US Cable Support > Comcast Cable TV > Wow, att U-verse more channels less $$$

Wow, att U-verse more channels less $$$

Why are you paying $170???

That's 4 SD streams and 2 HD streams PER HOME, not recording... that's both recording and watching on all TV's. The advantage is EACH receiver can access up to 4 stations (only 2 can be HD), but if ALL receivers try to access stations, then they are all subject to the 4/2 rule. U-Verse has 41 possible HD stations.

If quality of picture is a major concern, you may come back, but U-Verse will always be just a couple bucks below Comcast. Last stream I saw was ESPNHD, MPEG4, at 4.8 mbps. Didn't look half bad, actually.

That's one hell of a deal, though. In Florida, building the package you describe on their website is around $230/month. You may want to check details to make sure all is well and it's not some 3 month into a 2 year contract promotional pricing deal.

reply to jdmatl
Isn't the at&t rate promotional?

I'm not very familiar with pricing in Broward County, but what exactly are you receiving for $170? Can you post a copy of your bill?
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CheckSite.us | YourIP.US

reply to markofmayhem
I did some investigation, and decided to switch to U-verse myself. Here's what I came up with.

The price rates that at lease I am getting aren't promotional. They sweeten the deal with cash-back and free month offers. The rate I have is for internet, television and phone and it's comparable to the price I'm paying for 2x TiVo service with Comcast HSI and digital cable. For reference, the internet speed is about the same.

U-verse has some nice features that is sure to stop the arguing here. Personally, I'm looking forward to whole-house DVR.

The channel line-ups are pretty comparable, but U-verse has some things I really like, like west-coast feeds of channels that Comcast either removed or never carried--for instance, the west-coast feeds of TNT and TBS. The true exception here is with HD... I threw all the HD channels I get now with Comcast and the HD channels I will recieve with U-verse into an Excel worksheet (for easy counting) and I get 35 HD stations with Comcast, and will get 51 HD stations with U-verse. The line-up feels a bit more full with U-verse, personally. Your opinion most certainly will vary. I will say that Comcast has more HD 'content' as the commercials say, in the form of HD OnDemand, but I never used OnDemand, personally, so this is no loss for myself.

So it all depends. I can't even say for sure, but I believe U-verse will work better for me. Some HD junkies that use HD OnDemand will not care for it, but the addition of HD channels on a fairly nice basis is a great point for it.

At any rate, at least compare the prices. If you find it cheaper, call up Comcast and try to score yourself a promotional rate if you like their service. If you're up for change, try it. Won't do too much damage if you don't like it since you can change back to Comcast... but I will say one thing, the idea of some competition (FINALLY!) here is nice. Comcast was stagnant here with their 'we don't need competition' rhetoric, and only when U-verse rolled around did they roll out the same 16mbit internet that was offered in FiOS territory. So even if you don't like U-verse itself, you should feel some benefits of its existence.

Whoa rant

reply to Rob
It is actually $160.00

8/1 HSI
4 HBO's/4 Sho-Times
Standard 2-99 lineUp
Standard 100-200 lineUP
NO HD of any kind

My 100 and up channels do not include every channel. Some such as Fox movies and several others I do not get.

No sports packages of any type

reply to jdmatl
I was actually paying the same price as you with comcast, $160 per month after taxes, so I decided to switch to uverse, but I did call comcast. They offered to lower my rate to $108 a month after taxes and give me all the premium channels and give me 8MB internet (instead of the normal 6MB). not a bad deal. so if you are happy with comcast, try calling them up for the retention deals. I do find however with Uverse, the SD channels look much better than the SD channels that comcast had.

reply to jdmatl
jdmatl,

How many boxes are you renting from Comcast?

reply to jdmatl
Wow.. and it's not a promotion, huh?

According to the website:

U400: Starting at $99.99 per month
HD Programming: $10.00 per month.

(Part of the site is down for internet, phone, and additional equipment)

However, that only leaves $16.00 for your internet, your phone, and the additional boxes.

Add it all up, INCLUDE taxes (many people compare their new service base rates to their current billing which has taxes on it) and you'll find out that it's not much less than you pay now.

I am sorry to say, I think you need to re-read your pamphlet again.

But, as far as the service levels go, then I think you may have a winner for your own situation.

103.90 - Digital Premier (Includes All Basic, Standard Digital, and all pay channels)
$6.95 - HD box rental (includes all HD in your tiers)
$42.95 HSI Standard
$3.00 Modem
______________________________________________________

$156.80 (not including tax) - This is AFTER promotional price.

Even at this price, you get ALL digital, not just some above 100, and you get all the pay channels. As someone else said, maybe you should post your bill, since you brought it up. The price you're paying a month, tied in with your ad sale for ATT u-verse, don't add up quite right.

reply to Zoder
3 boxes

reply to fiberguy
Here is a sample I did with 3 receivers, for only $5 a month you get up to 7 extra boxes. not $5 each.

Detail List: 13 items
Items Promotional Description One Time Charges Monthly Charges

AT&T U-verse Services
- . 0.00 0.00
- HD Technology Fee 10.00
- AT&T U-verse TV U300 0.00 79.00
- (1 MONTH FREE TV) 1 MONTH FREE TV -79.00
- Receiver Fee 0.00
- Receiver Fee 5.00
- HBO 14.00
- Broadband 10.0 Mbps Max -
Up to 10.0 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream (install one time 95.00)
Monthly 10/1 55.00

- (Cash Back Offer - See Important Information section of bill for redemption information) Cash Back Offer 0.00
- Double Pack Install -95.00
- Double Pack Discount 0.00

Detail List: 13 items
One time installation fee may apply. In order to complete your order an installation technician must come to your service address to install the product.

Totals (a) 0.00 84.00

If I add $25.00 for the 1,000 mins phone service then I get $109.00. That is still cheaper than my current comcast "only" service. My monthly phone is about $35.00. Yes, I pay for a copper land line here in FL. They tend to work after hurricanes blow down cell towers.

reply to jdmatl
With Uverse..you're going to get what you pay for.
Fiber to a Vrad to twisted pair lines barely suitable for telephone service..let alone next generation hd and hsi.

Whatever savings..if any..aren't worth it IMHO.

one BIG difference is the amount of work it will take to convert from Comcast to Uverse. Probably the easiest way is to use HomePlug3 over coax to get IP connectivity to the boxes. Yes, you did read that correctly coax. Home Plug 3 will push IP over coax. But all the wall jacks have to be changed out, any amps removed, etc, etc. It also requires an entire day for a tech to do the install. And the install is not 100% free.

If you have an investment in Tivo's, useless, won't work with Uverse.

But, if I move to another Apt, I think ATT Uverse is the way I will go. NO CONTRACT, cancel at ANYTIME!

That says alot right there. Also, it breaks the strangle hold on pricing that Comcast has here in FL. Comcast holds about 95% of the market in FL since they bought Adelphia.

Going to be calling Comcast today to see if they will give me some retention pricing.

reply to jdmatl
One issue I've heard of with U-Verse DSL is that it runs in 'interlaced' mode. This adds about 20-30ms of latency. That could cause issues if you are a gamer or work from home.

Will have to investigate that one. Uverse has a fourm section where people are as open and critical of Uverse as people are here in all fourms. It isn't a "PR" forum that att deletes any post that slams the service over legit issues.

reply to jdmatl
Theres no contract with comcast bundles either. At least the 12 month ones. And the termination fee on the 24 mo. one is only 150 dollars I think.

IMO..the problems with Uverse aren't just the ones that exist today. It's all about tomorrow as well. Uverse is AT&T's next generation product. And it barely stacks up to what Comcast and the cable industry offers today. What happens when Comcast has docsis 3.0 ....slated to be 20% of their markets this year and almost 100% next year? Already with powerboost most of us see 30,000k speeds on the older docsis network...never mind what they have up their sleeve when docsis 3.0 is here.

Try as I might..I can simply find no compelling reason to see Uverse in a favorable light. I think competition is important and we're surrounded by it here in Ct. with OOL and Verizon Fios. And out of them all, uverse ranks dead last IMO. Honestly, I'm very surprised that they're even continuing on with rolling it out. They have the money to do this right...ie: A FTTH rollout..but simply refuse to do so. When Docsis 3.0 is here..uverse will look just like slow speed dsl does today in comparison to cable.
All these facts should be weighed in making a decision.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic!

You are lucky to live in a market with lots of options. Here in FL, we really didn't have any.

I agree that Uverse isn't cutting edge as docsis 3 is. To me anybody throwing competition into Comcast's backyard is good for all consumers.

As usual ATT isn't using fiber-to-the-home and is using copper to deliver Uverse. Bellsouth/ATT has never been a visionary company that plans 3-5 years into the future. And they are always 2 years behind deploying technology that is "good enough" for the time period. ATT is also banking on new tech coming out in the next 2-3 years that will let them once again "boost copper" speeds.

As comcast will tell you nobody needs 16/1 download speeds, 99.9% of their users don't download things. And if you go over the Comcast cap, you are down to DSL speed, so what big advantage is having 16/1 or higher if all you do is get to your bandwidth cap faster and fall back to DSL speed.

What is great in FL is that phone lines have priority in getting fixed after hurricane's or bad weather. Cable is dead last on the "fix" list.

Uverse will get better as time goes, it may or may not equal Comcast, but here in FL, good to see somebody giving Comcast some competition. Why is Comcast going to docsis 3 faster? Verizon FOIS is one reason. Competition is a good thing.

So switching from Comcast to Uverse might not be for everyone, but it sure is great to have a choice.

reply to jdmatl

reply to jdmatl
The only thing U-Verse has really is a better channel lineup and a much better set top box/guide experience. I'd give the video service a shot just to try it out, but I couldn't tell you if it would remain in my home. Comcast has them beat with HSI, and that's the staple that keeps me with them (besides no line of sight for dish, or other competitors in our area).

reply to jdmatl
7 extra boxes??? Are you kidding me? I thought the most you could have with U-Verse was 4 streams at a time.

In your original post, you also said you could get "3 DVRs" and then you also stated "Showtime AND HBO"

Again, I REALLY think you need to take a closer look at U-Verse and think hard before you go embracing this as you'll get a real picture of what you're going to be paying.

Again, if it works for YOU, then do it.. but I can't believe for a moment what you're saying is correct - at all. Either that, or you're in the Comcast forum just trolling to stir it up a little.

So what is it?

Yes 7 boxes. each box can do 4 SD streams or 2 HD streams. I would hope that it is possible for all 7 to do either 4 SD or 2HD, otherwise att would not allow 7 boxes to be sold.

There are people in the uverse forums that do have 7 boxes. can't speak to if it is possible to fire up 14 Hd streams or 28 SD streams at once.