Not surprised here..
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATTs-Giving-Up-on-UVerse-Television-136300
Indications are that AT&T is giving up on its U-Verse TV services. Once heralded as a great competitor to cable, the company was never really willing to invest the kind of broad fiber to the home upgrades needed to support both next-generation broadband speeds and television services. As such the company still doesn't offer U-Verse broadband speeds that can match cable in most markets, and is certainly in no position to embrace 4K television over U-verse's largely fiber to the node infrastructure anytime soon.
As such reports now indicate that with AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T has stopped producing U-Verse set top hardware, and is even actively driving many current U-Verse TV customers to DirecTV.
“AT&T is going to actively get out of the U-verse business,” CreditSights analyst Chris Ucko tellsBloomberg. Current U-Verse TV customers aren't being booted off of AT&T's TV platform right now, and AT&T's immediate focus is pushing new customers to DirecTV.
But existing U-Verse TV customers may not be seeing all that many upgrades as the service matures,. They'll also likely be driven to DirecTV so AT&T can repurpose any bandwidth previously lost to television. And while that should buy AT&T a little more bandwidth, AT&T's still going to find itself at a speed disadvantage without upgrading to pure fiber.
“To realize the many benefits of our DirecTV acquisition, we are leading our video marketing approach with DirecTV,” AT&T says of the shift. “However, our first priority is to listen to our customers and meet their needs, and if we determine a customer will be better served with the U-verse product, we offer attractive and compelling options.”
AT&T executive John Stankey has stated the company is moving toward "one consistent architecture" for all TV and broadband users that will likely mean a single gateway capable of connecting to both satellite, fixed and mobile AT&T broadband networks. The company's set top, router and gateway hardware "will become a consolidated, single platform over the next 24-36 months" Stankey has said.
To enter the TV business roughly a decade ago, AT&T spent millions lobbying state lawmakers for laws that gutted the old TV franchise system (and many consumer protections) in favor of new state agreements. This franchise law "reform" was supposed to usher in a new age of cable TV competition and lower prices, but by and large involved AT&T writing wish list state laws that often had nothing to do with television. Those laws will remain, but the TV system that purportedly necessitated them will be no more.
AT&T's effort to drive U-Verse customers to satellite was reflected in the company's earnings last quarter. While AT&T says it added 214,000 TV customers under the DirecTV brand last quarter, the company still saw an overall net loss in TV subscribers thanks to losing 240,000 U-Verse TV customers. The company also saw a net loss in fixed-line broadband and wireless subscribers.
Those across the board net subscriber losses put AT&T in a precarious position. One that will get more precarious as cable operators begin deploying gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 speeds the company's fiber to the node U-Verse platform still won't be able to touch. And while AT&T was willing to spend $69 billion on DirecTV, outside of some highly-selective and theatrical gigabit fiber deployments there's still no indication AT&T's willing to spend big on broadband, or, frankly, is entirely sure just what kind of a company it wants to be.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATTs-Giving-Up-on-UVerse-Television-136300
Indications are that AT&T is giving up on its U-Verse TV services. Once heralded as a great competitor to cable, the company was never really willing to invest the kind of broad fiber to the home upgrades needed to support both next-generation broadband speeds and television services. As such the company still doesn't offer U-Verse broadband speeds that can match cable in most markets, and is certainly in no position to embrace 4K television over U-verse's largely fiber to the node infrastructure anytime soon.
As such reports now indicate that with AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T has stopped producing U-Verse set top hardware, and is even actively driving many current U-Verse TV customers to DirecTV.
“AT&T is going to actively get out of the U-verse business,” CreditSights analyst Chris Ucko tellsBloomberg. Current U-Verse TV customers aren't being booted off of AT&T's TV platform right now, and AT&T's immediate focus is pushing new customers to DirecTV.
But existing U-Verse TV customers may not be seeing all that many upgrades as the service matures,. They'll also likely be driven to DirecTV so AT&T can repurpose any bandwidth previously lost to television. And while that should buy AT&T a little more bandwidth, AT&T's still going to find itself at a speed disadvantage without upgrading to pure fiber.
“To realize the many benefits of our DirecTV acquisition, we are leading our video marketing approach with DirecTV,” AT&T says of the shift. “However, our first priority is to listen to our customers and meet their needs, and if we determine a customer will be better served with the U-verse product, we offer attractive and compelling options.”
AT&T executive John Stankey has stated the company is moving toward "one consistent architecture" for all TV and broadband users that will likely mean a single gateway capable of connecting to both satellite, fixed and mobile AT&T broadband networks. The company's set top, router and gateway hardware "will become a consolidated, single platform over the next 24-36 months" Stankey has said.
To enter the TV business roughly a decade ago, AT&T spent millions lobbying state lawmakers for laws that gutted the old TV franchise system (and many consumer protections) in favor of new state agreements. This franchise law "reform" was supposed to usher in a new age of cable TV competition and lower prices, but by and large involved AT&T writing wish list state laws that often had nothing to do with television. Those laws will remain, but the TV system that purportedly necessitated them will be no more.
AT&T's effort to drive U-Verse customers to satellite was reflected in the company's earnings last quarter. While AT&T says it added 214,000 TV customers under the DirecTV brand last quarter, the company still saw an overall net loss in TV subscribers thanks to losing 240,000 U-Verse TV customers. The company also saw a net loss in fixed-line broadband and wireless subscribers.
Those across the board net subscriber losses put AT&T in a precarious position. One that will get more precarious as cable operators begin deploying gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 speeds the company's fiber to the node U-Verse platform still won't be able to touch. And while AT&T was willing to spend $69 billion on DirecTV, outside of some highly-selective and theatrical gigabit fiber deployments there's still no indication AT&T's willing to spend big on broadband, or, frankly, is entirely sure just what kind of a company it wants to be.
