AT&T U-Verse

[sgrizzle]

I love sales talk.

To the person who is getting "not available" it tells me that on their website so I can't price it or get the big discounts but it IS available in my area.

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I love sales talk.

To the person who is getting "not available" it tells me that on their website so I can't price it or get the big discounts but it IS available in my area.

I find that funny as well.  I did see a bunch of contract and AT&T trucks working on lines at midnight last night on Admiral at the traffic circle.  Wonder if they're getting me that great Uverse?

Tim, how long have you worked for AT & T?

[xx(]

[tim huntzinger]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I love sales talk.

To the person who is getting "not available" it tells me that on their website so I can't price it or get the big discounts but it IS available in my area.

Apparently it has something to do with how the addresses were entered and are being read by the various programs.  Sort of a 'y2k' programming thing, so one may try to enter an address without the 'th' on 'e 45th', entering 'e 45' instead, eg.

A co-worker simply called Cox and mentioned the U-verse 200 and Cox upgraded his service for the same cost.  So even if you are 'out of area' one should see if Cox has some love for ya.

[jmikeh]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I love sales talk.

To the person who is getting "not available" it tells me that on their website so I can't price it or get the big discounts but it IS available in my area.

Hey Grizz.  I just checked the web thingy and it still says not available.  Damn.  I guess I will have to call and see if I can get a human on the phone..

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by tim huntzinger

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I love sales talk.

To the person who is getting "not available" it tells me that on their website so I can't price it or get the big discounts but it IS available in my area.

Apparently it has something to do with how the addresses were entered and are being read by the various programs.  Sort of a 'y2k' programming thing, so one may try to enter an address without the 'th' on 'e 45th', entering 'e 45' instead, eg.

Just tried that (leaving out the ordinals) and it worked!

I can order just the U-Verse internet by itself, but if I dont include a TV package they want a $99 one-time-charge.  Adding a TV package makes the one-time-charge go away.

Not enticed enough to give up DirecTV with TiVo just yet, so ill wait and see of the one-time-charge decides to go away on it's own later.

[Double A]

U-verse takes top spot in consumer survey

AT&T U-verse, the company's Internet protocol television service, ranks highest in customer satisfaction in three of four regions of the United States in a survey of 18,938 U.S. households by J.D. Power and Associates.

J.D. Power's survey measures customer satisfaction with cable, satellite and IP television providers in the North Central, East, West and South regions of the U.S. The survey tracks customer satisfaction with performance and reliability, customer service, cost of service, billing and offerings, and promotions. Customer satisfaction is reported as an index score on a 1,000-point scale, officials said.

AT&T U-verse ranks highest in the South region, which includes Oklahoma, with an index score of 706. Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic TV ranks second in the South region with a score of 688; DirecTV is third at 662; DISH Network is fourth with a 650 score. Cox Cable, Oklahoma's largest cable provider, ranks seventh with a score of 638.

AT&T U-verse also ranks highest in the North Central and West regions.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

U-verse takes top spot in consumer survey

That is surprising.  Ive had to call at&t a couple of times last week to get some bogus charges from some theft identity company taken off my phone bill, and they explain the long waits as being due to all their resources being taken up dealing with "the hurricane."

But #7-ranked Cox isnt exactly a local mom-and-pop operation, either.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by groundhog


I have the U200 package with VOIP phone and 6 MB download speed.  It costs me $125/month for all three.

OMG....you pay $6 less than I do for less bandwidth and crappy picture quality?  well whooptie freakin doo!  This is ATTs idea of a deal?  Man, **** them.

[groundhog]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

quote:Originally posted by groundhog


I have the U200 package with VOIP phone and 6 MB download speed.  It costs me $125/month for all three.

OMG....you pay $6 less than I do for less bandwidth and crappy picture quality?  well whooptie freakin doo!  This is ATTs idea of a deal?  Man, **** them.

I really don't think that I was implying that my monthly rate was a "deal," only trying to put the number out there for information purposes.  However, I guess I was given a "deal" of sorts. AT&T gave me a total $275 in cash back Visa cards and checks to activate, and waived all installation charges.

As far as picture quality goes, I'm very impressed with the HD.  It seems sharper than Cox did to me. I've had no cloud drop-outs or even digital artifacts like Dish is famous for and that I would sometimes get with Cox.  The picture-in-picture preview and the responsiveness of the entire system, from on-demand programming to the instant "Search" function, are what really make the system a pleasure to sit in front of.

As far as bandwidth goes, I could have chosen the 30 MB download speed for $15 more per month.  I don't need that much speed, and unless you're downloading a ton of pirated torrents, I doubt that many people do, so I opted for the lower speed.

[Nik]

I'm looking forward to trying UVerse, but I don't expect it in Sand Springs anytime soon. So, I'm trying to get my parents to switch. They don't like the $5/receiver charge but they love that they can record on one DVR and watch it anywhere. I really wonder how they do this. The only thing I can think of is its actually recording on AT&T servers and is fed to the home's DVR on-demand.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Nik

they love that they can record on one DVR and watch it anywhere. I really wonder how they do this. The only thing I can think of is its actually recording on AT&T servers and is fed to the home's DVR on-demand.

Pretty much makes any channel an on-demand channel if you set it up right, wouldnt it?

[sgrizzle]

I called Cox and got a 6 month loyal customer discount and 1 competitive year discount. Total saving of almost $400 over the next 12 months.

Wee...

[TUalum0982]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I called Cox and got a 6 month loyal customer discount and 1 competitive year discount. Total saving of almost $400 over the next 12 months.

Wee...

did you just call and ask? or did you say you were ready to switch to another company?

I found a very useful website for people with questions regarding Uverse and for those people who have it, there are some interesting reads.

www.uverseusers.com

It has forums for general discussion, and also for each state that uverse is available in.

Also, supposedly AT&T is going to announce 18mb download speeds... (http://www.corp.att.com/advanced-tv/)

EDIT:

I also read that the current box can hold 122hours of regular programming, and 37hours of HD programming.  I also read that a new cisco box is in the works, which is supposed to be able to hold even more? I haven't read that anywhere else though.

I spoke to someone at AT&T and they stated that THDVR (total home dvr) will be available to the Tulsa Market in Nov.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by groundhog
As far as bandwidth goes, I could have chosen the 30 MB download speed for $15 more per month.  

BS, considering they are just now announcing 18mb....if you live like 2 feet from the box.

[nathanm]

quote:Originally posted by Nik

The only thing I can think of is its actually recording on AT&T servers and is fed to the home's DVR on-demand.

They do it like every other DVR that has this functionality does it. It streams/transfers the show across your home network.

In the case of U-Verse, it works over both RG6 and Cat5, depending on which you have your boxes hooked up with. Several other providers (Verizon comes to mind with their FiOS product) also have RF networking enabled on their boxes. I believe both satellite providers also have that functionality enabled

Cox's DVRs are capable of networking over coax, they have the hardware, software, and everything. Cox just hasn't enabled it, presumably because they don't want to pay for an update to Passport.

TiVo has been doing this for years over Cat5. The TiVo boxes don't support MoCA, though, so no coax networking, although it's not TiVo's fault. It's the regulations they operate under (to get approval from CableLabs, so MSOs are required to give you CableCARDs for the Series3 and HD/HDXL) that make it impossible to include.

Interestingly, there's still a court battle over whether or not it is legal for cable companies (and those who provide equivalent service) to use network-based DVRs without the permission of the content owner. Cablevision announced that service a few years ago and promptly got sued. The content owners got a preliminary injunction against them, which was recently overturned by the court of appeals.

The case itself still hasn't been resolved, though.

Personally, I wouldn't be interested in such a service anyway, except for things I wasn't really interested in watching to begin with or forgot to record. Both Cox and at&t's video on demand products take several seconds to respond to a command. It doesn't seem too terrible compared to the relatively slow response times of their DVRs, but I'm used to my TiVo, which excluding a few buggy software releases is always very snappy at reacting to fast forward, rewind, and instant replay.

I much prefer an immediate reaction to my input.