Posted on 12/30/2008 3:11:09 PM PST by GRRRRR
Thinking about dumping comcast and going to Att-Uverse. My sis-in-law has it on her analogue TV, with wireless to her laptop and she likes the DVR.
What to my fellow FReepers have to say about it?
I want the 400 channel lineup, max Internet and their Voice phone service...all for about $200/mo. saving me about $50/mo with Comcast. Would have it for three HD sets, desktop and two laptops.
Read lots of on line reviews, both pro and con, however, FReepers always have the best advice. Do they have to rewire with fiber-optic cable all over the house?
G
It took a few tries to get the phone service switched over but that was a strange situation.
The service itself is great. We use the DVR regularly, and we can watch the DVR from any TV in the house.
DSL is fast and speed is as advertised.
If you have a home alarm system make sure they are compatible with U-Verse.
The HD channels are great, and you can select programs to record via a web interface.
We had DirecTV before and like this a lot better.
I’ve got the Verizon version. Got the data and video, on fiber optics. LOVE IT. However, I’m using Vonage over the data line. Much cheaper and not subject to all the state and federal taxes that can be a third to half of the bill. Suggest going that way rather than the full bundle.
Check this out..
Home audio & video: AT&T’s U-verse HDTV & Interenet Service -User experience?
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7596_102-0.html?forumID=60&threadID=247130&messageID=2486001
U-Verse comes in over copper, no need to rewire.
The residential gateway handles all IP - TV, DSL, VOIP. It's also your wireless hub.
Mrs. Sooner noticed that the TV wouldn't come back on after she'd turned it off.
The tech said "Oh yeah, that's just a problem with the HDMI interface that we don't have all the bugs worked out with yet. You'll need to disconnect it and just use the regular cables."
That was the wrong thing for him to say. We use the cable service now and have no complaints - once the install was scheduled and finished, that is.
AT&T lost money that day.
Had the service for six months. Great, no problems to this point. After IKE the service was back up before power was restored. Internet is very stable. Would not go back to other service at this point.
From the link below.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7596_102-0.html?forumID=60&threadID=247130&messageID=2486001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
U-Verse = REVERSE. Not ready for primetime.
by rmclean949 - 12/8/08 3:10 PM In reply to: AT&T’s U-verse HDTV & Interenet Service -User experience? by Prandy
I want to tell you how grossly disappointed I am in the Uverse offering.
First you need to know that I am Senior IT professional and have been in the industry for 18 years.
I have been dealing with networks before the IP protocol even existed. I was very excited to try the new U-verse product being in the advanced technology field supporting IP telephony and very large data centers for Fortune 500 companies.
I was very excited to find out that I had 78 Mbs of bandwidth available to my residence from the local SONET MUX. If you don’t know what this means then you should forward it to a supervisor who probably will.
I am very unhappy with the following issues that I’m having with the U-verse product:
1- Every 19 seconds I have an audio clip is very reproducible
2- I consistently have issues with the scheduling software not recording a scheduled program. This is not because of a conflict either I’m very aware of the conflicts and how to resolve them.
3- The fact that I cannot watch more than two HD channels in my entire residence is not acceptable. I understand that not all you U-verse clients will have the available bandwidth to their residence that I do but that should not limit my viewing ability.
4- The channel lineup and guide is TERRIBLE and has no rhyme or reason as to how it is laid out. There is no “category” search which is available on all other “modern” (and I use the term loosely) video delivery services such as cable and/or DirecTV.
5- The limitations imposed by a single “whole house” DVR is ridiculous when you have a paying customer who is willing to pay for an additional DVR but your corporate policy does not allow one home to have to DVR’s.
6- Your development team using the Windows CE as a platform for an enormous initiative for your organization? Who made that decision??
****Not being able to pause TV on a “non-whole home DVR” is a HUGE omission in your marketing material.
****Not being able to schedule a recording from anywhere other than the “whole home DVR”is another HUGE omission in your marketing material.
I have a Gigabit Ethernet network in my home. You could not have a better candidate for this product and I am very dissatisfied and look forward to hearing from you. I can provide valuable feedback to your organization from an end-user perspective that will help you gain market share.
I look forward to a response from a manager at some level you can give me some type of a warm and fuzzy and not just lip service like your customer service people on the phone. I know a lot of companies like yours are monitoring blogs.... personally I do not like blogging but if that’s what it takes to get some answers I guess I will be blogging away!
Sincerely,
Robert
AT&T RESPONSE - NONE. NADA. The TDM dinosaur can’t get out of it’s own way trying to deploy packet based tecnology. The product manager/marketing team should be fired!
Are you in a new house, with modern wiring?
Or an old house, with old or modified wiring?
It makes a difference, I’m told.
I’m confused. This guy has been in networking since before the IP protocol existed. I believe IP was specified in 1980 (not to be confused with TCP which came to be in the mid 70s).
So, 2008 - 18 = 1990. Did the author of this CNET post mean 28 years :-)!?
As for FTTH (Fiber to the Home), I currently use Verizon for internets and phone....I am getting TV soon. My home is wired much like the author of this post (gig-e wired for a lot of streaming video to my Xboxes and PS3, some wireless for the wife & stepson’s computers) and I have had zero complaints about anything. I only have a 5Mbps line for downloads (2Mbps for uploads), and I can access virtually every bps across the of that “internets” bandwidth at any time.
A friend has the FiosTV....it is fantastic. However, I do not know how it behaves with multiple TVs in use on different channels. I cannot comment on anything else since I have not played around with all of the TV features.
Also, I concur with the other Freeper regarding phone service...save yourself a few bucks and get Vonage or the like....you can save about $10/month easy....maybe more. I didn’t do that, but will be doing that once the 12 month special pricing got elapses this May.
Thanks, nice find. BTW, I have DSL (through AT&T, which was formerly SBC, which took over Ameritech, which was formerly Michigan Bell) and it works fine, also regular phone service, and that’s it. I’m not going to start back with a monthly TV bill from any provider.
If you can get DSL, I recommend Netflix. $10/month or so, free downloadable movies and 1 movie at a time via the mail.
OK gang, Thanks to all of you! I think I might go talk to the local store in person and see what they have to say. I can’t deal with ANY service interruptions and so forth and I have to say that the Comcast service her in NE IL has been very reliable and stable!
G
AT&T is not Fiber to the Home, but Fiber to the Remote Terminal (or as the Cable companies call it Fiber to the Node) and then using two copper pairs (instead of the usual one pair) to make a combined DSL line. It was the only way to increase DSL speed from 6MB to 26MB (or whatever the speed of ADSL+ is today). AT&T didn’t want to spend as much as Verizon who is not only replacing their trunk lines with fiber to the Remote Terminals, but also replacing the copper from the RT to the Home with fiber (or some cases with coax to save money).
Actually it’s a single pair. It uses VDSL. And the proper term is FTTN though it’s not a cable created term but rather an industry term (one that was first deployed by telcos and not cable). Though FTTC or FTTP can be done. It just needs an IP medium for transport. Verizon doesn’t use coax except for inside the house HPNA use AFAIK. Their FiOS product is 100% PON technology.
VDSL is range dependent for top speed as is all DSL. The upper range is <3.5 kft for a Uverse loop. ADSL2+ is and has always been a 25Mbps technology (<5kft) with bonding options.
Anyone have any questions about DSL tech just freepmail me.
What to do??
Who can provide all these telecom services: Security Connection, Cellular 5 phones, TV Cable, Computer Line and Land Line.. ???
I am getting U verse installed this week switching from DISH. Any tips or advice on U verse from users?
Mine is a double pair. They test the line(s) and use one if possible, but add a box if they need to use two.
Works great! And we CAN watch 4 HD programs at once.
Also, channel surfing is pretty quick and almost as good as cable.
I compared OTA Channel 5 WRAL (1st HD commercial station to go on air and a VERY technically-astute crew) to U-Verse and I could not tell the difference on a 50” Pioneer KURO plasma set.
FREEPER HELP: KeyLargo request any input on the above.
TV: image quality is utter trash. The worst “HD” picture you’ll see. Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, etc all look better.
Phone: good voice quality. Phone number availability is linked to the uptime of your U-Verse DSL box and power supply, however. If your power goes out, AT&T will give you a battery backup that will kick in, but once that battery is depleted, your phone won’t work.
Internet: not the fastest, but pretty decent speeds for the price. Comcast and especially Verizon are faster, though with Verizon FiOS you’ll wind up paying for that speed.
Customer support: I’ve never had a problem with them over the last 10+ years, though that was back when they were Bellsouth.
We got U-verse about 3 years ago. We started with TV, internet, and phone (Mrs. RWA wanted phone). We had a major outage on the average every 4 months or so. We were the only house affected.
I went through the excruciating service people on the phone every time. They all sound like they come from some other planet. I could give you a long dissertation on that but not now.
After farting around for a half-hour or more of unplugging, plugging, rebooting, moving router, etc. they always told me, “We need to send a tech out. We got appointments five days from today.”
(At this point we dropped the phone since it went out when the internet did. We also dropped the TV since we didn’t really have the time to sit and watch.)
Each tech came and scratched his head each time, called the mothership, ran tests and eventually told me one of the wire pairs was bad and he was going to use another.
Another time we had an outage the guy replaced a plug. Another time they said they switched the wire pair again. Nobody ever thought to find out why the wire pair was bad. Seems like a logical thing to do.
Finally, after over a year, a tech tested the wire and said there was a problem, just as everyone else said. This guy actually LOOKED at the wire from the interface device all the way to the router. The first guy had run about 100 feet of cable on the outside of the house. The new tech found a staple through it. One wire appeared to have been almost totally severed and eventually broke. The insulation was compromised on all but one wire in the cable. Water was getting in and causing big problems.
He ripped out the long wire, installed a short one, and put the router in a better location.
Bingo! Good service since then for about a year.
I hate the AT&T company. Until recently, they had THE worst online bill paying system in the developed world. We have uverse internet, a land line, and DSL that we provide for our daughter at another house. It took forever to get these three bills paid. I explained the problem to them about three different times in increasingly sarcastic emails to them. Finally, one day, they actually made improvements! It’s still a bit strange, but it goes a lot faster. Instead of having one user name and one password for the whole company, I ended up with three different ones. At least it feels like you are talking to one company. Before if felt as if there was a separate company for each account.
Another thing I hate about them is that about once a week I get an offer in the mail to add services. The ones I dropped some time ago.
In some cases AT&T uses a 2nd pair to get the speeds they need, but you are correct, in most cases they are using one pair to the house.
A buddy works for AT&T and they had to do that to his house. He does really big stuff doing backhaul for cell towers and such.
I dumped Time Warner and got uVerse a yr. or so ago. Like it.
We DVR almost everything we plan to watch so we can skip through the commercials.
Can record 2 HD +1 reg channel while watching another channel.
It goes out occasionally, had the DVR replaced once or twice. Not perfect but I like it better than the cable service we had.
I have relatives in Kentucky that have ATT U-verse and they like it. My sister has Verizon Fios and the picture is much better than Time Warner which I have.
Ignore the date question. I noticed the new post to the old thread.
At the time I posted it, they only did single pair. Bonded pair was in trial phase and not accepted for field deployment.
We use AT&T (nee Pacbell, BellSouth) for POTS (yep!) and DSL. WORST customer support ever. But we stick with them because I hate switching.
1. May years ago, we used to have two bonded B channels on ISDN. When DSL was installed, we switched over. Network came up, but no email. POTS people pointed the finger at the DSL people who pointed the finger at the Internet people who in turn pointed the finger at the email people. It took a MONTH to get email service restored. We must have spent 25 hours on the phone with them. They finally dispatched one guy to the house who knew something and was able to talk to the right people to restore email service. It wasn’t network related, but they couldn’t figure that out.
2. Our internet service stopped working about three years back. “It must be your DSL Modem; here, install this new one.” My wiring closet is not very accessible, so that was a pain. No luck. Several truck rolls and tech visits, but no Internet. Tests showed the problem was in the outside plant, but they kept insisting it was inside. Finally the ONE right guy came out and found water in the pedestal at the end of the block. He cleaned that up, replaced some damaged equipment, and resealed the box. Bingo, back in service after about a week-long outage.
3. Our internet service stopped working about 6 months ago. Several visits from techs said the problem was in the outside twisted pair wiring from our house to the pedestal. They said they had to rewire the entire neighborhood — no more pairs available and the wiring was dated! A week went by and nothing at all from them - no returned calls, brand new CSRs on the phone every time we had to re-educate from ground zero. Drove us insane again. Finally got the ONE right guy out who knew how to trouble shoot and he found squirrels had gnawed through our pair on the pole a few doors down. A simple splice and we were back in business.
My advice? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to figure out.
POF
I’ve had Uverse for about a year and a half.
The one problem I have is that the HD video quality isn’t as good as I would like. It’s a bit too heavily compressed, so you can see the compression artifacts. I’m a photographer and am very sensitive to video artifacts.
On the plus side, they have almost every channel you would want, and the prices are a bit lower than cable.
I have been very happy with the internet service. I pay for 12 mbps and get the speed I pay for. I subscribe to Netflix and MLB.TV and the picture quality is amazing.
The one real negative for some is that if you have conventional home phone service (I don’t), they must convert that to the Uverse IP phone to give you service.
Oh heck! I didn’t realize that was an old thread that had been resurrected! LOL
Post 21 was dated on July 10, 2012 1:53:01 PM by KeyLargo, prior to that the comments are two or three years old.
A few comments can be found in the below:
http://helpme.att.net/esupport/main.jsp?ct=9000842
http://uverse-universe.com/forum
http://www.ehow.com/way_5326884_att-uverse-motorola-tips.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?Tips-to-Using-ATandTs-U-verse-More-Efficiently&id=2305725
http://reviews.gethuman.com/tips/AT-T-U-Verse/
Thanks for the reply.
There seems to be all old information from 2008 online.
I’ll wait and see when u verse is installed up and running.
Since DISH dropped AMC and now charge customers 10 bucks more a month for worthless Blockbuster movies it was time to drop DISH for me and a lot of other customers.
Yes, you need to get that 1 out of 5 or 10 U-verse service guys who know what they are doing and want to solve the problem.
Well, I made a big mistake in having AT&T U-Verse installed since my post inquiry about getting it.
The service was installed only three days ago and I have had very few hours of service out of this AT&T system.
The service continually disconnects. Sadly, I should have read all of the negative comments all over the internet about poor customer service from AT&T regarding U-Verse.
I am waiting for another tech person to come and replace the modem. When I called tech support yesterday they said that they would send a modem to me in a few days! I had to complain that I did not sign up for this U-Verse for a do it yourself program.
Bottom line.
I’m going back to DISH so that at least I will have a home phone that is not disconnected everytime U-Verse goes out.
DO NOT WHATEVER YOU DO GET U-VERSE.
I will be expecting AT&T to honor their guarantee.
U-verse® Choice Bundles
FREE activation online
30-day money-back guarantee
Professional standard installation
Total Home DVR® with most packages
AT&T Wireless customers save even more with exclusive bundle offers!
I believe I told you that we had DISH for several years, but in the last two or three years we were only watching less than a half dozen or so channels.
I finally dropped DISH.
Our existing TW cable has several HD stations and we never had a problem with TW’s service (plus their monthly charges are much less then DISH's).
If someone offered a la carte programming, I'd sign up in a minute.
What is the Verizon fios tv image like? We have dish too and so many sports packages that we haven’t made the switch. We use fast fios for Internet. If only Verizon had access to all the weird non local teams my guys follow.
I can’t say what Verizon’s TV image quality is like, since they don’t do business in my area.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.