UVerse with VOIPo

[usa2k]

I imagine you save a little with VOIPo,
but why would you get UVerse in the first place.

I comparison shopped before going back to Comcast.

COMCAST ~ $100 for 12 months with all fees and taxes



(2)DVR
(1)regular Converter
200 Cable Channels, many HD
HBO
Internet 8/2 upgrading to 16/2 in a couple months for the same price.


UVerse ~ similar would be $92 for 3 months, $104 next 3 months, $119 after that.
Add $10 (is it for each HD TV?)
Add if HBO were included.



I only see 6 month deals for UVerse
I see "2 non-DVR receivers included for 3 months"
Anybody stay past 6 months?
How bad is your bill?


My daughter is thinking about getting UVerse.

Are those with it happy?

[stevech]

Neighbor ordered Uverse. AT&T goons worked inside house for two days, pulling wire, undoing existing Time Warner cables. Then they pronounced that the signal from the crummy copper pair (U-Verse uses old copper wire), was too weak. Copper wire route was underground to the U-Verses VRAD and thus much longer than as-the-crow-flies. Duuu. They abandoned the job. Neighbor was left in a lurch to revert to Time Warner withoout high costs.

Just remember: they are trying to cram 30Mbps or so on old copper wire to your house, versus cable or FIOS (Verizon) which has hundreds of megabits or more of capacity.

AT&T (SBC renamed) is an absolutely unethical, dishonest, pack of liars. I suffer them in my POTS phone service.

[Russell]

Neighbor ordered Uverse. AT&T goons worked inside house for two days, pulling wire, undoing existing Time Warner cables. Then they pronounced that the signal from the crummy copper pair (U-Verse uses old copper wire), was too weak. Copper wire route was underground to the U-Verses VRAD and thus much longer than as-the-crow-flies. Duuu. They abandoned the job. Neighbor was left in a lurch to revert to Time Warner withoout high costs.

Just remember: they are trying to cram 30Mbps or so on old copper wire to your house, versus cable or FIOS (Verizon) which has hundreds of megabits or more of capacity.

AT&T (SBC renamed) is an absolutely unethical, dishonest, pack of liars. I suffer them in my POTS phone service.

I switched from TW to UVerse. When the UVerse guys came I told them to leave my TW service alone. My UVerse guys were professional. The very first thing they did was measure the signal at the NIC to make sure it was adequate. They worked with me so I had both services - I let TW go only some days later when I was convinced that UVerse was what I wanted. I have nothing but praise in my dealings with AT&T. And, no I don't work (or have ever worked) for them.

[fisamo]

Jim,

To answer your question... I would very likely order Uverse if I could. Chief among the reasons is that I don't have Comcast, but TWC. My internet options are 7M/384k or 10M/512k. As for channel lineup, I haven't compared, but my in-laws are pretty happy with their uverse service. Whole home DVR service on Uverse, but not TWC. When I did the price comparison, they netted out close, but with a much better service level on AT&T.

Of course, AT&T hasn't yet bothered themselves to install a VRAD in my neighborhood...

[stevech]

Beware AT&T business practices. In addition to my neighbor's experience (above).. here's my most recent flap with them on POTS service..
Our street address is four words long. The last word is they only one that makes it unique.
After years, AT&T changed their computer and truncated the last word.
No bill arrived - USPS may have returned it to AT&T as undeliverable.
I called AT&T. Explained politely and asked for a re-mailing to the correct address, and a correction in the computers. OK. Promised.
Two weeks go by. No bill. We paid what the web site showed, which now shows late-pay penalties.
Called again. Explained history. Rep says address not corrected in computer. I asked for another mailing of a bill. Rep says there will be a charge for that. I said: It's AT&T's error, not mine. Rep says well, that's our policy.
Another week, no bill. Called again. Rep says they will enter the request for correction.
Still no bill.

Incompetent. Indifferent. Arrogant.
Thanks to our government not enforcing fairness to CLECs post-deregulation, I have no alternative for POTS. We will always (?) have wired POTS due to 911.

Meanwhile their "Other" computer mailed a warning of disconnect due to non-payment to the CORRECT address. Rep says ignore it.

[usa2k]

Thanks for the replies :)

$100 has been my price point, but I guess people will pay more when lacking good alternatives. The 4 tuner, watch from any converter box, is a good pitch ... just not for the prices I've seen.

My current address keeps me from UVerse even if I wanted it. At least I have two competing cable companies. Just worried my daughter will find the prices higher than the adds. At least it seems to can quit it without penalty that I could find.

I was looking for something like quitting during the 6 month promotion would void the $15 monthly discount, and the extra converter fees, but it looks like that is not the case. (Can't be too careful!)

[JimDog]

I've been with U-verse since mid-April 2009. My only other option is Insight cable. The pricing is comparable with U-verse being slightly ($10 - $20) higher. The ability to record 4 shows at once on one DVR and the whole-home DVR features have kept me. (Although I only get 1 HD stream at a time because I'm too far from the VRAD.) I have never had promotional or discounted service (but did receive a $200 rebate during sign up) so my cost per month has remained the same.

To break it down for you...


U-200 TV service: $67.00 (They also offer a U-100 package with less channels (lower cost) and a U-300 and U-450 package that offer more/premium channels for an additional cost.)
HD service fee: $10.00 (optional)
1 DVR: free
2 additional set-top boxes: $14.00 ($7.00 each) (You cannot watch TV without a set-top box like you can with analog cable.)
Elite (6Mb d/1Mb u) Internet: $35.00

Total: $126.00 (+ $6.24 in taxes fees in my area)

[usa2k]

I guess that is not too bad a price. Was wondering the cost of the extra converters. -- Thanks!

Does the $10 let the other converters display HD too?
Or would it be $30 for all three on HD?

[Russell]

I guess that is not too bad a price. Was wondering the cost of the extra converters. -- Thanks!

Does the $10 let the other converters display HD too?
Or would it be $30 for all three on HD?

Btw, there's an excellent UVerse forum on dslreports :-).

[usa2k]

True, but in this world of bundles, I was looking for a take on an a-la-cart VoIP demographic :)

[stevech]

I only get 1 HD stream at a time because I'm too far from the VRAD.

Did AT&T give you a big discount because of this?

[JimDog]

Does the $10 let the other converters display HD too?
Or would it be $30 for all three on HD?
Yes, the $10 allows any of the boxes to access HD channels, provided there is an available stream to do so. You can watch/record up to 4 separate channels (streams) live total throughout your home, 2 of which can be HD; the other two have to be SD. In my case I'm too far from the VRAD to get enough bandwidth to have 2 HD streams so I'm provisioned down to where I can only watch/record 1 live HD stream and the other 3 have to be SD.

[JimDog]

Did AT&T give you a big discount because of this?
Nope. That's a big gripe of people in my situation if you check out the forums on DSL Reports or AT&T's U-talk site.

[usa2k]

Possibly a dumb question ... or two!



If there is a recorded HD stream to watch, can it be viewed on an SD TV?
You can only watch streams from the DVR on other TVs? Not just watch with independent control to pause and play?
How many recordings can be watched at a time? 3 different ones?

Seems I have a lot of questions!

[JimDog]

If there is a recorded HD stream to watch, can it be viewed on an SD TV?
You can only watch streams from the DVR on other TVs? Not just watch with independent control to pause and play?
How many recordings can be watched at a time? 3 different ones?



Yes, you can watch HD recordings or live HD on SD TVs. It'll just have the black letterboxing bars at the top and bottom.
You can watch whatever you want on the other set-top boxes, live or recorded, independent of what's going on on the DVR box. You can pause/rewind/FF a recording from any TV. You can only pause/rewind/FF live TV when watching on the DVR box.
You can watch multiple recordings at the same time, but I do not know what the limit is. There's a Total Home DVR community at AT&T's U-talk community forum that may have the answer if you want to poke around in it: http://utalk.att.com/t5/Total-Home-DVR/bd-p/thdvr

[usa2k]

Thanks!

:)

[stevech]

Nope. That's a big gripe of people in my situation if you check out the forums on DSL Reports or AT&T's U-talk site.

That's really unfair. You pay the same as people that have better/shorter copper wires to the VRAD and can get much more bandwidth and more than one-at-a-time HD.

If I were you, I'd go to the local PUC's website and register a formal complaint. This is the only power we consumers have against the media companies. If they get too many PUC complaints, even if deregulated, there are consequences they don't want.