Review: AT&T U-VERSE

[WyrTwister]

Nice review Scott. Glad to see the pics of the back of the boxes. It looks like they are little more than NIC cards & hard drives. If at&t (please, AT&T does not exist anymore) would have gone for fiber to the prem, then this would have been a deadly blow to basically every other provider in the US.


When I was still working at Sprint, they had something similar to this called ION. Never really got out of the lab though.

So, those techs ran coax inside your house? (that NID should be against the law) I can see how these installs could easily crawl along at one per day, if they are going to that. Again, they should have just bit the bullet & put in FTTP. I mean, they had to call a lineman anyway.

The VRAD's are just a step in the process . I am pretty sure they will eventually end up with fiber to the prem .

Do you have any idea the amount of work and the time involved ( not to mention the $$$ ) for a transition from a copper system ( which is in place ) to a all fiber system ? How many prems that is ?

Now , when you have a new subdivision going in from scratch , fiber is a much less massive undertaking . You have to have the ditching , some kind of cable , some amout of equipmment and some labor wheather you go fiber or copper .

AT&T / SBC now covers much of the origional Bell System , nation wide . This is a VERY BIG undertaking .

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

What I find interesting is this product needs at&t high speed internet.I enter my
phone number in the website.It tells me I qualify for their high speed internet,but
do not qualify for UVerse or Homezone only Dishnetwork.

The video part needs much faster . I am on 3 mega bit dsl , which copper will do , from the C. O. or R. T. cabinet . 10 - 12 blocks away .

I am too far from the C. O. for 6 mega bit .

DSL alone will not cut it . In fact , DSL in the U-Verse is probably the least / easiest part of it .

On another point , I think I had read that AT&T was going to esentially install a wireless router & do the receiver wireless ?

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

Any word on if U-Verse will offer channels from other countries as Dish/Echostar offer. My interest is in Europe (German, Polish, Italian,...). I'm quite interested in the new Sony Internet ready TVs too.

Best / cheapest for ethnetic / foreign is FTA Sat , loads of it and no monthly charge .


Wyr

 

[tonyp56]

If I were in your shoes I would go for the Wireless. Your ping rate on the Sats is horrible.

Yeah, I know, if I had it available when I signed up for Satellite I would have went that way instead. The thing is now, I can't get away from satellite until March. Then I would have to pay for the install for WiFi (It's $300 to get wifi, plus $39.95 a month.), so it will be a while.

I'll likely wait it out for a while (6-12 months), so that I can be sure DSL isn't coming. I e-mailed AT&T (then it was still SBC) asking if DSL would be expanded in my area. They replied that it would be, but no date was available at that time. That was about 8-9 months ago. However, I don't think it is coming, but I'd hate to sign up on wifi and then 2 months later DSL becomes available, lol.

If DSL don't come soon though, I'll go with WiFi, even though download speeds are slower. Doing away with FAP, the weather knocking out my net, latency, more expensive, etc. will more than make up for a slower download speed.

 

[mruk69]

Scott, I am sorry but did i miss the actual size of the hard drive?

 

[GaryPen]

Until they up the bandwidth for multiple HD streams, and raise the HD PQ, U-Verse is a no-go for me. Too bad. I was getting psyched until I read the details.

For now, cable remains Comseptible.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott, I am sorry but did i miss the actual size of the hard drive?

I believe it is a 120 gig drive.

 

[manhole]

Scott, I am sorry but did i miss the actual size of the hard drive?

160GB Hard Drive
http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/product_documents/VIP1216_528334-001-d.pdf

 

[WyrTwister]

$$$

I went to the web site & looked at pricing .

I think I read a $ 10 fee for the HD package and a $ 10 technology fee . So , is the HD package $ 20 total ?

Thanks ,
Wyr

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

OK an update.

I am really, really close to telling AT&T to come and pick up their stuff. Today they were scheduled to have the internet portion of the service turned on and installed (they come in and put in a wireless connection onto the gateway unit)

When I called and ordered service earlier in the week I was told that this would be an all day appointment. So we waited around all day and no one came.

Calls to AT&T's number on all their documentation (800) ATT-2020 just tell you that their offices are closed today and to try back durring normal business hours. I was livid.

I digging around the Uverse website I did find another number to call 1-888-320-2167. This one I got a human.

I calmly explained my problem to the CSR (who was friendly) and she told me that they do not send someone to your housr to turn on the internet for U Verse, they just flip a switch and the internet access starts working.

I asked about the wireless option and she said that the wireless option was extra and I had to buy the wireless card. I knew this wan't the case and quoted from the AT&T U Verse homepage which says " • Free wireless Home Networking" She said she needed to ask her manager and we were put on hold and she came back and told me I was correct.

She then told me that they didn't send one out because the work order wasn't processed properly. Almost making it sound like it was my fault they didn't do their internal paperwork. She tried telling me they could send someone next week and I told her that when they come they might as well take all of their equipment and wiring with them. I wasn't happy with a company that can't deliver on its promises.

Then my wife grabbed the phone and starting laying into this poor CSR on the other end how we wasted an entire day at home when they said they were going to be there.

After my wife grilled her for a few more minutes the CSR put her on hold to talk to her manager. After that the CSR (who honestly trying her best) came back on the line telling me that they were going to try finding a tech in my area to come out tonight and that they would call back in a few minutes.

About 15 minutes passed and it was the CSR again who told us a tech was in route to our house and would be here in about 20 minutes. (This call just came in a few moments ago)

I will let you know how we make out after they come.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The call from AT&T Came at 6:15 and the time is now 7:00, and no sign of anyone yet. The 20 minutes has long come and go. GRRRR

 

[manhole]

Did that ever come out Scott?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nope not yet, after 50 minutes I called back and got the same CSR who said she would call her boss.

About 10 minutes after that we got a call from Roger who is the U-Verse director for Connecticut who said a tech was coming in from Cheshire. My wife asked what AT&T can do for us since we blew and entire day. He said he would call her back on Monday.

A few minutes later we got a call from John the installer to tell us he was on his way from Cheshie, my wife said he was very appologetic, when it reality its was not his problem.

Since we were home all day and didn't eat we decided to order a pizza, my wife asked John if he wanted any pizza and he said no and that he would be here in about 40 minutes.

The time I am writing this now is 7:52.

My install time was from 8:30am to 5pm.

Heres here now though

 

[manhole]

I'm glad they are sending someone out there tonight. Keep us posted.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Well I am on the new internet connection now and it's working well. However there are some issues still with our account that they can't figure out (when we try to access certain AT&T Yahoo features it tells us we are not subscribed to AT&T Yahoo.

BTW the installer is a SatelliteGuys member and has in fact replied to this thread.

Its a small world.

 

[manhole]

Glad to hear you are up and running. Does the web remote work now? It'd be nice if you could add it to your original review

Take care.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Glad to hear you are up and running. Does the web remote work now? It'd be nice if you could add it to your original review

Take care.

Thats why I ordered the Data service.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok John just left, not all of the features are working yet, but hopefully they will be working by tommorow in the morning, they need to do some kind of data push to my box.

He offered to come back tommorow if everything is not working, no THAT is good customer service. (And its probably his day off too)

 

[vmanu2]

Hey Scott,Did you have to activate the telephone landline to get the DSL?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

No you don't need landline telephone service to get the Internet.

While this is DSL service, is it not standard DSL and has no PPPoE. I uses the same VDSL signal as the video service uses.

I am happy to report that as of this morning all is working! Including remote DVR programming, I will review it later.