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AT&T U-verse comes to a halt in Irvine, 6 other O.C. cities

July 6th, 2009, 12:14 pm · 39 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

AT&T U-verse

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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 39 Comments

  • Rick says:
    July 6, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    Dealing with the City of Dana Point is one of the worst experiences anyone could have. This is not surprising

    Post Reply
    • John Sweet says:
      July 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm

      Thanks again Dana Point for nothing. How much is Cox shelling out to keep U- verse out. One more business where the city won’t allow competition.

      Post Reply
  • Jonathan says:
    July 6, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Why are they blocking permits? Sound kind of fishy to me. They don’t have to build any new infrastructure correct? Just plug it in. It runs through the phone line and uses existing cabling in the home. Sounds like some restrictive business practices. People in these citis ought to complain to their city governments. It’s not like they are going to lose access fees or taxes.

    Post Reply
    • Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress says:
      July 6, 2009 at 3:04 pm

      I’m checking with every city on this… Stay tuned.

      Post Reply
      • Wild Turkey says:
        July 14, 2009 at 3:49 pm

        It’s bad enough that some permits won’t be pursued for now, but it’s worse for those of us who live in a city where the roll-out has come to a stop. In my Laguna Niguel neighbourhood, U-Verse deployment came within two blocks and stopped. LN residence north of Avila Rd can’t get U-Verse for now. I have called the City of Laguna Niguel for comment, and they excuse themselves on the issue. The City and AT&T should get together and finish the job in Laguna Niguel…!! Very frustrating.

        Post Reply
  • fax says:
    July 6, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Sounds like the work of Cox Communications, Time Warner, and a bunch of slimy local politicians. Yard signs and slate mailers aren’t cheap you know?

    Post Reply
  • Melanie says:
    July 6, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    We live in Brea and they had to run fiber optic cables underneath the street before they began offering service to our area. We’ve had the service for a year now and its pretty good. Tons of HD channels - way more than Time Warner ever offered us.

    Post Reply
  • mmmmmike says:
    July 6, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    Actually it’s more complicated than that. I live in an area that is now served by U-Verse (I’m not a customer though) and AT & T had to run what appears to be new fiber optic lines down the major streets to new large utility boxes near the served neighborhoods. They also ran new copper wire on the poles between the houses in my neighborhood before they offered us the service. . Looks like the older infrastructure needs upgrading before U-Verse can be offered in most areas and I’m sure that requires city plannning, permits and inspections.

    Post Reply
  • BUD says:
    July 6, 2009 at 3:16 pm

    MOST CITIES RECEIVE REVENUE FROM COX,TIME WARNER

    Post Reply
  • Cole says:
    July 6, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    How can we complain about this to our city? Petition?

    Post Reply
    • Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress says:
      July 6, 2009 at 3:27 pm

      Hi Cole — I’m checking with every city about what happened. One concern raised is over aesthetics of U-verse boxes showing up all over the city. I’ll have an update on this as soon as I hear back from all the cities (maybe Tuesday).

      Post Reply
      • jake says:
        July 6, 2009 at 3:59 pm

        please let us know who to contact. I live in san clemente and every time i visit my parents in brea i am jealous of the AT&T TV that they have.

        Post Reply
      • Cole Shannon says:
        July 13, 2009 at 3:00 pm

        Hi Tamara,

        Any updates? Looks like this article has generated quite a response. This might be worth talking to state legislators about. Could there be something illegal going on between these cable companies and cities? What ever happened to free enterprise and anti-trust laws?

        Post Reply
  • mmmmmike says:
    July 6, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    The utility boxes are rather ugly and in the short time they have been in my neighborhood they have made excellent 4-sided graffiti canvases.

    Post Reply
  • David says:
    July 6, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    Please clarify! I’m supposed to get U-Verse TV, Internet, and Phone on Friday at my house in Irvine (Northpark). Their website and order folks said my address is supported. Is this article just referring to them expanding to new sections of Irvine?

    Thanks!

    Post Reply
  • [Blocked by CFC] ray says:
    July 6, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    Although Yorba Linda is listed as a city with U-verse, I can say it isn’t all over town, nor it does it appear there’s ongoing construction like we used to see. My address on the west end (Casa Loma/Imperial) still is unavailable yet the monument changes were done a couple years ago in our neighborhood.

    Post Reply
  • J Lutz says:
    July 6, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    As a resident of Dana Point, I’m deeply disappointed. Cox needs competition badly. I would dump Cox immediately if there were a viable option.

    Post Reply
  • Remmy700p says:
    July 6, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    We have it here in Riverside. U-verse is an awesome platform; I switched from Charter and YIKES!! what a difference!

    In regards to the infrastructure issues, whether the service can be delivered to your home on its existing twisted-pair (telephone) depends on the quality and age of the line installation. If you are closer to the VRAD box (the community-served fiber-to-copper routing box with all the “aesthetic” issues), you are more likely able to have it travel your existing phone lines. My house had older twisted pair cabling and required a new line brought from the house to the pole. I would imagine that newer areas like Irvine, Dana Point, et al would not have these issues.

    I don’t see what the issue is with the box itself. Communities have city-managed gas boxes, conventional telephone switch boxes, etc etc and there has never, in my experience, been a peep about these utilities. Why the hubbub now? The VRAD that services my neighborhood is right across the street from my house; it isn’t some obtrusive monstrosity.

    It sounds to me that the waffling going on in terms of the city approval snafus rests suspiciously on behind-the-scenes pressure being brought to bear by the cable nimrods who realize that the writing is on the wall for their continued existence, and they are buying every city council member they can to slow the bleeding.

    Coaxial cable is dead. I have telephone, digital HDTV, and a 10Mb/s broadband pipe to the house for less than $100/mo. Time to move on.

    Post Reply
  • Catlee says:
    July 6, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    I’m not suprised that Irvine (Woodbridge) is on that list. It’s not offered here. They won’t even have a cell phone tower put here for better coverage.

    Post Reply
  • Dean says:
    July 7, 2009 at 12:04 am

    I got U-verse when I moved to Laguna Hills. I like the service over Cox. While it’s not perfect, I think overall the quality is better, and the variety of channels and internet access is better. DVR service is absolutely better.

    If I had the choice however I’d go for FIOS, but it’s not available. I understand they won’t let FIOS and AT&T overlap their service areas which I don’t understand. Competition is good. Let cable, IPTV, and satellite battle it out.

    Post Reply
  • Rob says:
    July 7, 2009 at 12:48 am

    I will start by saying that I am a hardcore Democrat. That said, I don’t believe local communities should be able to block or micro-manage new technology roll outs. Just yesterday I read that Palo Alto in Northern California was contemplating litigation to block the routing of a statewide high speed train. It seems it could widen the easement of the existing tracks there. We all know our freeway system is well beyond it’s limits.This train could be a great asset to the State economically as well as easing the growth of traffic on highways. It’s not fair. What would benefit the many is getting high-jacked by the few. It seems like AT&T and Verizon would be better off going to the State with a standard product and support architecture that could be approved for roll out statewide. Also an investigation into Cox and Time Warner’s political relations with the cities involved in this tit for tat blockade.

    Post Reply
  • tbone445 says:
    July 7, 2009 at 7:30 am

    I’m glad you’re checking with the cities for their side of the story. Aesthetics is one issue that might be slowing required permits, because the UVerse utility boxes, which are above ground, are much bigger than the standard ones, and that matters to citizens who have these things near their properties.
    Also, I bet that franchise fees has something to do with this, and I would ask this to the cities and ATT. My guess is that the current ATT franchises only address voice communications, and not TV service. So, ATT is conveniently avoiding fees that their cable provider competitors must pay. Tthe cities might be holding up permits until those franchise agreements are properly updated.

    Post Reply
  • alphanumericone says:
    July 7, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    Oh how I wish I had a choice for internet access. COX has good speed, but the price is ridiculous!
    Only option is to go satellite, then I’m fighting the HOA to get a dish put up.

    Post Reply
    • Rob says:
      July 7, 2009 at 1:48 pm

      Federal law protects your right to put up a dish as long as it is not mounted to the building and is within the profile of your unit. Basically if you have a balcony that faces the correct direction and you keep the dish inside the profile of the balcony you should have no trouble. HOA’s have a long history of bullying homeowners. Check out your rights. The Federal law is pretty simple and clear.

      Post Reply
  • Mike says:
    July 7, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    I hate COX because they are $$$$$$.. There 6 month free phone is a joke because they still charge you. Sure they have specials but they make you get the digital service which box is extra.COX Cable TV is rip off……. My brother in law has U-Verse in Anaheim and boy the speed of internet and so many Ch. Line up for less then $60!..

    No wonder COX is trying hard not to let AT&T move in because COX will be out of business.

    Cox basic TV $51 are you kidding me?

    Post Reply
  • John says:
    July 7, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    I live in Tustin where they do not belive in free economics. The City does nothing to help it’s residents. We can’t even get Dish service because our apartments(Courtyard Gardens Apt.) won’t allow it. They never heard of free competition. They just let Time Warner lie to it’s customers and get away with it. The city council only cares about lining it’s own pockets.

    Post Reply
  • Chris says:
    July 8, 2009 at 6:40 am

    Its really too bad that U-verse isn’t available in Irvine. Put simply… U-Verse is great.

    Post Reply
  • D says:
    July 8, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    Simply put, this is BS. Irvine has some deal with Cox. Why would they allow cable to be installed all over the city but deny AT&T?

    Tamara, please let us know what you hear…

    Post Reply
  • MN says:
    July 8, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    I had AT&T Uverse when I lived in Fullerton- I was so disappointed to find out it wasn’t available in my area (Westpark) in Irvine. Who would have thought such a technically advanced wonderful city wouldn’t have the latest & greatest available? COX cable is WAY overpriced and is not nearly as feature packed as Uverse. Who on the city council is lining their pockets from what we’re overpaying to COX? I now pay for TV & DVR (record max of 2) what I paid Uverse for TV (more channels), DVR (record 4, watch DVR in any room!) & Internet.

    Post Reply
  • D says:
    July 9, 2009 at 8:44 am

    Tamara,

    I couldn’t help but laugh at this article you posted on 10/23/08 in response to an e-mail I had sent you. Funny, AT&T claims the Irvine Co. has been very “amenable” to working with them. Guess their definition of amenable and mine are a tad different…

    “U-Verse TV service from AT&T is already offered in parts of Irvine. But it’s not available everywhere in the city yet — to the disappointment of one Irvine reader who told me he’d heard the delay was due to issues with The Irvine Company, Irvine’s big developer and landlord.

    Not true, according to both companies. Bill Rams, with The Irvine Company, said he wasn’t aware of any situation. H. Gordon Diamond, with AT&T’s public affairs, said the two are working together to expand U-verse in Irvine.

    “The Irvine Company has been very amenable to talking with AT&T, and they continue to express an interest in bringing a new choice in home entertainment and other next-generation services to residents and homeowners. We look forward to continuing our work with them and exploring future options for AT&T U-verse on Irvine Company properties,” Diamond said in an e-mail.

    Post Reply
  • no name required says:
    July 10, 2009 at 10:52 pm

    I hate cox! Their name says it all!!! I would love to have the option to have another provider but no I am stuck with cox….it sucks my basic package for internet, cable and phone is over 150 a month! PLEASE LETS ALL FIGHT THIS AND GET MORE OPTIONS FOR THE CITY OF IRVINE!

    Post Reply
  • Ed says:
    July 21, 2009 at 7:09 am

    Any news about Mission Viejo?

    Post Reply

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