There's a new player in the television service arena. Many of you who are already in areas where AT&T offers service already know that depending on the region, they have a partnership with either Dish Network or Direct TV. Now, AT&T is offering their own television service - AT&T U-verse.
Amy and I had U-verse installed at her place on Monday, and now after a few days of getting to use it, I can confidently say I wouldn't go back to satellite service, and wouldn't even consider cable. Sure, it's easier for me to say that because I get a discount on the services, but I sincerely like the service.
Amy and I went with the
U-200 package for programming and the
U-verse Elite internet speed, which was comprable to the 6 meg service I was getting from Charter Cable before I cancelled.
The setup took about 4-5 hours on Monday, mostly because the technician had to run new CAT5 to the location of the main internet/TV connection, and doing so meant routing around existing electical wiring which would cause interference. The setup includes a 2 WIRE gateway which means I now have a collection of some 3-4 unused routers/hubs, but couldn't be happier with the Gateway. With Charter Cable, my internet connection would frequently drop, and somehow they'd manage to have outages on perfect weather days. I'd regularly reboot my cable modem and router (and PC) to ensure that the problem wasn't on my end.
So far, I've had no issues with the U-verse internet. The wireless connection is the best I've used so far, and the 6 meg internet service has managed to adequately serve the XBOX 360 downloading marketplace content, a desktop (wired) downloading iTunes updates, two laptops actively connected to the network, and my iPod Touch using Google Reader (thank you WonderMonkey). The XBOX Live Marketplace items still downloaded relatively quickly, despite all of the other active connections, which made me happy.
I haven't yet played the 360 online to see how the connection stacks up to my previous cable internet connection, but having already run the connection test, things are looking up. My NAT setting is OPEN for the first time ever because the U-verse set top box offers a network jack. I was able to take back the Pelican Wireless Gateway for the 360, saving me $70, and connect my XBOX 360 directly to the set top box. So far, it's made for some blazing fast Marketplace downloads. I should also be capable of hosting games in the future, and joining all matches with no problem, which I've never been able to say.
On to the TV. Our U-200 package plus HD is a fairly hefty # of channels, and though we don't have movie channels, we have more than we'll ever watch. The HD signal is very solid. The picture is as good as cable in HD. SD is decent, but honestly, all of the channels we watch regularly are in HD now. The selection of HD channels is rather hefty. 32 HD channels, + 5 locals in HD. Local channels don't cost extra. That 32 channels doesn't count all of the movie channels in HD.
The set top box features are plentiful. The service offers the ability to record 4 channels simultaneously via the DVR that's included with U-200 and above, and there are a number of interactive features such as AT&T Yahoo! Games and the like.
Needless to say, I've very happy with the change. We had a pretty bad storm here the other night, and unlike satellite, it didn't interfere with our signal. I'll chime in later as we have time to use the service more, but right now couldn't be happier. It's also the most cost effective of all service offereings in the area (even if my discount wasn't applied).
Feel free to PM me with any questions if you're interested. You can check to see if it's available in your neighborhood from the Check Availability link available
here.
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