AT&T installers would set up everythng, professionally.
The fateful Friday came and a couple of very well trained U-Verse installers arrived right on time. Donning their “booties” to protect a carpet that will be replaced (nevermind, company policy), they began the work of setting up the modem that controls everything — TV, Internet (including a wireless router) and the DVR. One tech worked inside and the other under the house in a crawl space “stringing coax”. A few days earlier, a tech had installed a new line from the pole to my house (and, as a necessary “bonus”, fixed the wire-holding bracket the roofers screwed up when they put the new roof on this house). So far, everyone is batting 1000% … then …
The SERVER that “registers new users as an essential part of the install was DOWN … Remember, we started on Friday morning and the job wasn’t completed until SUNDAY night at around 8:30PM. II, lkiterally, had to “push” Ben, the tech out the door or he might have asked to “stay the night to finish the job” . There are a couple of “loose ends” that need to be addressed (i.e. I want my Sony Vaio Desk-Top “hard wired with and Ethernet connection as opposed to being connected wirelessly). I agreed to “string that cable” so that the return call would be very short.
Summary: As was stated by an earlier “reviewer” … I am still in SHOCK resulting from the tech support that was nothing short of outstanding. These gentlemen (and that’s no figure of speech; they had a polished customer approach — courteous, respectful and, most of all, technically competent.). Once the SERVER was up, everything else had already been done and it was simple matter of registering my account.
The quality of the signal and picture is awesome. The so-called 6 mbps Internet speed falls short on my wireless laptop. Even though the local server is in a big brown box with a jet-engine-sounding fan running inside and is only a block away, my speed measured about 4.4 download and .9 upload. If this doesn’t improve on the Sony Vaio with an ethernet connection, I’ll opt for the intermediate or lower speed and save $15./month.
To add a little “Service Topping” to this tech-support dessert, I received a call from Lawrence of U-Verse’s training department. He came to my house and spent nearly an hour going over every aspect of the U-Verse program from the remote-control to the unique on-screen help features and more … Interestingly enough, Lawrence is a former Cox employee. In my opinion, Cox had better hunker down, fasten its seat belt and prepare itself for a fall from it’s near dominance of the San Diego market or Lawrence isn’t all they are going to lose.
Well I don’t have HD service but the picture is very clear and the speeds are very good. I’m hitting 5.6 speeds. SpeakEasy.com
My sons motto however is “I hate At&t”. I dont feel quite the same. This is new technology so I must give it time. But, about twice a month. I will have to reboot my DVR to watch a show interrupted. Sometimes its bad lag, other times its over and done with.
Although I have to call service again, because my main tv I cant even watch. It plays for 2 seconds and stops.
at&t has impeccable support. first class. But if you have service interrupted you have to wait 2 days before they care. Even if a thunderstorm messes it up. And yes once it did.
They need a forum to update customers what advances they have made.
In summary the idea is great, the price is right ( I have every channel and sports packages). But, they dont make it known what advances they have made to thier customers and if you can put up with some lag issues about twice a month I would go for it. I save 20% compared to cable. I would never go back to time warner, but really time warner is the worst cable company out there. I would have to think twice about dish. But, i think its worth it to tough it out.
I was one of the first to get At&T U-verse in the SF Bay Area. I’ll sum up how I feel about it in one sentence: I had it installed on a Friday (it took 7 hours) and I had it disconnected on a Monday. The picture quality for HD programs is great on close-ups, but the background shots were blurry, the blacks were too intense, and the there is too much pixilation and interruption to the sounds. I got a 1080i plasma TV in July and plugging it into Comcast, and the results were beautiful. Cristal clear pictures on the HD channels, and no issues whatsoever. Also, U-verse customer serve left me cold. The installation techs seemed inexperienced and didn’t seem to know what they were doing. One tech had the nerve to blame my TV for the picture problems. WHAT? I told her my TV was just fine with comcast, and I told them to take it out tha night, but they made some adjustments and it was ok for a weekend. However, when Sunday morning rolled around, and for some unknown reason Fox Sports Bay Area was off the air, not allowing me to watch the A’s game, I had had enough. I don’t think Comcast or Time Warner or anyone else has a thing to worry about until AT&T can put a better product out there.
Well, let’s see…
My wife and I had AT&T Uverse installed as one of the first subscribers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
After over 8 hours worth of installation by a gentleman who had a degree in metereology we were up and running… for a couple of weeks…
Of course, after the premium insallation I no longer could view the local stations that I used to receive on my attic installed antenna. I actually have no idea what the guy disconnected. But, hey, this is only tornado alley, why would I possibly want the local weather radar. Life is much more exciting when you don’t know that you are about to lose your roof!
So anyway, after about three weeks the whole system started shutting itself down. Actually, more like, locking itself up! Call AT&T service and they tell you all about how it is your TV… or, well, no, it ISN’T your TV, it is the box that they installed that apparently began showing problems about 2 weeks after they insalled it! But did they call and replace it? NO, it took 2 months worth of calls to the worthless service line before they bothered to send someone out.
That guy was actually great. He got the system up and running within minutes… or at least withing a couple hours…
He replaced the box… good to go!
For about three weeks.
Now we are starting the whole dance.
Until tomorrow when I will be ordering satellite again and call AT&T and tell them to take this Uverse back where they got it from.
Satellite TV gave us DVR, same number of HD channels, did not lock up constantly, billed regularly (not after 3 months, that was a FUN bill!!!) allowed us to use the DVR in the bedroom, allowed us to watch HD on multiple TVs in separate rooms, did not have an ugly receiver box in the bedroom (it ran on the one receiver box in the living room).
I don’t suppose I have to explain anything further.
This may be a good system in time, but AT&T obviously is not ready for this yet. I am tired of being the lab rat. I am OUT!
Tried the new service out for 2 months. What a long two months that was! After 3 dvr replacements, weekly freezeups, lost or interrupted recordings…we are getting rid of the u-verse service. I also found that despite what the salesman tried to lie about (faster internet than Cox, 1080p transmission, faster, quicker, smarter, better, etc etc etc yada yada yada) it just isn’t up to par. There’s no dependability at this time & trying to get through to a live voice in tech support….good luck. It’s unfortunate that AT&T left a bad taste in our mouths.
Think before you buy. Don’t fall for the big shpiel either.
Note this person is using a pseudonym. I have UVerse in San Diego and it works perfectly for me. Peter K
Installed UVerse on Friday, very well trained, polite techs, installed in a couple of hours, picture/sound every bit as good as Dish and cheaper. Only 4 days, but all looks good so far. Speed comparable to SBC Elite on both up and download