Orange County Register

**Related update, 1/2/09** “Cox Cable plans price hikes in 2009”
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Time Warner Cable isn’t the only company raising TV prices this year. AT&T U-verse, the Internet-based TV service from AT&T, is also increasing its fees 11 to 50 percent on Feb. 1.

Says Deborah Lieberman, an AT&T spokeswoman, “For the first time since we introduced U-verse TV in 2006, we are making some modest price adjustments in line with increased business costs and to help us continue meeting demand for the service and implementing innovative enhancements.”

Users who pay for “Paquete Español” will see the sharpest increase — up 50 percent to $15/month, from $10/month.

Movie lovers also will see a price bump up of 33 percent to $20/month, from $15/month. The ‘Movie Package’ includes 47 channels, which include some duplicates due to delayed West Coast broadcasts of the same channel.

New users will pay 11.4 percent more for basic package or about $5/more per month than existing customers.

To justify the increase, Lieberman mentioned the new services in the past two years, which include tripling the number of HD channels, adding a Total Home DVR and remote access to the DVR, and features like the AT&T U-bar, Yellowpages.com and an online photos channel.

“The majority of these changes affects only our smaller TV packages and does not impact existing customers,” she said.

Here are the AT&T U-verse price increases, effective Feb. 1, 2009:

Comparably, Time Warner Cable began notifying its Southern California customers of increases between $1 to $5/month on various items. Read “Time Warner Cable raising prices in 2009.”

In Orange County, AT&T U-verse is available in parts of Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Irvine, La Habra, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster and Yorba Linda. (As of Dec. 10, 2008)

Special note: Thanks to all readers who continue to let me know where AT&T’s U-verse and Verizon’s FiOS are in Orange County. I hope to post an update in the next week or so.

More reports from the Web:

AT&T hikes U-verse prices, adds packages (Capital Times, in Madison, Wisc.)

More TV news on Gadgetress:

• Cox Cable plans price hikes in 2009

• Batter up! Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Cox debut MLB channel
• Time Warner Cable and Viacom reach deal
• If MTV goes dark at midnight, will Viacom offer $819,178 refund?
• Time Warner Cable may lose Jon Stewart, MTV, more
• What has Time Warner Cable done for you lately?
• Digital TV transition gets 30-day delay
• Time Warner Cable raising prices in 2009
• Time Warner Cable ‘adopts’ O.C. families
• Time Warner’s O.C. phone outage felt in Hawaii

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