AT&T u-Verse…
I’ve had AT&T u-Verse for a couple of months now. My impressions…
- Pricey. Not entirely AT&T’s fault, since I did opt for the AT&T u-Verse u200 Double Pack. Comes with (1) DVR unit and broadband. I upgraded the broadband to ELITE 6mbps downstream ($10/upgrade from standard) + (1) extra non-DVR unit ($7). That brings the grand total to $114. HD is another $10/mo. so I skimped on that. My total bill with taxes and such is $119 — more than I was paying with Comcast.
- Fast. I haven’t had a problem running 2 laptops over the WiFi. Even when streaming a movie from Netflix. Mind you, I haven’t done any diagnostics…this is just my impression.
- Wifi died on AT&T router. After a month, the radio on the router took a dump. Fortunately, I had another WiFi router to pick up the slack. It’s worked just fine with the other router broadcasting the WiFi. I did have to change some settings on the routers, but that wasn’t too difficult.
- Broadband tech service sucks. My mistake in dealing with the router problem mentioned above, was in calling AT&T’s customer service to help me with the problem. I explained the problem to the support guy over and over again and he just didn’t get it. He wasted a good hour of my time, after which I told him I’d fix it myself. I would advise checking the forums for any problems before calling tech support.
- DVR accessible by other receivers. I like that I can watch my recorded shows on the other TV that doesn’t have a DVR.
- No down time. Other than the WiFi problem, AT&T broadband has been stable at all times of the day. This helps because I work from home and telecommute often, and when I had Comcast it was always dropping out.
The reason I have AT&T is because Comcast could not/would not keep a consistent broadband connection. That’s it. I hate Comcast because customer service is the worst I’ve ever experienced and it dropped out ALL THE TIME. It’s understandable for the service to be out once or twice a year (or if there is a major storm or something), but unforgiveable for it to happen several times a month.
So, all in all, I recommend using AT&T over Comcast (if you’re in Atlanta and AT&T u-Verse is available). If you’re in Cincinnati or Cleveland, get the best deal you can from Time Warner or Cox. I had no problems with either service, tech support actually knew what they were doing and they fixed any problem I had. Those 2 are probably offering cheaper deals than AT&T, so tell them you’re considering AT&T u-Verse and they’ll give you a good rate.