For those who might switch to AT&T U-verse

[gamblor01]

Hi all -- I just recently switched from Time Warner Cable (TV and Roadrunner) to AT&T's U-verse service. While I definitely had some problems getting their system to work with my own wireless router (see http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/mes...hread.id=14474), now that everything is stable I must say that I am impressed beyond belief. There are several reasons why:

1) The capabilities of the TV/DVR system are much better than Time Warner.
-I can record things from any DVR in the house. For example, if I schedule a recording in the living room, and later that day my wife is watching something out there, I can just go into the office and watch what I want there. No matter which DVR you schedule the recording on, you can watch it on any other TV!

- 4 simultaneous broadcasts! With TW I could only record a maximum of 2 things simultaneously, and it wasn't possible to watch a third program. With AT&T I can record/stream a max of 2 HD shows and 2 SD shows (for a total of 4 shows) at once. No, you cannot watch a 5th channel while recording 4 other things, but hey...4 is still definitively better than 2.

-You can see the entire guide online and schedule any recording you want just by logging into your AT&T account from anywhere (i.e. you can remotely schedule the thing while you are not even home).

- There are more channels offered that I actually care about. Sure Time Warner had a ridiculous amount of channels, but I don't care about digital music channels or any of that crap. AT&T has plenty of on-demand channels and things of that nature too, but they also carry stuff that TW makes you pay extra for. Some examples are the NFL network and Big Ten network. Also, they have several different regional versions of channels such as several different version of Fox Sports, and several different versions of TNT, etc. So when my neighbor wants to watch the Oregon Ducks play here in Texas -- chances are I can pick it up. When my dad wants to watch the Wolverines or the Spartans play (we're from Michigan) -- I have the Big Ten Network.

- A large number of HD channels. As far as I can tell it is even more than what TW offered me.

- TV can be run through either coax or ethernet cables. I told my install tech. that I was hoping for ethernet TV because I also wanted to run an additional ethernet cable for my blu-ray player from my living to the office (where my router is located). Instead of taking the easy route and using the existing coax, he obliged, ran a cat 5e cable from my living room to my office (crawling through the insulation in my attic to do so), and since I had some unused jacks already on the wall (unused coax and phone lines), he didn't charge me a dime to run the cable and drop it. Instead, he just pulled out the old, unused cables, switched out the wall plates, and then hooked up 2 ethernet jacks on each wall plate. So now I have both my blu-ray player and my DVR from my living room hard-wired to everything in the office. My blu-ray player can stream Netflix (WHICH IS AWESOME!!!), YouTube, CinemaNow, and Pandora. If I didn't sign up for U-verse I would have had to pay someone to come out and install this ethernet cable or do it myself.

2) Reasonable upload speeds!
For $35/month you can get DSL capable of 6Mbps down and 1Mbps up. With TW I had 7Mbps down and only 384Kbps up (don't trust most bandwidth tests that say 13Mbps or more down on Roadrunner -- powerboost is fooling you). 384Kpbs is ridiculously slow, particularly when I am working from home. I give my VOIP system priority over other traffic, so sometimes while I work from home I will be on the phone with a customer, and at the same time trying to upload a core file they sent me to some lab box at work. Core files can be hundreds of megabytes and transferring them at a max of about 40KB/s (typically considerably less) is painful.

1Mbps up is great and if I need more, AT&T offers more expensive DSL plans that are capable of up to 24Mbps down and 3Mbps up.

3) Customer service
I guess the U-verse customer support must be separate from the rest of AT&T, but it is phenomenal. I ran into problems within 24 hours of having my TV and Internet installed, and after calling customer support I got a ton of account credits, free services (some indefinitely so), and a technician back out to my house that day (who gave me a free 8 gigabit switch while he was here). I also got the email address of the support guy that discussed everything with me on the phone, so if I have any further problems, I have the direct contact information for the same guy. He was so helpful I made sure to drop him a fantastic email to send to his manager.



I AM IMPRESSED WITH AT&T!!!! Assuming that they continue to offer the latest content and technology in U-verse, and that nothing goes seriously wrong, they can expect my business for many years to come.

[loopback48]

Glad you posted. I've been watching the AT&T techs setting up a U-Verse box in my neighborhood. Been thinking of switching. I have their DSL service and have not had any problems with it in years. It just works! I'll be able to get bundled service (land line, DSL, and TV) once that box is up and running.

DSL is not as fast as Cable - I've got the second tier service of 2.5 Mb download/4xx something upload over copper. But it's fast enough for me. I hear of faster speeds from cable and get envious. But for what I do, it's more than enough. (I do think we all get too hung up on numbers.) Beats the hell out of dial-up - shudder!!!

AT&T did have a rough time when they first starting offering U-Verse service years ago. A friend who is a manager with AT&T would tell me some horror stories of those early days. But I think they've got most of the problems ironed out.

The only ***** I have is the inability to drop my land line. I use my cell phone as my primary phone. The land line just sits there taking up space. Things might have changed since I last talked to them but if one has DSL service, it come with a land line. No ands, if, or buts. Of course that means a bill for both. Maybe one of these days they'll offer bare DSL...? Maybe?

With ComCast moving more channels over to HD, which I don't have, I'm thinking of giving U-Verse a try. Thanks for the review. I'd love to hear from others who have U-Verse service. Give us the good, bad and ugly of it.

[gamblor01]

Requiring a land line must be some legacy thing that no longer applies. Yes, the feed comes in via an RJ-11 jack (or whatever the normal phone jack is). But you do NOT need to sign up for their phone service (U-verse Voice) to get the U-verse TV or Internet service. I have only TV and Internet, and I use an Ooma VOIP system which works great. However if you want a land line through AT&T I think it's only $30/month for unlimited nationwide long distance (maybe also Canada and Puerto Rico?). You can choose to get any of the three services by themselves, or any combination of them. There is no requirement to have U-verse Voice.


DSL didn't used to be as fast as cable but it is now. Actually the best AT&T package at $75/month is FASTER than anything TWC offers, including RR Turbo. The speeds here in Austin go up to 24Mbps down/3Mbps up with U-verse Internet. But for $35/month it's 6/1 Mbps and $55/month for 12/1.5Mbps. Pretty reasonable for some great speeds. TW Cable here in Austin is 7Mbps for standard Roadrunner (though the Turbo service offers more -- I think it might be 12Mbps). Your bandwidth tests on TWC are "wrong" though due to Powerboost. TWC doesn't tell anyone much about it other than it "helps when downloading large files" but Comcast gives you the scoop:

http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FA...ost-burst-last

They give you a boost for the first 10MB of downloads only. Since most bandwidth tests pull down less than 10MB, you don't get a true measure of your bandwidth. You'll think you have 7Mbps service and yet your test will show you something like 13-16Mbps -- it's a bit of a lie because that is only for the first 10MB (or perhaps TWC has different numbers than Comcast, but I can't find where they document it). If you were to download a 700MB ISO such as a live CD, you only get the boost for the first 10MB and the remaining 690MB are pulled down at the normal 7Mbps.

So really the TWC bandwidth isn't much different than my 6Mbps service from AT&T. Personally I prefer to have the extra upload speeds instead of the extra download speeds. You could get RR Turbo, sure, but paying the additional $10/month makes it $55/month just like the 12Mbps service through AT&T, and then AT&T offers better upload speeds on top of that. I haven't had this service very long but so far I'm a believer. Bye bye TWC!