ATT U-Serve - anyone using?

[Todd Burch]

Sales guy came to the door yesterday touting ATT's newly installed fiber optic service for high speed internet & HD TV service. I'm considering changing over from Comcast.

Anyone using it? Per the sales guy, it's a dedicated 6mb download speed (since I'm not on a shared loop like I am with cable) and the TV signal is better too. He says the HD signal is a true 1080i, double that of Comcast's.

ATT is less expensive than Comcast. I'm spending $136/month for Comcast TV & Internet (2 cable boxes - one is a DVR), and an upgraded service from ATT would be $109/month. ATT package is one DVR and 3 other non-DVR boxes. I get 4 hard-wired internet connections and 6 wireless. I get can a static IP for another $10/month. ??

Internet - he tells me they're using 384 bit encryption. Haven't heard of that one yet - I've only head of 128 bit.

Hype or fact?

Todd

[Randy Davidson]

Glad to see a post on that. I live in the country and they have been laying fiber optic cable for the last couple of months. Hopefully we will be contacted soon. Satellite is the only option we have so almost anything outside of dial up is a vast improvement.

[Mike Henderson]

If you aren't locked in for some period like a year, I'd give it a try. Comcast will be glad to take you back if you don't like the att service. They would love to be able to say that people who try the att service don't like it and are coming back to them.

Mike

[Frank Guerin]

I'll take it. I'll take anything. I'm still having to use the tin cans with the string between them. Before I leave for work in the morn I check for e-mail. It may have come through before I get home but that was for last year.

[Jim Becker]

Well...UVerse isn't all fiber. It's a fiber to the node service with VDSL from the node to your house over copper. (There are a very few areas in the country where they do have some folks on fiber all the way, but mostly not) They are also limiting the available speeds to considerably lower (6mb) than Verizon is offering for FiOS (which is fiber to the prem) but it should be much more consistent than the cable company. My 3mb DSL is more consistant than COMCAST's cable modem service that is "twice" the speed. (but lower throughput) That said, UVerse is certainly a great option vs the cable companies, even if it's IPTV (which is still in its infancy)!

[Todd Burch]

Thanks for the replies. I even got a phone call this evening from a nice fellow Creeker from up in Spring, Tx - thanks Rusty! He got it not too long ago and loves it.

ATT is doing a no-contract thing. It will be copper from my house from their "node". They said it would take 5-8 hours to install. Wow.

I'll report back after the 16th. :)

Todd

[Todd Burch]

ATT was here yesterday. Got it installed. He got to the house about 10am after doing things at the local "box" in the neighborhood. We took lunch for an hour at lunchtime, and he left about 6pm. Ugg.

Impressions:
They need to speed up their install process.
The TV picture quality was oversold (surprise, surprise). The HD picture is certainly not better, and I think it's even worse. Signal compression is obvious. Fixed portions of the video stream should not "shake" or pixelate.
Lots more channels - got a new numbering system to learn. (nit)
Less hardware in the closet for internet. Less hardware in the patch panel - no more signal boosters.
ATT, by default, blocks outgoing mail port 25. That's what most people use.
I think the DVR box I got is defective. S-Video out to the DVD player does not work - got a call in to replace it (nit)
Audio levels are better than Comcast were.
Flexibility for watching / moving TV's is non-existant. If you don't have a u-verse box on a TV, you're not watching it - ever. Extra boxes are $5/month. (the cheap, non-dvr version of the box). Can't change the physical location of a box (like swap locations of a DVR box with a non-DVR box - it won't work until ATT reprograms your house. Big hassle.
Support is 24X7, but I would expect that. Voice-mail/prompt system is better than Comcast's.
Only one HD station can be watched at a time. You got that? Big deal here. When someone on another TV switches to a different HD channel than you are watching, you get "knocked off" your station. You can get it back, but then your 17 year old thinks it's a funny game to play and does it over and over again.
Internet is faster. Approx. 5.7MB - 5.9MB/per sec download, about 950ish MB / per sec upload. Just about as advertised.
And the biggest surprise.... there is no CLOCK on any of the tuner boxes!! HELLO???!!!
I've got the "early adopter blues".

Todd

[Jim Becker]

The TV picture quality was oversold (surprise, surprise). The HD picture is certainly not better, and I think it's even worse. Signal compression is obvious. Fixed portions of the video stream should not "shake" or pixelate.
Only one HD station can be watched at a time. You got that? Big deal here. When someone on another TV switches to a different HD channel than you are watching, you get "knocked off" your station. You can get it back, but then your 17 year old thinks it's a funny game to play and does it over and over again.

Both are to be expected with the VDSL implementation they used. They need to use a lot of compression to make it work on the little pipe and just one HD channel still uses a healthy chunk of bandwidth. This is one of the reasons why the tech-savvy pundants scratch their heads over AT&T's decision to do a FTTN deployment, rather than FTTP like VZ is doing. VDSL's maximum right now is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20mbps downstream. That's barely enough to handle simultaneously (well) expected Internet speeds, a voice conversation, and a couple channels of video content if HD is involved. And that's with significant compression.

This was a money-driven decision on AT&T's Sr Management's part because they just couldn't make themselves go to the BOD and say they were going to invest ("spend" in the eyes of Wall Street) many, many times as much on a full fiber implementation.

IPTV is tough to do well right now, especially when you are severely bandwidth limited. Even with the total fiber installation that VZ is doing, they are not using IPTV outside of VOD for now. That will change at some point when the network is all upgraded to GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network), but for now, even they are using a "cable TV like" method of distributing the hundreds of SD and HD channels on a separate wavelength to maintain quality.

[Jim Becker]

Don't think I'd switch to AT&T anytime soon but FiOS I might try when it becomes available.

That's an easy choice, Peter...you live in a VZ area. AT&T services like this will likely never be available to you just as FiOS will likely never be available to Todd since he lives in an AT&T (former SBC) area.

[Jim Becker]

Peter, I spoke with the VZ PA public relations guy two nights ago. Even with the "change of the guard" in my township that might help things along, the 2008 deployment schedule is already written, so I'm probably looking at 2009 now. 'Shame 'cause the fiber's been on my poles for two years now. And they may skip upgrades in my CO that would at least get me 7mb DSL that's now being offered in some VZ areas that are still serviced by DSL.

Oh, don't judge your chances based on DSL availability. DSL has very restrictive distance physical limits that make it difficult to install in certain areas. Those physical limits are not an issue with FiOS. You probably had to wait for a remote terminal to be installed to service your neighborhood for DSL...

[Todd Burch]

Just a note on the Comcast thing.

A few days before ATT showed up, I called Comcast to ask about the disconnect process. They were very eager to offer me a lower price for my service. I was paying $143/month, and they lowered it to $107/month, and explained that I was not the only customer calling to disconnect after their price hikes. I never even mentioned ATT.

I asked why they are offering me the lower price so easily since I called, and why didn't they just lower my price without me having to call (rhetorical question, but I figured I'd ask). His only answer was that the $107/month was their current "special" that was being offered. (Yeah, being offered to those who call to complain).

Even if I only have service for a little while, I still took the discount.

A few minutes after the call, the wife pipes and up and says "What happened to my NFL network?" I call Comcast back. Turns out the doofus that lowered my bill, took that service off to get the pricing down lower. What a knucklehead. (me too).



Comcast: We can lower your bill
Me: OK
Comcast: We'll do it taking some services away from you
Me: OK


Todd