Customer ServiceeRegister
The Gadgetress ~ TV, mobile and Internet: Covering technology's monthly bill

Archive for the 'U-Verse' Tag

« Previous Entries

So long and thanks for all the fun!

April 9th, 2010, 3:54 pm by

The Gadgetress blog launched five years ago as a spot to post my high-tech musings. It evolved into a gadget-review column, then a how-tech-saves-money site and finally a blog dedicated to reporting the latest on local TV and mobile services.

But all good things must come to an end and the Gadgetress blog is retiring. That’s because after nearly 10 years at the Orange County Register, I’m leaving this great gig — and Orange County — for that mysterious “to pursue other opportunities.”

It’s really a mystery to me what I’ll be doing next. I’m taking a break for a few months. Seriously. I may return to the world of tech journalism. If you want to keep track of what’s next for me, just head to my personal site at tamara.net.

I enjoyed every minute, especially the interaction with readers. Thank you readers, fans, critics, the companies and even Time Warner Cable. I’ve learned a lot from all of you and hopefully vice versa. I’ve updated the story archives so if you’re looking for an old post on TV service, here’s where to go:

For all other tech-related stories and questions, here are a few people who may be able to help you:

Farewell good readers. I’ll be on Twitter, Facebook and who knows where else? May we meet again!

Signing out,

Tamara “The Gadgetress” Chuang

Posted in: news • • • • • • | 51 Comments »

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 »

National Geographic Wild starts in March, replaces Fox Reality

February 15th, 2010, 10:59 am by

Corrected 2/16: Fox Reality is being replaced by National Geographic Wild, not West. My bad. Thanks reader ‘m’ for pointing this out. Text below is corrected.

If you haven’t spent much time on the Fox Reality channel, you’ll be glad to know it’s being booted next month in favor of the National Geographic Wild Channel.

The Fox channel shuts down on March 31, as noted last October, in favor of another version of reality. Why National Geographic? The channel is 50 percent owned by Fox Cable Network.

Time Warner Cable, which notified customers today on its alerts page, switches to “Nat Geo Wild” on March 29. It’s the same channel — 129 — and same plan level as Fox Reality.

Other TV providers have not announced the switch yet but here are the existing channel numbers for their Fox Reality channel:

  • Time Warner, 129
  • Cox Communications, 363
  • Dish Network, 190
  • Verizon FiOS, 197
  • AT&T U-verse, 130
  • DirecTV, 250

For more on TV services, see the following links:

* Time Warner Cable
* Cox Cable
* Verizon FiOS
* AT&T U-verse		 * DirecTV
* Dish Network
* Web TV
* All TV

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 22 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 »

AT&T U-verse coming to Xbox universe

January 14th, 2010, 1:08 pm by

CATCHING UP: Xbox univerese heading to AT&T U-verse.It’s true, AT&T U-verse subscribers with a Microsoft Xbox will soon be able to access all those U-verse TV activities on the game console.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, mentioned the union during his keynote speech at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (yes, file this in the way-too-much-to-miss-at-CES folder). Gaming site Kotaku has been writing stories about it, see “U.S. Xbox 360s Get IPTV Through AT&T Uverse This Year.”

AT&T just confirmed the news to me so I wanted to share with readers, especially those interested in U-verse TV, an Internet-based TV service available in several cities in Orange County. See the list of Orange County cities HERE.

According to an AT&T  spokeswoman, U-verse TV subscribers will be able to use their XBOX 360 console as a TV set-top box.

“You’ll be able to watch U-verse TV programming using your new or existing XBOX receiver, including live, on-demand, HD and Total Home DVR content. It will enable the same viewing experience and same features that you get today with a U-verse receiver. As we’ve done with all the new apps and features we’ve added for customers over the years, we’ll make the rollout or upgrade option quick and simple for customers. We plan to make this option available to customers in 2010, later in the year,” Katie Keating  responded in an e-mail.

No mention on whether this will cost extra. Currently, AT&T charges $7/month for extra TV receivers. The first HD receiver is included with the plan.

For those wondering why AT&T teamed up with Xbox, that’s not a huge surprise. Microsoft’s  Mediaroom is the software inside U-verse set-top boxes. What’s next? Watch U-verse TV on Microsoft mobile phones?

Earlier on AT&T U-verse:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline