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Archive for the 'AT&T U-Verse' Tag

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AT&T U-verse TV non-update update for Orange County

March 31st, 2010, 11:30 am by

Readers searching for an alternative TV service have been asking for months: Any updates on the AT&T U-verse roll out?

It’s been 8 months since last summer’s series detailing the company’s decision to stop pursuing 7 Orange County cities, including Cypress, Dana Point, Irvine, Lake Forest, Newport Beach, San Clemente and Tustin. AT&T ran into roadblocks with the city governments to install large utility boxes above ground. The cities wanted underground structures. AT&T decided it wasn’t worth the time or money.

So, what’s happened since? AT&T just got back to me with an answer and you’re probably not going to like it.

“No updates to report on the OC cities,” said Katie Keating, with AT&T.

More on the U-verse impasse

> More on U-verse Impasse<

Keep in mind, U-verse has expanded tremendously in the past year. According to the company’s 2009 earnings report, it doubled the number of U-verse customers to 2.1 million and it still plans to make the service available to 30 million by the end of next year.

AT&T continues to market to new customers in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Stanton, Villa Park, Westminster, and Yorba Linda.

But like the other newish TV service, Verizon FiOS, there have been no expansions into new cities. This week, the Associated Press reported Verizon is winding down FiOS expansion. We already knew this was happening in Orange County last year and the company confirmed as much just a few months ago.  If you can’t get FiOS today, you probably won’t be getting it for a very, very long time. Sounds like the same is true with U-verse, at least for the 7 cities previously mentioned.

There is still some hope that Orange County cities will get fiber Internet, if not TV service. Google’s recent pitch to help out cities build fiber networks did attract some local attention. Fullerton, Mission Viejo and Anaheim all made a bid (read earlier story: “Orange County doesn’t go crazy for Google’s 1 gbps fiber Internet“).

More on U-verse:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • | 25 Comments »

AT&T’s U-verse Internet speeds up 33%

March 30th, 2010, 8:39 am by

AT&T has expanded its faster Max Turbo Internet to all U-verse customers. The Internet plan offers 24 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream speed.

That’s well above cable Internet speeds in Orange County but below the maximum of Verizon FiOS, another telecom offering an alternative TV and Internet service. FiOS offers download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20 Mbps.

Max Turbo, which launched in Texas and Missouri in December, is $65 month if bundled with U-verse TV service. It’s $95/month for eligible small business customers. Existing plans, including the previously top speed Max Plus at 18 Mbps, are still available (see chart below).

AT&T is available in limited parts of Orange County. Cities include Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Stanton, Villa Park, Westminster, and Yorba Linda.

See the U-verse page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/uverse
Recent AT&T U-verse stories:

Posted in: Internet • Video & TV • • • • | 9 Comments »

AT&T U-verse enables caller ID on TV for O.C., L.A.

March 16th, 2010, 1:53 pm by

AT&T said today that Orange County and Los Angeles customers can now get Caller ID on their TV.

The new feature pops up a message in a corner of the TV screen for 6 seconds so viewers can decide whether the caller is worth interrupting the TV program. Customers must subscribe to both AT&T U-verse TV and U-verse Voice telephone service to get this to work.

On-screen caller ID isn’t new.  AT&T first launched the feature last November in other parts of the country. Cable companies have offered it for several years to customers who order the two related services. Verizon added it for FiOS users in Orange County in December.

The on-screen caller ID is free and it starts working automatically. The feature also pops up a message for new voice mail.

Interestingly, AT&T tosses out a statistic on how many customers are paying for Voice service: More than 67 percent of new customers for a total of 1 million, as of January.

U-verse service is only available in certain parts of certain Orange County cities. Here is the updated list of local cities: Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Stanton, Villa Park, Westminster, and Yorba Linda.

More on AT&T U-verse:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 8 Comments »

Time Warner’s ‘free’ HD commercial is misleading, says agency

March 5th, 2010, 7:25 am by

Noted: Time Warner Cable likes to tout its “free” HD to make itself look more affordable than the competition. But free isn’t true, as some readers like to note.

The Better Business Bureau doesn’t think so either. After a competitor’s complaint to the Council of Better Business Bureau, Time Warner Cable said it would “revise its advertising to curtail use of the word ‘free,’” reports Multichannel News.

AT&T complained about the misleading ads that are used to promote cable service. The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus looked at the issue and said that the issue is Time Warner’s “free HD” was part of a temporarily discounted price that eventually went up so free HD should no longer be considered free. The agency recommended that Time Warner discontinue such advertising.

The misleading Time Warner ad showed a U-verse TV customer named Ed who rejected Time Warner’s “free HDTV” and instead says “Sure, U-verse hits me up with an HD surcharge every month but, no big deal, I’ve found ways to make extra cash…” The ad ends with “Don’t Be Ed …Don’t Accept HD Surcharges” or “Don’t Accept Less. Get Digital Cable with Free HD.”

Time Warner offers dozens of HD channels at no extra cost as part of different levels of standard cable service. It has one special tier of HD-only channels for about $5 a month, which customers can order separately. AT&T charges $10 per month for HD channels.

Readers have complained about the “free HD” campaign as well since technically, customers still need to order a minimal cable service and equipment to get the “free” HD channels. Time Warner’s not the only one using the marketing gimmick. Cox and other cable providers also tout free HD.

Readers: What do you think? Did the “free HD” campaign win you over? LEAVE A COMMENT

Read the full story at Multichannel News: Time Warner Cable To Change ‘Free HD’ Claim After AT&T Complaint

Recent Time Warner news:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 30 Comments »

AT&T U-verse TV doubles customers in a year, iPhones continue to rock

January 28th, 2010, 3:51 pm by

AT&T U-verseWhile alternative TV services can’t seem to come to Orange County fast enough for some, at least AT&T’s U-verse TV services is still growing.

Between September to December, the AT&T Internet TV service added 248,000 TV customers bringing its national total to 2.1 million. That’s a steady growth and the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of growth of at least 240,000 net new users.

Comparably, the county’s other Internet-based TV service, Verizon FiOS, saw its quarterly growth shrink (see “48% of people served by Verizon can order FiOS but most don’t“), while Time Warner Cable saw its overall TV subscribers decline (see “How much money did Time Warner make last year? $1.1 billion“).

Even greater news for AT&T: More than three-fourths of its customers buy three or four offered services (TV, Internet, phone and wireless phone). The average customer bill was $65.68 per month, up $2.36 from a year earlier. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

Microsoft sues TiVo on behalf of AT&T U-verse

January 20th, 2010, 2:45 pm by

TiVo logoNoted: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that TiVo just got slapped with a lawsuit of its own. By Microsoft, no less.

Microsoft, which provides the software that runs AT&T U-verse set-top boxes, intervened on a dispute between AT&T and TiVo. Microsoft is willing to settle the dispute with licensing agreements and has attempted to talk with TiVo, says the paper.

UPDATED: TiVo just issued its statement on the Microsoft suite: “”Microsoft’s recent legal actions, including its decision to seek to intervene on behalf of its customer, AT&T, and its recent complaint against TiVo in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California do not bear on whether the AT&T products and services that are the subject of TiVo’s complaint infringe the patents asserted by TiVo. Rather these actions are part of a legal strategy to defend AT&T. We remain confident in our position that AT&T will be found to infringe on the TiVo patents asserted.”

As some consumers know, TiVo has been suing companies that have a DVR that offers users the ability to pause, rewind and record live TV. Dish Networks has been in a long patent dispute with TiVo, sometimes losing, sometimes winning.

TiVo went on to file infringement suits against AT&T and has said it would go after anyone who may be violating its patents.

Read more: Microsoft Sues TiVo in Attempt to Defend Partner AT&T (Wall Street Journal)

Older stories:

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FCC says cable sports hogs must share broadcasts

January 20th, 2010, 12:10 pm by

Federal Communications Commission logo

Updated, 4:08 p.m.: More details are now coming out. The FCC has finally made the 87-page ruling public and issued a press release. Plus I’ve heard from Cablevision. See updates below.
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Noted: The Federal Communications Commission voted today that cable companies who control sports programming must share the game broadcasts with rival satellite TV and Internet TV companies.

UPDATED: Sharing isn’t quite the right word. Today’s ruling created a process where TV providers can petition the FCC if they feel “a cable operator engages in unfair acts with respect to terrestrially delivered, cableaffiliated programming,” says the FCC.

Ultimately, it could mean more “sharing” of regional sporting events as satellite TV and Internet TV providers get a chance to complain about exclusive contracts some cable companies have with local sports teams. Read the full ruling: FCC Issues Order Promoting Competition in the Video Distribution Market.

The impact hasn’t been felt as much here in Orange County but down in San Diego, many paid-TV customers couldn’t watch San Diego Padres games because they weren’t Cox Communications subscribers. Cox has the exclusive rights to show the baseball games and wouldn’t let anyone else broadcast the games, which irked the satellite TV providers and AT&T, which offers U-verse TV service.

(Neither Cox nor Time Warner have exclusivity on Angels baseball games in Orange County, according to both companies.)

In New York, Verizon and AT&T were also shut out of offering regional sports events to their viewers. In August, AT&T filed a complaint with the FCC alleging anti-competitive practices against Cablevision Systems Corp, which owns Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, according to a Reuters report.

Today’s 4-1 FCC ruling prevents cable providers from refusing to let competing providers access the programming. Withholding regional sports programs violates section 628 of the Cable Act and is anti-competitive.

UPDATED: Actually, says Cablevision, it’s not a matter of sharing, but the FCC has established a complaint process. Kim Kerns, with Cablevision, says this:

“While we find the legal basis for the decision unfounded, we are pleased that the FCC recognized the value of Cablevision’s local programming strategy and investments. Verizon and AT&T will not receive an FCC bailout that will allow them to capture News 12, MSG Varsity and other programming that we have developed for our customers. We are also pleased that despite the phone companies’ overwhelming lobbying effort, the FCC has ensured a process that will enable us to demonstrate that no harm has been done to the nation’s two largest phone companies. Our market is the most competitive in the nation and we are confident that we can prove that the phone companies’ poor performance in our marketplace has nothing to do with a lack of HD programming. Verizon and AT&T do not need a regulatory bailout in order to compete.”

Verizon, which competes with Cablevision, said in a press release: ”This is a big-time victory for television sports fans. The FCC’s decision to make must-see regional sports programming, including high-definition feeds, presumptively available to competitors, puts viewers in the driver’s seat,” said Kathleen Grillo, Verizon senior vice president of Federal Regulatory Affairs.

Recent sports TV news:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

AT&T U-verse raising TV, phone, Internet prices in 2010

December 21st, 2009, 12:26 pm by

UPDATE, at 4:29 p.m.: AT&T says Internet price increases affect new customers only and not existing customers. TV prices affect everyone.

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AT&T U-verseNo AT&T U-verse service goes untouched by the latest round of price hikes for 2010. Most customers will see a $3 to $5 increase in their monthly bill when the new prices go into effect Feb. 1, 2010, confirmed an AT&T spokeswoman.

U-verse, which offers phone, TV and fast Internet service, is available in several Orange County cities. Here is a list: U-verse in O.C.

AT&T says the increased costs reflect more TV channels and better options, including more TV apps and the recent addition of 5 new HD channels. This is the company’s first price hike to its core TV service since launching in 2006.

AT&T isn’t the first to notify customers of 2010 price increases. Earlier this month, Time Warner Cable customers began receiving notices that bills were going up in January. See the earlier story: “Time Warner 2010 price hikes mostly affect those who order the least.”

AT&T provided examples for some of the price increases: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 17 Comments »

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