AT&T U-verse

Anyone got it/know anything about it?

As I understand it the system is phoneline based rather than satellite?

Anyone have more info? Time Warner has been sticking it to me and I'm up for a switch but I hate satellite.

Thanks,

Tim

I would like more info as well. I have AT&T everything, including Dish Network thru them. I'm a little biased because the CEO is a Texas Tech grad and they have donated a lot of money to my school's football stadium renovations, but they are also the cheapest for everything. I haven't even heard of this service until you posted it. Maybe it's a brand new service and no one here should have it yet.

I've been following this project for a number of years. "U-verse" is the ultimate result of SBC's "Project Lightspeed" ( background info ).

The original plan was to pull fiber right to the home of all new buildout, and pull it to the neighborhood level for existing structure and use VHDSL (Very Highspeed DSL) to get connectivity to the end node. This new hybrid fiber/VHDSL would deliver speeds up to about 25Mb/s to the end user, allowing 4 concurrent HD streams, telephony, and data (internet) access.

The fiber buildout was accompanied by massive datacenter buildout in all CO's They were setting up a hierarchical network of on-demand video delivery servers, to allow caching video at the local level and not require delivering it all across the Internet. The end-user's set-top-box for IP->TV connectivity was a really cool box running an embedded Windows OS. I saw some demos of what it did and was quite impressed. Due to all video being stored on the servers in the CO, you could watch any program you wanted, any time you wanted. It was kind of like a really huge DVR with the storage hosted remotely at the CO.

It is my understanding (and I don't know how accurate this is) that since the ATT merger, the project has been scaled down dramatically to make shareholders happy. The set-top-box is no longer built by Microsoft, and has been cheapened significantly. The capabilities have been scaled down significantly, and the fiber/VHDSL rollout has slowed to a crawl. I believe that ATT intends to deploy the service using existing DSL network infrastructure, and then upgrade to the original plan at an indefinite later date.

Not available in Houston yet anyway. That's odd since we typically get everything first from AT&T when something comes out. I wonder if it's in the "beta" stages of things and they're just testing it in select areas.

it is available in my neighborhood which is why I asked about it. I guess I'll be the guinea pig. I've already had DSL through them so no contract. If I don't like it, back to TWC I go.

Cool, let us know how it goes. And is satellite not an option for you? Comcast is taking over Time Warner in the Houston market this month. Cable prices piss me off (at least with TW), so I'm interested to see what Comcast offers.

I heard Comcast was taking over Time Warner in Houston. Last fall it was the exact opposite up here in DFW. Time Warner took over Comcast and well... I miss Comcast. I have a few friends that have Verizon Fios and seem to love it. I may have to look into that again.

I heard that it is available in Houston but only in select areas (i.e. inside the 610 loop). You might be able to find out more information by visiting an AT&T Wireless store.

Satellite is an option but I don't like it. Personal preference. When the weather is bad I want my cable TV to work.

Well I got U-verse installed on Monday morning and I dig it so far. The menu system and the favorites take a little getting used to but it's working well. I like the fact that I can program my DVR to record a show from any place with internet access... wonder if it will work from my Blackberry...

It is still new to me so I can't give too much detail but so far I give it a thumbs up.

Not available in my area either Dying to find another option other than Cox (Dumbass) cable.

Cool, continue to keep us updated. Still not available in my area either.

Someone in the Houston Chronicle gave it a review and basically said it's has the best potential, but is still a little buggy. Of course, this guy didn't even have an HD TV, so it's not really a complete review of what we all want to hear. Still, if it's buggy, maybe that's why AT&T hasn't released it mainstream... They're still working out the kinks. Just a guess. Anyway, here's the article:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/silverman/4919846.html

Between AT&T U-verse, and Verizon, the first one to offer service to my house will probably win. Verizon FIOS blows away my current Dish setup. Can U-verse compete?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Verse

I'm digging up the dead here, but the St Louis market just got green-lighted for U-verse a week or two ago. Apparently not many people here qualify yet, but I tried out my address and it looks like I'm good for it. I wasn't all that interested until I looked at the pricing. Its quite attractive, and no analog phone line required! (finally) I decided to give it a go, and have a Jan 16 install date.

From what I've read, the "real world" speed is around 27MBps, with up to 6Mbps allowed for data (1 meg up), and the rest reserved for video. Rumor has it that they'll be bumping up the data part of the connection to 10/1Mbps early next year. There are also rumors that they'll be doing "pair bonding", and setting up two parallel VDSL2 connections on your line, give you well over 50Mbps, which will allow multiple concurrent HD streams, as well as faster data. There are also likely to allow static IP plans early next year, although they say that it is currently a "sticky" dynamic IP, and your IP address only changes if you swap out your RG gateway device (which you don't do unless it breaks).

I'm pretty stoked about it. Nice array of cable channels with HD DVR (and you can swap the HDD for more space), 6/1 DSL connection, no up-front costs, and no contract, all for <$100 a month. Supposedly the DVR interface is less than great, but no worse than the satellite boxes. Its no Tivo, though. Since its fairly bleeding-edge technology, I expect we'll get a lot of upgrades in the coming year.

I've had the system for about 6 months now and I still like it. The delay with the remote is a bit annoying but not too bad. I like that I can program my dvr from anywhere with internet access. I get every channel they have for less than I was paying for TWC to include NFL Network as well as BTN (big 10 network). Every single movie channel they have. The list is pretty impressive and the price is way under what time warner was raping me for.

Competition is good.

Vive la resistance!

My parents' home just had U-verse installed. It seems pretty cool, but one of its biggest drawbacks is that you can only tune to ONE HD signal at a time. If your household has more than one HD TV in it, you can't watch an HD program on both simultaneously. Another potential issue is that both video and data are routed through one "cable modem". U-verse is essentially video over IP. Each TV tuner has its own IP address. The network signals are distributed over the home's coax cables. If the "cable modem" or anything upstream from it go down, you lose both TV and internet.

AT&T also has a U-verse package bundle that includes local and long-distance phone, internet, and video. Switching from your current content providers to U-verse can save you several hundred dollars per year.