Major correction on this post, which earlier was titled, “AT&T U-verse TV expanding to Cypress, Dana Point, elsewhere.” 

In fact, H. Gordon Diamon, AT&T’s public affairs representative, said that it has been so difficult to get permits in seven Orange County cities that the company has stopped applying for them.

“Specifically, the seven cities that I mentioned to you are not issuing us any permits so we have, in fact, stopped submitting them,” he said. Earlier, he said that AT&T U-verse was “working to secure the required permits for the upgrade” in these seven cities:

The U-verse impasse

1. Irvine
2. Cypress
3. Dana Point
4. Lake Forest
5. Newport Beach
6. San Clemente
7. Tustin

The company still offers service in five of those seven cities — to all those lucky enough to get it before AT&T ran up against local bureaucracy. Two other cities — Cypress and Dana Point — are new to the list of cities AT&T was targeting. That’s too bad for those residents who were seeking an alternative TV service.

UPDATE: I’m checking with every city to see what happened in regards to AT&T. One has told me that it’s due to aesthetics but it hasn’t officially denied AT&T’s request. Watch for a full report on this blog soon. Meanwhile, I’m also responding to comments below.

Here’s the original post, corrected as necessary with changes in bold and red:

Got a nice little U-verse TV update from H. Gordon Diamond over at AT&T this morning. He mentions that the company is “actively building in some 27 cities w/in the county,” meaning Orange County.

He mentions seven cities specifically where AT&T is in the process of acquiring permits to upgrade its network for Internet-based TV service.  But two new ones being added to the O.C. mix are Cypress and Dana Point.

Certain Orange County cities have been ignored by the new-fangled TV service, which many tout as a viable alternative to cable TV. Neither U-verse nor telecom cohort Verizon FiOS offer their TV service in Mission Viejo, Laguna Beach and Dana Point. (U-verse is available in parts of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.) Other parts of the county where some service does exist is still fairly limited.

Earlier this year, AT&T did significantly scale back its plans to roll out U-verse service — down to 4 million to 5 million, instead of the initial 11 million (read: Oh no! U-verse rollout slowing down.) But as Diamond reiterates, AT&T is active in acquiring permits in Orange County, including but not in these seven cities: 

1. Irvine
2. Cypress
3. Dana Point
4. Lake Forest
5. Newport Beach
6. San Clemente
7. Tustin

“We are eager to bring residents new, advanced services and are actively building in OC cities that are embracing choice and competition,” said Diamond, with AT&T Public Affairs.

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. (I keep an updated list of U-verse and FiOS cities in my “Guide to TV services in OC.“) Consumers can check availability at their address at uverse1.att.com.

Coming up: Diamond does mention that Irvine has created some U-verse expansion issues. I’ll be touching on those later today or tomorrow.

More U-Verse news:

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