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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 upgrades mobile coverage in San Clemente, Laguna Hills

March 11th, 2010, 1:44 pm by

Two more cell sites just got powered on in Orange County that should help ease the pain of dropped calls and poor coverage for local AT&T customers.

AT&T said Thursday that the two new sites are part of four 3G sites in the Los Angeles area to “improve mobile coverage for area residents and businesses.”

In Orange County, the new sites are near these intersections:

  • San Clemente: Near the intersection of Portico Del Norte and Camino De Los Mares
  • Laguna Hills: Near the intersection of Moulton Parkway and Ridge Route Drive

The other new sites are located in Fontana and Temecula.

The upgrades are part of the company’s plan to add 200 new cell sites in California this year.

Other new cell sites:

►  Older posts on cell sites in Orange County

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • | 17 Comments »

AT&T explains why it can’t build its TV service underground

August 18th, 2009, 7:40 am by

Where is AT&T's U-verse service? Readers: This is part of an ongoing series of updates on what happened to the AT&T U-verse rollout in Orange County. The company said in July 2009 that it was halting further expansion in seven O.C. cities. I’m talking to each city so keep checking back for updates! This story, in particular, is the long promised update on why AT&T can’t build its U-verse TV technology underground, as every city prefers.

When AT&T said it would stop pursuing expansion of its highly anticipated U-verse TV and Internet service in seven Orange County cities (Cypress, Dana Point, Irvine, Lake Forest, Newport Beach, San Clemente and Tustin), readers blamed the cities. Why would a city not want to offer residents another TV option?

Closeup

U-verse box in Brea

Most of the cities responded, saying, no, they haven’t rejected AT&T U-verse. Rather, they’re waiting for their laundry list of requirements to be fulfilled or at least answers to their multiple questions. Cities want AT&T to build the large U-verse utility boxes underground. Otherwise, cities believe they’ll be deluged with ugliness complaints or spray-can wielding vandals.

AT&T tells me it has responded to all concerns among the cities. Multiple times.

“Over the past two years, we’ve met with cities repeatedly and answered the same questions on the same issues,” said an exasperated H. Gordon Diamond, with AT&T’s public affairs, after reading some of the responses from the cities.

Cities have nitpicked AT&T, some asking for the company to pre-engineer each location (which takes 50 hours a pop, says Diamond), others putting requiring a list of “standard” conditions be met. While some cities say they just care more than those cities, AT&T says this is holding up progress and keeping an alternative TV service out of reach of residents.

So, let’s look at AT&T’s response to the biggest issue: AT&T says it can’t build these utility cabinets underground.

And why not?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • | 24 Comments »

San Clemente’s 16 questions for AT&T U-verse TV

August 14th, 2009, 9:45 am by

Where is AT&T's U-verse service? Readers: This is part of an ongoing series of updates on what happened to the AT&T U-verse rollout in Orange County. The company said in July that it was halting expansion in seven O.C. cities. I’m talking to each city so keep checking back for updates!

  1. Will every house in San Clemente be able to order AT&T U-verse? If not, why not?
  2. What is the proposed timeline for TV service?
  3. Where does AT&T already offer DSL service in the city? Show me, on a map.

All good questions that I’d like answers to myself. These questions — the above three summarized by me — were part of a 16-question questionnaire the city of San Clemente gave AT&T in February 2007 after AT&T inquired about offering its new U-verse TV service to residents.

“We sent them a questionnaire when they submitted a permit and they never responded back,” said Bill Cameron, San Clemente’s city engineer told me in an interview last month. “We want to know what the impacts are.”

Consumers in Orange County and elsewhere seem desperate for an alternative TV service. And traditional telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon began offering a full cable-TV like option two years ago with U-verse and FiOS. But roll out has been slow, leaving consumers frustrated. But do consumers really want the service? Verizon pulled back earlier this year, blaming competitors who started offering cheaper deals. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 5 Comments »

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

July 6th, 2009, 12:14 pm by

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • | 39 Comments »

Where in the world is AT&T’s U-verse?

May 20th, 2008, 2:32 pm by

Someone keeps asking about AT&T’s U-verse TV service. In OC, it celebrates its one-year anniversary today.

The big fuss about this service is that it’s TV from the phone company. Verizon also offers TV service, called FiOS TV.

For OC, U-verse is now available in these cities, or parts thereof: Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Irvine, La Habra, Laguna Niguel, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Westminster and Yorba Linda.

That compares to the handful of cities that could subscribe to U-verse last year: Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Laguna Niguel, Orange County, Santa Ana and Tustin.

AT&T won’t divulge future spots in Orange County (“Our competitors would lower their prices in preparation,” said a spokeswoman), but it does indeed look like service is expanding.

If you’re wondering why U-verse isn’t in Huntington Beach or other OC spots, the company focuses on its own telephone territory first. There’s still hope for non AT&T customers but U-verse could be a long ways away.

For those outside of OC, other areas with U-verse include:

  • California: San Francisco/Oakland, San Jose/Santa Clara,Riverside
  • Fairfield County, Conn.
  • Chicago
  • Indianapolis
  • St. Louis
  • Kansas City, Kansas
  • Detroit
  • Cleveland
  • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  • Texas: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin

As for Verizon’s FiOS TV, no new cities since last year, according to the company. FiOS is hit and miss in these OC cities: Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Westminster, Garden Grove, Stanton, and certain unincorporated areas.

Related stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

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