AT&T U-verse: Perfect for single people!
November 6, 2007
AT&T should start advertising their U-verse service on Match.com. Why? It is perfect for people who live alone and only have one television. If you have a spouse or a family I would highly recommend reading this post before ordering U-verse. Love may be complicated, but ordering HD television is getting even more difficult. The various providers including Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon, DirectTV and DiSH don’t make it easy. Add in AppleTV and Tivo and you have a real hornets nest on your hands. I don’t have any answers, but I can share with you my experience with AT&T’s ‘fiber-to-the-curb’ product called U-verse.
AT&T’s U-verse offering seems like a great idea. I ordered the U300 package which includes:
240 channels including the Movie Package (this package includes more than 30 channels of SHOWTIME®, The Movie Channel (TMC)™, FLIX®, Starz®, and Encore®). This service price also includes up to three HD-ready TV receivers, one with a digital video recorder (DVR). I also added HBO to the service. In addition, this package also includes AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Express U-verse enabled with wireless home networking. Perfect for downloading music and videos. I upgraded to the High Speed Internet Pro package (6mbps down and 1mbps up).
Sounds cool, right? The most amazing part of the service is what the U-verse salespeople DON’T tell you. I explained exactly how my televisions were set up and how I planned to use the service (i.e. TIVO and multiple TVs). It took about an hour to place the order. Things got interesting when the installer arrived.
First, the service runs over a copper pair connected to the U-verse system (must be less than 3,000 feet from your house). In reality AT&T is simply connecting DSL to your house. The plan is to run television and internet over that single pipe. I wondered how that would work. My cable modem has a hard time when I have my VoIP phone and iTunes download going at the same time. How would the DSL link do streaming HDTV during an iTunes download while I was on my Cisco VoIP phone. No big deal, right? What else?
- U-verse can only display HDTV on one connected television at a time (the second connected TV can only view SD channels)
- Each U-verse household can only have four connected televisions (if you have five TVs, the fifth must use rabbit ears)
- U-verse only allows one television to have a DVR, and no you can’t use Tivo (despite what the salesperson might tell you)
The installation technician (there were six guys in my house at one point, two throughout the entire five hour install) explained to me that more than half of his installs get cancelled when the homeowner learns he can only watch HD on one television at a time. Check out the FAQ. I think AT&T should either resolve this issue (i.e. add the ability to add more stream) or at least have their website and salespeople disclose this information PRIOR to accepting an order. So my advice to all your single people? Order U-verse, perhaps by the time you meet Mr. Right, U-verse will be able to support multiple HD streams…
