Review of AT&T U-VerseAll reviews of |  about |
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I was told that because of the distance, the best speed I was going to get from the internet is 6/1, which proves true on speedtest.net results... I am somewhat disappointed, I was not expecting to "downgrade" my service. I see that Comcast only has a max. of 16mb down with powerboost. I am not sure what I am going to do yet. TV's have not been hooked up yet, so I'll have to see how that goes... UPDATE 9/21 After a few more visits from techs. It appears that distance is ultimately the problem. Over the last week, techs have ran tests on just about every component from my home to the VRAD. They even went from pole to pole to make sure there was no interference on my line. They did find one pair on a pole that was not bonded, so they bonded that pair, but didn't seem to make much difference. So, as of now, my service is what appears to be based on a "best effort" basis. I am measured at 2900 feet from the VRAD (was told the limit is 3000). The line tech said that he always adds an extra 200 feet. So, the service is working intermittently, but stays up mostly. I am disappointed, I don't want a service that only works when it wants to. I will be switching to something else in the near future. Too bad too, I really liked Uverse. UPDATE - 9/24 Still having problems. After having a senior tech come out and replace the RG, and having another line tech troubleshoot my entire run again, service is still sporadic. I called tech support again today, who dispatched yet another senior tech. He had another guy come out with him. They found that when it goes down, I have somewhere in the realm of 4 million corrected blocks. In the 3 hours that they were here, they placed a isolator transformer on the RG, rewired the inside run to the RG, and also replaced my ports at the VRAD. After all this, it ran fine for about 10 minutes, as soon as they left, the line went down yet again. I called the tech and informed him about what happened. He said he will come back tomorrow morning, but admitted that he was not sure if there was anything else they could do. It has certainly not been for a lack of trying, I feel AT&T has done everything they can to make my line work, but, in the end, I don't think it will be good enough. Comcast is coming out Tuesday to set up their internet. Hopefully I will have better luck with them. UPDATE 9/29 AT&T was supposed to be out today to replace something in my drop. I had been informed over the weekend that they had ordered a part and that it would be in today. Well, I never heard from AT&T nor saw any trucks out there working. I do believe there is still interference on the line, they just can't figure out from where. I have canceled the internet as of today (still need TV for a few weeks while I switch to something else). The woman I spoke with was apologetic and gave me a 2 month credit for internet service. She said that when I am ready to call back and they will credit my TV as well. So, a disappointing ending, but not all is lost. I had Comcast come out and had internet only installed. Seems to be working pretty good so far. Only time will tell. Followup comments:
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Being an AT&T Mobility customer since 1999, it was thrilling to hear they were now offering TV, internet, and VoIP in Jacksonville. Our cable provider, Comcast, lacks a reliable network in Jacksonville. File downloads would be close to 100KB/S...and calling them only resulted in the customer being blamed for any issues. Also, their TV service had a high amount of artifacts and lacked much availability. Basically, for years they were the only company to provide EVERYTHING. So, at the beginning of this year I became Uverse obsessed. I was constantly on the lookout for VRADs, DSLAMs, and cross connect cabinets. Finally, they began to dig up the road (Hodges Blvd) that my neighborhood is off of. Fiber optic cabling could be seen being laid next to one of the new lanes. I was excited. A VRAD and cross connect cabinet popped up about 2500 feet of driving distance from my home. Then, in May, one of my friends who lives about 2500 feet driving distance on the other side of this equipment was able to sign up for Uverse. However, the online system did not and still doesn't let any of her neighbors or mine get Uverse. In fact, we are the only two customers currently on Uverse as we know it. I've driven around trying to find other 2Wire rgs pop up, and can't find any. Also, my friend's mother is a former employee of AT&T and she has a lot of insider information. So, I took the initiative and contacted one of the AT&T upper support guys that frequent this website, David. He was able to enable my address to receive service. A tech first arrived at my home on June 2, 2009. Coincidentally, my friend and I were driving from her house to my house and we actually pulled behind the tech as he was leaving the cross connect cabinet. He pulled in to my house just before us. This technician dug around our pedestal and made sure all of the copper inside it was okay. Then, he opened our NID (which hasn't been used since we terminated POTS/ADSL service in 2003) and tested it for loop length. Our actual length from the VRAD wire-wise was 3000 feet according to him. According to tier 2 based in Texas, the length is 3300 feet but can vary either direction. So, in all, we are far away, at to top it off, our copper is circa 1995. That means we have narrow, 26 gauge copper wiring to the house. I was informed by this technician that our length might require us to drop down to the 19mbps profile. We have two HDTVs and one SDTV. The availability of only one HD stream wasn't a big issue, as I am the only one that cares about something being in HD. My biggest disappointment was that this mean I could not get Max18 internet. So, the next day is June 3, 2009. Our official install. Our tech arrived at around 8:30am, at the beginning of the window for him to arrive. This was good, as the quicker my internet was back up, the better. I design websites and do video production for the web and downtime would be bad. I've heard the installs can take forever, but it didn't seem long for the install at all. He re-checked our NID was able to pick up a usable signal (our max sync at the time was 26mbps) and began to work. He basically went into the attic, removed any "stuff" such as splitters, etc. He used an adapter and routed a telephone to coax cable into the Comcast box next to the NID which controls the home coax network. After doing this, all coax outlets then were being fed by Uverse and essentially the Comcast cable that came out of the ground was "unplugged" from the system. I felt like laughing at Comcast later that day when they begged me to stay with them. They offered free this and that, and I just wasn't going to do it. Our install tech pulled cable from one room and put it into another. The rest of the house was already fine with the coax being pushed to it. All of the outlets and ends were changed, and service was good to go. Our RG was placed on the opposite side of the house as NID. So our service looked good. It was my first DVR through a TV service and it was awesome. I also loved that The Weather Channel HD was available, as Comcast doesn't carry it, nor do they carry many HD channels. My download now are close to 1.3MB/s, thanks to having 12mbps internet. We had a few problems. We'd have occasional pixellations and audio drop outs while watching an HD channel. Of course, our long loop length is to blame for any issues we had or will have in the future (more about the "future" further down). After having service for a month and a half, I decided to see if we could fix the pixellation problem. Was it a deal killer? No. On Comcast I had to stare at artifacts and a not so vivid picture. To me, this was "minor." The pixellation would occur maybe once every program for a second. Anywho, I decided to contact Matt May from Uverse tier 2 tech support. His name on DSL Reports is "mmay149q." The Matts and Davids in this world are few and far between, and we need more! Matt contacted me back almost immediately, and was able to setup a phone call in which we could discuss the issue further. After hearing the problems, looking at some of our RG stats, and reviewing his notes, he decided we should switch our homerun to cat5. This means we should switch the connection between our NID and RG to cat5 from coax. Again, our loop length is to blame and any sort of of issue with coax combined with the loop length was causing us to lose packets from the IPTV stream. Cat5 was expected to improve our system. Our cat5 switcharoo occurred on July 23, 2009. Our tech, Kenny, called me on July 22 and told me what he was told by dispatch and that he only lived two miles away and could be here even earlier than 8. He got here at about 7:30am, and immediately got to work. He opened our NID and hooked up the cat5 and ran it through the attic to the RG room. This only took about an hour, he was very professional and reliable. Our service, as of this evening, is not having any pixellation or audio dropouts. Matt gave me a follow up call and email after our cat5 switch. He told me he won't be able to get accurate stats of the errors until 24-48 hours after the switch as it will register our unplugging and replugging back in from this morning. He is also helping me with a minor email issue between the AT&T mail server and Apple Mail. All in all, the service is going a bit better. Kudos to Matt, David, and the techs (Kenny, etc.) involved in my install. If you can get Uverse in your area, I'd take it over the cableco any day. Okay, so more about the "future." Yesterday, AT&T pulled up conduits from the ground in the front of my neighborhood for what looks like fiber. There is also large wheeled spools of fiber optic cabling just down the road from me in a construction area. At this point, it is unknown what the fiber could be for. It could also be for copper, who knows. But there are now multiple markings and flags put out. Update 9/28/09: I have further communicated with Matt May and he set me up another p-tech appointment. Kenny, our trusted premises tech, was out here this afternoon to investigate further issues. Due to distance on narrow wiring, my max sync is only 25mbps and the looplength is close to 3000 feet. This is of course an issue in itself. Kenny did the best he good to finally eradicate any inside issues (really worn out coax was running to the DVR) and he quickly and cleanly replaced the coax. It looks better than before, it's all buried now. There are still errors though, and this could be to the original home rg59 coax. But, there are still issues even with that cable disconnected, so Kenny wrote an I&R ticket and I&R is going to check every pedestal and line in the neighborhood and condition it so that the errors go down. Attachments:       Followup comments:
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On the morning of the install, the technician called me 30 minutes before arrival. When he came in, he was very cautious to make certain he didn't track dirt and debris on the floor. In fact, he was very conscious of everything he did and cleaned up after himself throughout the installation. We sat down and reviewed the installation together (included one 2-Wire 3800HGV-B Gateway and three Cisco Set Top boxes, specifically, the placement of the RG from the NID. From a previous installation of a business phone line (long since disconnected), a CAT-5 cable had been installed a a home run from the NID to the location I had spotted for the RG. The installer and I decided this would be utilized for the connection. He inspected all of the existing coax runs and determined two of the three needed would be replaced with new cable and the third would be re-terminated with new connectors. The installer left for a few minutes to do the connections at the VRAD. When he returned, he made mention of a sync issue on an existing pair of wires running to the NID but said he had better rates over a 2nd pair and made a call to another department to have the changes made at the pole. While waiting for the truck to arrive, he began the process in the house. About 1.5 hours later (and still no sign of the other guy), we were ready to fire up the RG. The system synched up and we began powering up the STB's so they could get their updates. Within 30 minutes, all three televisions were up -- two set for 720p HD and one standard. The installer indicated if there were no unusual instances of freezing, pixelating, etc., on the HD sets within the next two weeks to go ahead and switch them over to 1080p. We next set up the UVerse Elite DSL connection by plugging in my laptop directly to the RG. Once connectivity was established, the installer showed us some additional features available to us at the Yahoo portal (including the ability to set recordings from afar) went through all of the features of the STB's and remote. We signed off on the installation, the installer assured me the truck roll to switch wiring at the pole would still occur and he departed. As soon as he was down the street, I modified my existing wireless router \ internal LAN to function in DMZ Plus mode and got the rest of my machines on line (including a Windows Home Server that requires remote access). About ten minutes later, another tech knocked on the door to let me know I would lose sync while he made the switch. Within 30 minutes, everything was back online. I've not had any loss of connectivity or signal since then. Total installation time -- 5.5 hours. SD quality is leaps and bounds above what Comcast could ever provide. HD quality is at least as good as what the cable provider had (especially after configuring the two HD STB's for 1080p about a week afterwards). I get more stations, more HD programming and more functionality (love the whole house DVR!) at a better price. I had AT&T Elite DSL prior to the change-over. Although latency is slightly higher due to the interleaving, the speeds are much better without the overhead inherent to ADSL. I regularly run speeds of 5570 Kbps down and 927 Kbps up (which is helpful when connecting to my WHS). I have had no need for Technical Support, my connection is rock solid for three plus weeks, I am much happier with UVerse than I ever was with Comcast and I will probably recommend UVerse to friends and family. -------------- Updated 9/27/09: Ten months into the new service and I'm still very pleased. The only problem I've had was an oddity with a HUGE amount of corrected blocks appearing in the Remote Gateway diagnostics but after reviewing a few threads in the AT&T UVerse forum here on the site, I determined a reboot of the RG would clear it up. Speeds continue to be consistent and TV quality is still better than what the previous cable provider offered. The whole house DVR is also a nice feature; I'm looking forward to future system improvements in the works. Unfortunately, since my LAN is running on a separate router/gateway, I am unable to take advantage of the MediaShare functionality but it really isn't too big a loss anyway. I will continue to recommend UVerse to friends and family. Followup comments:
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I ran across one of these sales field reps who go door-to-door soliciting U-verse even though there are local ordinances and private property restrictions but I digress. I explained that I had dry-loop and have been cellular only for years and absolutely did not want TV nor voice and I absolutely would not pay $150 for HSI-only install. I already had been to the U-verse site so I had a good idea of what my ordering options were. The rep explained he could waive the install fee and I could get a $100 rebate. It seemed odd but since he was a field rep I figured he had inside strings he had at his disposal. I gave him my phone number to call when we could better discuss setup. It took a couple days of missed calls, bad opportunities to connect and relaying info back and forth but I finally got U-verse ordered. Apparently it turns out that I did need to order TV after all to get the free install as it was apparently his pitch from the beginning to tack on a TV commission when I clearly said I didn't want it. There was a supposed 30-day trial for TV which I intended to cancel but still ended up paying for it anyway. I did manage to get my $100 rebate and I cancelled the video surprisingly without any fuss from the CSR on the phone. I was figuring on a WW III level fight to ditch video but I was given instructions on how to return equipment. In the end, what took me a couple of days of BS with this field sales rep thinking I had an inside track, I could have done exactly the same thing in minutes online. The rep had my name spelled wrong, phone numbers wrong, setup as online billing even though I don't want my bills sent online. I don't know how it actually works but it's like the rep just calls some 800 number to relay customer ordering info - something I could have easily done myself. After getting a past due cutoff notice did I realize that something was seriously wrong with my account. I worked with U-verse billing to get my account straightened out and we're back on track. So just like my "bad points" line says: I strongly recommend if you are considering ordering U-verse that you do it yourself online or call the toll free number yourself. Do not work with these field sales clowns. Now, onto the service performance. I had TV for about a month and really did NOT like it. There was a thunderstorm in the area one day and every time lightning would flash nearby the video would pixelate and/or freeze momentarily. The compression of the signal was terrible. The quality was worse than what I had with Charter. We ended up watching the hockey playoffs on OTA broadcast TV. I know OTA quality is superior to any other delivered method but U-verse was terrible compared to OTA, Charter and satellite. With fast action on the screen, the cubing of the picture was intolerable. Also, when someone was using a bandwidth intensive program or website it would lock up the TV and HSI. I'm sorry, I know that's how U-verse works but with one non-HD TV and one computer on a 6M connection in this house I found this completely unacceptable. The DVR box was slow to respond and the program guide would pull up some random channel when you pressed the guide button. I believe this has since been fixed but it was irritating when I had the service. I had no problem with or felt guilty about cancelling video as I legitimately did not like it. I hated it. As for HSI, it's stable, I think I've had maybe 5 minutes of known downtime since I had it installed in May 09. Speed tests are variable anyway but occasional checks do reflect that I am usually achieving full 6.0M speeds. I don't have much to say about HSI - it's stable, it's good, it's as fast as I pay for. I was paying $29 for 1.5M dry-loop and to upgrade to 6.0M for $35 was a complete no brainer. Tech and customer support: the couple of times I've had to call I received good help from people I assumed to be based in at least North America. Clear intelligible English from people who could generally handle my problem right then and there. Typically, I try to handle issues with the personnel who represent AT&T right here on DSLR and I'm never let down. I always recommend to anyone to work with the techs/reps here on DSLR first before trudging through the AT&T IVR system. A+ to those people here who strive to help the customer have the best experience possible. For the price, speed and stability, I'm definitely keeping U-verse HSI. Followup comments:
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Extremely professional installer, they work for AT&T and aren't contractors like TWC & Satellite seem to send out. He did as I requested on ordering, installed Cat5/6 throughout the house rather than RG; mutiple threads in the forums here indicated that works best. So he was under the house in the crawl space doing lots of work (wouldn't want that job but he was very pleasant about it). They also made it clear they want to make everything work, he wasn't hesitant about handing me an ethernet switch since there aren't enough ports if the TVs use the Cat 5 ports. I have and old laptop without wireless and he handed me both a wireless card and USB wireless device. So far I can't comment enough about how professional and courteous everyone has been with AT&T; very refreshing. I haven't had to contact Tech Support. All the contract language was provided, and they hand you a booklet with all the different numbers you need. The internet speed works almost at the numbers promised, which is much better than TWC, where I was getting better upload speed than download, even though I was set for 6MB/1MB. We'll have to see what happens during weeknights in prime time, my guess is UVerse will win. My #1 complaint is the lack of a favorites button similar to TWC that switches between your favorites channels without having to access a guide. Between this and the loss of the Music Choice channels including soundscapes (new age) could spell the end of UVerse in our household; that jury is still out. The music channels offered on UVerse sound kind of jinky/tinnie like they don't have enough bandwidth. I noticed while having both TWC & UVerse that the channels on TWC are lighter, but the TV can adjust. TWC HD channels are definately not as good as the UVerse in one day of comparing services. CNN was extremely choppy on TWC, while simultaneously being clear on UVerse. Other times HD channels on UVerse were appearing as 1080i while the same HD Channel program on TWC the TV was indicating was only receiving as 780i. The most noticable difference is the time between switching channels. With TWC with its latest software update, it was taking as much as 3-5 seconds to get a picture in HD for each channel. With UVerse, its instantaneous channels switching even on HD, even while recording 4 other programs. I was able to record 4 and watch a 5th channel last night, contrary to what has been mentioned in some other threads. Also, contrary to other threads, likely as a result of UVerse version 2 releasing last week, I can setup to record on other STBs, although its much slower than on the main unit. The web based DVR programming is fantastic. My complaint there is that the descriptions don't include any actors or year of the films. That makes it next to impossible to guess which movie you're recording if there have been multiple remakes. If recording a series 'shown anytime', it doesn't seem to be possible to stop recording if the same episode shows multiple times throughout the day (seems it would recognize the same title & description). Now to see if I get any of that cash back promised. So far I'm impressed, though I really had nothing much bad to say about TWC; they're doing an all out best attempt to compete with ATT. I'm still having problems with my VOIP, Sunrocket Innomedia device with VoiceStick, even in the DMZ. I've read elsewhere that people haven't been able to make the Innomeda device work. Fortunately I have a regular ATT line with GoogleVoice for most of my voice traffic. I've got some other ATAs to try if Innomedia can't be made to work. First I have to get the rest of the household comfortable with the change. I hope to investigate the potential for a 1.5TB drive once I get to where I'm reaching capacity on the one in the Motorola, and yes I know what the contract says. They need to allow external USB drives; hopefully they get that message. It is a much larger drive than what TWC offers with the HD technology option. -- Update 8/8/09 -- Its been more than a month and still having issues attempting to receive the rebates promised. I called the rebate center over a week ago and they said they would post the remaining $200, but it would take a couple of days; no rebates posted. I've received the 2nd bill today and the taxes and franchise fees are more than double my Time Warner Cable bill for almost equivalent TV services. I am happy with the service (I want more Hard Disk capacity or alternatives), but if the rebates remain a problem, I'll be back with TWC, which was cheaper for my circumstances. I've adjusted the Value for Money review downward. -- Update 9/26/09 -- Received most of the rebate credits they promised in various forms (credits, VISA Cash Cards, etc.). But it did take several phone calls, each indicating it would be handled and only partial rebates each time. I'm satisfied that I finally got what the rebate offer was on the web page. The chat session promised more, but I'm at least satisfied that I got what was offered on the web page after much hassle. I'm happy with the service, even the lowest tier internet speed is quite fine and all most people need. They seem to keep encouraging use of other features beyond the U200 I have for free trials. I'm happy to try them out and cancel for as long as they keep offering. The black on blacks on the HDTV are a bit frustrating with the blurryness caused by the compaction of the signal, but other than this, its fine. I wish the pause of live TV worked in the other rooms... I wish it had more hard disc capability via USB or any other means. Followup comments:
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However, when I tried--in April 09-- to have my service moved to a different number (same address), they completely dropped the ball. The order-taker said it would all be seamless and that I would merely plug the modem into the other line the next day. Long story short: three days and some twelve hours on tech support later, I just gave up. They as much as admitted my email account was completely nuked. My emails, despite their 'policy' of not dropping service for 90 days after a disconnect, were bouncing to high heaven. Online bills were not being paid. Online banking languished; and I had to pay penalties because I had dropped paper billing. Even my online email became unaccessible. Every day, they said it would be all fixed by the next day. Every day...for three days. The crazy thing was, I had sync most of that time. I could navigate the proprietary AT&T pages. I just couldn't get a gateway out to the internet. They kept saying it was a paperwork issue; but for some unknown reason, they could not get a nine-year, loyal--and basically up to that time, satisfied--customer online. Finally, on the last day I asked the rep who was on the phone at the time if he could PROMISE to have me hooked up by the end of the day. He could not. So I dropped them. Shortly thereafter I dropped their phone service as well. Now I have Comcast cable, and I'm just as satisfied with them as I was before. Followup comments:
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Went without a hitch. I got the TV U300 bundle with 12mbps down and 1.5mbps up and the tech had me up and running in about an hour. Integrated wifi is a nice touch. Latency is around 60ms. Online chat and phone tech support has been pretty good so far. Followup comments:
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The system has been down now for two days. No TV No internet and my phone line is dead. I should have stayed with the Direct TV and my DSL service now I'm without TV, Phone service and internet service. Great product if you like sitting in the dark. Single point of failure. Oh the line I keep getting is we are working on it. Followup comments:
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AT&T U-Verse
(64)
(41)
(16)
Newtown,Fairfield,CT
$160 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Not a cable company!, HD Channel selection, pleasant techs, internet/phone work"
"PQ not the best, not poor but not the best. Only 2 HD streams in house at once."
"If you hate cable companies, and love HD channel selection, get U-Verse."
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