DirecTV, EchoStar await their fate at AT&T With A PartnerShip

[gadgtfreek]

I wish we'd get something here in the Charleston Sc Tri COunty area. Comcast/TWC/Knology have locks on the counties and the only DSL option is Bellsouth.

IMHO Cable HSI is overpriced at this point in the game and Bellsouth cant compete with them and they know it. I pay Comcast $61 per month being a non sub and it would cost me more to get 6000 DSL because phone companies are still stupid and require you to have a phone line at $20 a month to get dsl. If you get could DSL without the phone, Id jump in a heartbeat and save $20 per month.

I still dont understand why Comcast doesn offer price tiers on their speed either.

 

[JosephB]

The growth rate in just northern Georgia encompasses just about every single county Macon going north to Chattanooga TN and east to Augusta and west to the border. The Atlanta region officialy covers about 13 counties but the unofficial count is closer to 20 with all of the people that commute from area such as Athens and Greensboro and Lavonia to go to work in Atlanta on a daily basis.

The city and surrounding suburbs of Atlanta are already at 5 million or close to it, five thousand people are moving into the area on a daily basis, basicly its becoming the new New York ( the crimes making it the new DC and Detroit though) so again I can see them looking to lay fiber in this area specialy with the fact that its growing heavily in the tech field.

I agree, but there is still a large percentage of AT&T's customers that are not in Atlanta, or Birmingham, or Memphis, or Nashville and AT&T has made a pledge to roll out their services to their entire footprint. I think eventually fiber will be everywhere, but it'll take a while, and I think (hope) that they will not waste their terrestrial network on TV, when they have a perfectly efficient broadcast medium (satellite) for video.

 

[Van]

I used to visit a rural part of eastern Ohio near the west virginia border where my wife is from, att was in cable out there and their services were better than what we had back in Detroit and the surrounding burbs so atleast in this little valley area I was in that was pretty bad on the economic level the whole town had fiber being buried and already had digital cable, 3 meg cable when it first came out.

Oh the town is Stuebenville, small town. The thing to consider though is that people are moving out of the cities in most area's now and moving out of the suburbs as well. 20 minutes outside of Athens to the north east is a town called Danielsville, this is one of those small Georgia southern villages where you can see a couple of old farmers playing checkers on the porch of the local hardware store. In the last year since I have been here the city and county have approved three subdivisions of moderate size in the middle range of around 500 units or more. Athens is 20 minutes away, past that is Atlanta wich just to get to the burbs is an hour drive and then if you have to get inside the bypass change that to 2.5 hours if you get stuck in rush hour.

Look at a wifi covrage map for Georgia and you might be surprised to see the amount of coverage already here, theres definitely growth in the state and wifi is a good indicator of that.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I just checked Bellsouth and they dropped their DSL prices in my area. Strange as I have been looking the last month. I signed up and will drop Comcast HSI. With the E* telephone feed dropped, itll save me roughly $23 a month.

 

[orbitallocation]

It really doesn't matter if at&t drops directv or dish network, since both companies are screwed once at&t releases their uverse nation wide. I see within the next 5 to 10 years directv and dish network combining forces just to stay afloat. I bet the owner of dish network wished he took the buyout from at&t a while back. The only thing that dish network has going for them between at&t is the homezone receiver. I know my shop is screwed since at&t sells about half our jobs a day. Hopefully they buy us out and combine forces. Just to lay some numbers dish network has 13 million or 14 million subscriber right now, but at&t's uverse is suppose to be available to 19 million homes by the end of 2008. Time to look for a new job, or just wait it out to see what happens. I am sort of scared.

 

[orbitallocation]

oh yeah I work out of metro detroit where the uverse is suppose to be released really soon. So I will definitely will keep you all posted on this.

 

[navychop]

It really doesn't matter if at&t drops directv or dish network, since both companies are screwed once at&t releases their uverse nation wide. ...

You have far too high an opinion of "uverse." Try watching an HD program while recording another, and maybe while someone at another TV tries to watch a third. Can't do it.

"available to" is like "up to" and "soon"

 

[gadgtfreek]

Problem with cableco's/verizon/att, thier dvr's suck. None perform like the HR20 or the 622.

 

[JosephB]

U-Verse first is no match for the video services you can get from either of the satellite companies. With either dish or directv you can get as many HD channels in as many rooms as you want, all DVR, or whatever. Plus, U-Verse will NEVER reach the entire AT&T footprint, it's just not economical. My grandfather's house, even though he wouldn't use DSL, isn't even qualified for DSL, and while he lives on the edge of a major metro area, he's not way out in the woods.

 

[riffjim4069]

Problem with cableco's/verizon/att, thier dvr's suck. None perform like the HR20 or the 622.

I agree, but I have come to realize that the SA and Motorola boxes are more than adequate for most people...heck, most people can't even hook up their HDTVs. However, I would love to see FiOS and the Cable companies come up with a better DVR...even my Sony HD DVR with free TV Guide On Screen blows away the SA and Motorola being offered by Comcast.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Yeah, their boxes are reliable though. The one thing I had with the SA8300HD was eSATA! The whole 6 day guide really sucked. I think due to the fact they dont charge a substantial fee for them like D* and E* do, I think their plan is to run them in the dirt.

 

[Van]

It really doesn't matter if at&t drops directv or dish network, since both companies are screwed once at&t releases their uverse nation wide.

What do you base this statement on that they will be screwed? The SBC partnership with Dish started back in late 01 and since then has brought in an estimated 700k while Att has brought in 800k subs since that partnership. Att could drop both and both would float along fine, this would be only a minor bump in the road for them not some cataclysmic event that will send both DBS providers into bankruptcy.

I see within the next 5 to 10 years directv and dish network combining forces just to stay afloat.

Wont happen because there are no other sat providers now or slated to come out and that would be a monopoly, the last time this was tried several senators started waving their arms in the arm and shouting that if the partnership went through that farmer John would end up paying more than them there city folk, the FTC round filed the plans for partnership and both walked away from the idea.

I bet the owner of dish network wished he took the buyout from at&t a while back.

What buyout are you talking about? Charlie Ergen has made it publicly clear that Dish Network is not for sale, he is having fun with what he is doing and has no plans to sell, this statement came after rumours that Murdoch was interested in buying Dish.

The only thing that dish network has going for them between at&t is the homezone receiver.

Dish has the dual tuners, dishpro plus that is backwards compatible with most legacy equipment ( theres still alot out there in use ) theres also what many call the best working DVR's in the business, the most HD content, the best selection of programming from outside of the United States....should I continue?

I know my shop is screwed since at&t sells about half our jobs a day. Hopefully they buy us out and combine forces.

Are you a sub or a DNS tech? If your a sub then you have alot more to worry about, if your a DNS you dont need to worry about the loss of the partnership.

Just to lay some numbers dish network has 13 million or 14 million subscriber right now, but at&t's uverse is suppose to be available to 19 million homes by the end of 2008.

Dish has 13 million subs, Direct has 16 million subs, the numbers are nice that att will be able to offer uverse to 19 million but both Dish and Direct are available to 301,987,762 potential customers within the United States right now, can any cable or phone company say that?

Time to look for a new job, or just wait it out to see what happens. I am sort of scared.

I wouldnt be so worried, people want tv, its the most widely distributed form of legalized addiction in the world and us Americans are experts at our drug of choice so even if at the incredibly rare chance Dish goes under or Direct goes under there is always cable and phone to go and work for.

 

[mike123abc]

It is also possible if for example ATT decides to go with Dish they could take a minority interest in Dish. If ATT buys some of Dish they could partner with Dish to provide the programming for U-Verse. Dish probably gets much better pricing on channels due to their large number of subs. ATT could leverage a partnership like this.

The same of course could be done with DIRECTV.

 

[orbitallocation]

You have far too high an opinion of "uverse." Try watching an HD program while recording another, and maybe while someone at another TV tries to watch a third. Can't do it.

"available to" is like "up to" and "soon"

Same with dual tuner, you can only record 1 show and watch live tv on the other, or you can record two shows but are forced to watch what you are recording or something your previously recorded.

 

[JosephB]

Same with dual tuner, you can only record 1 show and watch live tv on the other, or you can record two shows but are forced to watch what you are recording or something your previously recorded.

yeah, but that's only at one TV. The Uverse restrictions are per HOUSE. You can only have one HD stream for your entire household at a time.

 

[navychop]

U-Verse first is no match for the video services you can get from either of the satellite companies. With either dish or directv you can get as many HD channels in as many rooms as you want, all DVR, or whatever. Plus, U-Verse will NEVER reach the entire AT&T footprint, it's just not economical. My grandfather's house, even though he wouldn't use DSL, isn't even qualified for DSL, and while he lives on the edge of a major metro area, he's not way out in the woods.

Yep. And heck, I'm in Fairfax County, one of the "richest" in the country, and right across the street from a major university- and can't get DSL. Fios nowhere in sight. So even urban areas can be outta luck.

Same with dual tuner, you can only record 1 show and watch live tv on the other, or you can record two shows but are forced to watch what you are recording or something your previously recorded.

I've had recordings going on my ViP622, 508 & 721 all at the same time, while watching a recorded show on the ViP622. That's up to 5 simultaneous satellite recordings and one OTA recording possible at the same time. Two of the satellite recordings and the OTA recording could all be in HD (or more, if I had more HD DVRs). I doubt I was actually recording that many at the same time, but I could have. A family could easily have need/use for 2, 3 or even more HD feeds at the same time. Especially with kids of widely varying ages.