 Review by Drex 
member for 13.2 years, 5875 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 3 days ago
 La Place,St John The Baptist,LA
 $49 per month about 30 days "DVR functionality, Install Tech was AWESOME, Consistent speeds w/ Internet" "Multiple HD streams affects Internet bandwidth, RG wireless is borderline at best, Poor HD quality, Limited Streams for TVs" "I dropped the UVerse TV due to the poor HD quality. I would recommend UVerse Internet as I get consistent 10-12Mb down."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've been a lifelong DSL customer with AT&T (formerly Bellsouth), so it was only inevitable that I switch to Uverse when it became available. I ordered online in December and decided to go with the U450 package, 12/1 Internet, and Unlimited phone. The earliest install date wasn't until mid-January. No problem, I'm not in that big of a hurry. Install appointment was 1-3.
Fast forward to January 14 and the first call of the day was from the line tech right around 1pm. He just wanted to make sure he had access to the outside NID so he could test the line quality. I found out later that I'm at the borderline distance for the profile I've been placed on...more about that later. I wasn't at home, but decided I should head over there in case he had any questions. While I'm talking to the line tech, "Jeff" calls me saying he should be there in the next 30-40 minutes. Jeff is my inside guy who was going to finish the install.
Jeff arrives and I begin to tell him how the infrastructure of the house is. We decide to use the existing COAX for cable and my existing homerun for the main line into the house to the RG. Jeff does some minor work replacing some of my network faceplates (he did an awesome job of this. Very professional) and he hooks up the RG. He proceeds to work on the remaining TV's in the house (3 in total) removing a splitter I had installed in the attic. Once he was done, he took the time to show us how to use the TV remote and the various functions of the service. Jeff was great. He gets an A+++ in my book.
Now on to the bad news...for me at least. I'm not a big TV fan (wife and kids are), so I was more interested in the speeds I'd be getting. After reading some forum posts in the AT&T Uverse forum, I knew what to look for. I immediately checked out my stats on the RG. I see red...that can't be good. As stated previously, I was placed on the 25/2 profile, but it looks like I'm borderline for that profile. Not good. I start running some speed tests and I'm getting horribly download speeds. I was getting 100-200kb/s, but getting the full 1 MB up. Jeff fires up his laptop, plugs into the RG and is getting 11Mb/s. Time for a reboot. I guess that did the trick b/c after the reboot I started to get 8-9Mb/s speeds. Looks like all was well even though I wasn't quite getting the speeds I'd hoped for. I thanked Jeff and bid him farewell.
I continued to run speed tests each one getting worse than the previous until I finally settled around 6-7Mb/s. Hmmm...not much better than the DSL I previously had. I also noticed there was some lag or stalling during surfing and downloads. I'm still not sure if this is to be expected or not.
One other complaint I would have is the wireless functionality of the RG. For starters, it's only b/g (no n standard). Secondly, I've already had to reboot the RG b/c the wireless DHCP wouldn't deal out any additional IP addresses. This seems to be a known issue as I've seen multiple people post about it. The RG wireless replaced my Linksys wireless, so I may just hook up my Linksys instead.
Overall, I'm fairly pleased with Uverse. The TV option is far superior to the cable provider (Comcast) that I had before. Picture quality as well as channel choice (we actually get On-Demand with AT&T. Comcast advertised it, but they considered PPV as On-Demand. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME) is absolutely 100% better. My HD picture quality looks way better than Comcast's did. I like the fact that caller id pops up on the TV when someone calls. I am a bit disappointed with the speeds I'm getting for the Internet, but that issue may still work itself out. I have a pending Tier 2 issue open but haven't heard anything just yet. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE:
Noticed during last night's AFC Championship Football game some pixelation with the HD picture. It wasn't horrible, but noticeable which doesn't really sit well with me. I'll see how the Super Bowl looks as it may have been the local station.
Additionally, I'd like to change my initial review regarding the RG's wireless capabilities. They are not borderline, they utterly fail. I have a laptop that sits in the same room as the RG. With excellent signal strength it goes from 54mb/s down to 24mb/s in a matter of minutes. I have to re-establish connection with the wireless network only to have it drop again. Once I find the time, I will configure a separate AP using my Linksys router for my wireless network.
UPDATE 02/03/2010:
Well, I'm knocking another tick off for the horrible HD. Also for only 4 streams which only allows me to record 2 and watch 2 programs. I have a total of 3 TVs in my house. I was recording 2 programs and watching a 3rd on my main TV. The 2nd TV was on as well. That meant that my daughter could not watch TV in her room. I never had this problem with my previous cable service AND my HD quality was definitely better. AT&T needs to get a clue and up the streams or at least improve the quality of the HD picture. Unfortunately I'm locked in to a 12 month contract...although my initial 30 days may not be up...still debating as I like the Internet speeds.
UPDATE - 03/12/12
Dropped the Uverse TV at the beginning of the year due to the poor HD quality. I decided to keep the Internet and Unlimited phone (wish I could get rid of the phone, but wife uses it). The cost of the Internet (12 Mb Tier) has gone up due to some additional fees, so now my bundle runs me $95 a month. Expensive if you ask me.
UPDATE - 05/17/13
Hurricane Isaac helped me make the decision to finally dump AT&T Uverse altogether. The Internet and phone service was good as far as stability goes, but overpriced. I also had some issues getting the Uverse to play nice with my house alarm. Would I recommend Uverse Internet? Only if they lower their price. AT&T seems to have joined the ranks to nickel and dime their customers with "fees" that aren't included in the price you are quoted. I have no intention on going back.
As a side note, I wanted to keep my landline phone number, so I bought a T-Mobile pay as you go cell phone to port the number over. Since it's a Uverse number, they couldn't do it because it was a Uverse number. I would have had to get AT&T to convert it to a regular landline so it could then be ported over. I eventually bought an AT&T phone and just ported the Uverse number to that.
Comments:
 | | way too expensive $150 a month! You have got to be kidding. No thanks buddy. | |
|  | DrexBeer...The other white meat.Premium
join:2000-02-24
La Place, LA
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: way too expensive said by crawfish :$150 a month! You have got to be kidding. No thanks buddy.
It's cheaper than what I was paying for Comcast, AT&T phone service & AT&T DSL (for the first 12 months).
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Not only does Jesus save, but he makes nightly off-site backups. | |
|
Stumbles
join:2002-12-17
Port Saint Lucie, FL | Good liuck with that. I get better HD quality from OTA than any HD I have yet to see on Uverse. | |
| Stumbles
join:2002-12-17
Port Saint Lucie, FL Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Oh and yes. Their RG is utter crap. Have the same problems as you. After searching their forums you will find many with the same issues. Their fix? Go buy your own wireless router and connect that to the RG to bypass its wireless. That should tell how big a POS the thing is.
I have had several techs out. The unit was replaced once. Then a phone call/troubleshooting scenario with that tech. Their fix? Put the wireless side on channel 3. This was after I told the tech several times I had put the RG on every frigging channel and still had the same problem. Then the tech says to turn off Wifi Protected Setup. Guess what? Still have the same problem.
Have I bothered to place another call? No. Why? Because I am seriously thinking about giving AT&T the heave ho because I am not sure I want to waste several more hours just so the tech can tell me to turn something on when the last time they told me to turn it off. | |
| | DrexBeer...The other white meat.Premium
join:2000-02-24
La Place, LA
kudos:1 Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Oh and yes. I had to do exactly what you said...however I already had a Linksys router from when I had DSL, so it was an easy fix. Should I have to do it? No. They advertise that their RG does wireless and it should w/o issues.
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Not only does Jesus save, but he makes nightly off-site backups. | |
| | | Stumbles
join:2002-12-17
Port Saint Lucie, FL Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Oh and yes. Yes, I also have a Linksys running Tomato from my DSL days so was able to circumvent their hunk of junk. While such actions are OK for a stop-gap until a tech can replace the unit, for the forums to give the inclination such a configuration it better is just lame.
I could not even copy a meager file size of 100MB from my main PC to a laptop without the wireless taking a dump. Since switching to my Linksys for wireless, I have copied gigabytes and nary a burp.
I have also seen in the forums their POS is susceptible to interference. Maybe that's my problem here. I don't know nor care; its a black eye for them and they need to address it (but they won't). AFAIK their modem was built by Cisco and runs BSD (a flavor of Unix). This sort of quality is not something I would expect from Cisco or BSD. So I can only assume AT&T meddled in ways that hampered Cisco from building a quality unit. | |
| | | | DrexBeer...The other white meat.Premium
join:2000-02-24
La Place, LA
kudos:1 Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Oh and yes. said by Stumbles:So I can only assume AT&T meddled in ways that hampered Cisco from building a quality unit.
I would agree with that.
Yes, I have noticed in the forums people suggesting getting a scanner app of sorts to see what channels are not being used within the vicinity of your wireless AP. I have about half a dozen showing up, but they are all weak signals. If they were/are interfering, why is my Linksys running so well on the same channel the RG was set to? I guess with anything else, the more "features" it has, the crappier those "features" actually perform.
Like let's build a box that does A, B, & C, but we can't put the best parts for all of them. That would be cost prohibitive. Let's just make A top of the line and make B & C mediocre.
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Not only does Jesus save, but he makes nightly off-site backups. | |
| | | | | Stumbles
join:2002-12-17
Port Saint Lucie, FL Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Oh and yes. I use Linux and it has a command `iwlist scan` which will show other APs the wireless card sees. Also, my Linksys+Tomato has a "Wireless Site Survey" function that shows me the same thing.
Which at the time is why I told the phone tech why I went through all the channels and eventually settled on Channel 10 because that was one not being used in my area. The tech tried to feed me some bull that Channel 3 was the only one that would work "well". I don't recall her reasons but it was baloney.
Just for geewhizes is screenshot of what the Linksys is now showing. | |
| | | | | | DrexBeer...The other white meat.Premium
join:2000-02-24
La Place, LA
kudos:1 | Re: Oh and yes. I'm running Tomato as well, but didn't know about the wireless survey. I just haven't poked around in it enough I guess. I probably need to update it as well.
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Not only does Jesus save, but he makes nightly off-site backups. | |
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