Review by Unxchay 
UPDATED: 208 days ago
member for 6 years, 1711 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Milwaukee,Milwaukee,WI
 $108 per month
 about 21 days
 "Decent HSI speed, expanded channel selection, cheaper service than T/W"
 "Time-consuming installation, lack of technical knowledge by support staff"
 "Savings is worth the switch (for us, anyway)"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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We were one of the first neighborhoods locally to be U-verse capable, and had a couple of door-to-door visits from AT&T with package deals. Since we were summarily fed up with Time Warner's cost and poor service, we decided to switch. We chose the U200 package plus HBO and Elite DSL (6mbps down, 512kbps up.)
Install coordination took awhile. When the day arrived, the technician was underequipped and marginally trained. I had to assist with running CAT-5 through the house since he didn't have a fish tape and his cordless drill died. All 2nd floor access was run through cold air returns, and first floor access were run through holes drilled through the baseboards. Basement wiring was marginally tidy to the wall-mounted RG.
TV setup went smoothly. Signal appears to be good, although I do notice a little tiling on occasion. We have regular tube TVs and no HD, so we wouldn't notice minor quality issues anyway. The remote controls are garbage.
Internet connection works well with no noticeable lag. The built-in wireless router has good signal strength but so-so configuration tools. FYI, I found out the hard way, DO NOT TURN OFF THE DYNAMIC IP function, as the set-top boxes release their IPs every 24 hours and look for new ones. I turned off dynamic since I'm old-school and like static IPs, but this disabled all the TV's. Three technician visits and two replacement RG's didn't fix it, I found out only by experimenting and browsing the forums @ uverseusers.com.
Connectivity was a bit challenging since I was using Eudora as my e-mail client. AT&T doesn't support Eudora and wouldn't help me configure the POP/SMTP ports, authentication options or username/passwords. It worked for awhile, but then AT&T changed their authentication requirements which made using Eudora impossible. After multiple 503 errors I ended up switching my client to Outlook (which they do support.)
Overall we have had the service for 8 months and it's been decent. The cost is better than T/W, for the same money we now have digital service w/ DVR and a few hundred channels.
UPDATE 2009-04-14: We've had U-verse now for more than a year. Service is pretty good, but with occasional signal issues, tiling & audio drop-outs. Lag between channel changes has become noticeable, maybe I need to reboot the RG. Internet connection has not gone down once in over a year. Our main concern now is the $100 rebate promised to us at sign-up, which never came. AT&T support has no knowledge of it and doesn't acknowledge that any rebate program existed. Our friendly salesperson who promised it (in the form of a gift card) has since changed his cell phone number and is not reachable, so it looks like we were scammed on that aspect.
Followup comments:  Albion9
join:2006-08-21
Milwaukee, WI | Rebate We're looking to get AT&T U-Verse and this $100 gift card is included in the offer. I'll make sure I get the offer in writing before I move on. I'll also make sure I show the rep your message. Thanks for the heads up! | |
|  | Unxchay
join:2003-10-14
Milwaukee, WI | Re: Rebate I don't suppose your sales rep name is Brad Kaiser, is it? He's who promised us this GC which has (thus far) not materialized. Hope you like the service. | |
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