Anyone have AT&T U-verse?

[Moof1904]

AT&T just sent me a flyer touting their new fiberoptic broadband. They've dubbed it U-verse. They're advertising bundles with a bunch of tv channels as well as broadband, all over the fiber network.

Does anyone have this? Like it? Love it? Hate it?

I'm wondering if it's worth switching from DSL/DirecTV to this package. It would save me some money every month (especially if I could get a package that also included my VoIP and cell phones).

Their packages include one DVR and two receivers. They claim that their DVR can record four channels at once. That's nice.

Anyone?

One more thought: I already have a wiring system that works fine for me: DSL modem-->Airport Extreme--> 24-port ethernet switch --> all over the house. How invasive is the U-verse installation? Will they need to pull a bunch of wires to the set-top boxes? Will they try to cram a 2-wire wireless router down my throat? Will they try to install bloatware on my Macs like SWBell Yahoo tries to do?

 

[dorleac]

A question to your question...

I just purchased a Airport Extreme base station today. I guess I'm going with the AT&T DSL service. I had it set up before in a different house with their 2-wire router. I no longer have that router and I have no idea what modem I need to buy now. The guy at Apple sort of led me to believe I didn't need a DSL modem, but apparently I do.

I'm looking for the best, but cheapest of the best, option for a DSL modem. Got any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[MacFan25863]

I just purchased a Airport Extreme base station today. I guess I'm going with the AT&T DSL service. I had it set up before in a different house with their 2-wire router. I no longer have that router and I have no idea what modem I need to buy now. The guy at Apple sort of led me to believe I didn't need a DSL modem, but apparently I do.

I'm looking for the best, but cheapest of the best, option for a DSL modem. Got any ideas?

Thanks.

Normally when you get cable or DSL they give you a modem. You hook the modem's LAN port to the WAN port on your Airport and you are good to go.

 

[crees!]

I haven't heard of this.. but I have Verizon FiOS TV/internet. If you can get fiber from Verizon or AT&T, go for it.

 

[Sagger Pance]

Uverse is amazing... sort of. I had Directv HD and AT&T DSL but I had to take down my dish and get uverse instead. Originally I had one of the top tier HD packages with just HBO as a premium + DVR. I was paying about 120 a month for Directv and about 30 for the dsl.

With Uverse I get every single possible (legal) channel except for playboy. Plus internet that is over double the speed, HD, and a dvr for a total cost of $108. The only drawback is that only one HD channel can be watched at a time (throughout the network) and Uverse hasn't yet caught up with the dish services as far as the new HD channels such as USAHD, SpikeHD, and so on. But it's got on demand which is a fantastic bonus. Aside from minor issues with the GUI and the dvr not being quite as dynamic as other types. This is the only issue I have with it at all.

And I'm convinced that since all of the signals (TV and Broadband) come from the same port, if hooked up correctly, wifi TV is oh so entirely possible.

I haven't run into any unneeded extra software. But I already had an AT&T account for my DSL. So it's hard to tell. From what I understand Uverse will run through your current network. They'll setup a base station somewhere in your home that does the wifi and from there they can either run cat-5 across floorboards (if you're in an apartment) or run cable behind your walls. But in effect this is quite simply a big ethernet network. They may not tell you they support you hooking everything up to your 24 port netgear router, but it works.

On the DVR bit, as of now, the system puts out 4 streams of TV to the entire network. I was told HD takes up something like 1 and a half to two streams. So theoretically, you could be recording four SD shows at the same time. But if anyone else in the house wanted to watch TV they'd have to watch one of those shows. It really isn't as intrusive as it sounds like it would be and I was told they are looking to upgrade to 6 streams sometime soon.

 

[LuhReeUh]

I've got it and it's great...most of the time.

This will be my first post...ever.

Anywho, I got U-verse installed in July, and I subscribe to the top tier package (U-400, 6.0mbps). My bill runs around $140 a month. I had DirectTV and was paying a lot more for less channel options. U-400 offers all of the premium movie channels, and the entire sports package.

I've never had a DVR before, so that alone was worth signing up. Like someone said before, you can record up to 4 shows at once (4 streams). Only one can be in HD. Unless the packages have changed, you receive 3 free receivers, and one of them is the DVR. For each additional receiver, I believe it's $5 a month. Only one DVR per home, and it only works for the TV it is hooked up to (for now). They are working on whole home DVR.

I would definitely recommend looking further into U-verse. What attracted me to it was that there were no contracts, so in case you aren't satisfied with the service, you can disconnect, no fees. Also, installation is free and you didn't have to purchase any equipment. They have a few specials running around. I'm not sure as to what they are now, but when I signed up, it was 2 months of TV free, I paid less than $50 a month (if memory serves correctly).

You should check out this site. It is a great source for the service. The set up is somewhat similar to macrumors. It updates you with the latest press releases from AT&T. For instance, whole home DVR is not currently available, but a timetable of "midyear" is expected for the launch.

http://www.uverseusers.com/

I won't say that the service is perfect; none of them are. I initially had pixelation issues and a faulty DVR. A tech came out the next day to swap it out and take care of the pixelation. I can say I am more satisfied with them, then I ever was with Comcast and DirectTV.

As for the installation. Eh...I only had two TVs set up and it took roughly 2 hours. I'm not familiar with the technical aspects of the install, so I apologize for that, but I do know that installs typically take anywhere from 2-8 hours (yes, 8). So that may answer your question, it is a bit invasive, but I would definitely talk to technical support to verify.

I hope this helps.