While the plan is some 18 million homes passed by 2008, AT&T is slated to launch the "Project Lightspeed" VDSL2 and U-Verse IPTV market officially in San Antonio next month, with a dozen or so additional markets slated to launch before year's end. Some users in our forums claim to have been told the pricing structure for U-Verse.

Yahoo co-branded DSL tiers will come in 1.5Mbps (Express), 3Mbps(Pro), and 6Mbps(Elite) flavors, each with 1Mbps upstream. U-Verse IPTV will come in multiple flavors as well:

•The "U-verse 200" package will include 170 channels and local channels, as well as a 1.5Mbps/1Mbps DSL connection, for $85.•The "U-Verse 200 elite" package will include the same 170 channels with local channels, but offer 6Mbps/1Mbps DSL for $94.•The "U-Verse 300" package will include more than 200 channels including all premiums (minus HBO & Cinemax) for $114.

While AT&T would neither confirm or deny these packages for us on the phone, this freshly launched website would seem to do that for them. It's not clear if you'll be able to mix and match "express", "Pro", and "Elite" DSL speeds with the various U-Verse plans. The packages each include up to 3 tuners with integrated DVRs "at no additional charge", notes the website.

One poster claims that internal testing has shown that 6Mbps DSL tier has been reaching speeds up to 10Mbps. He also claims installations on average are taking AT&T around five hours. That same poster claims that AT&T has standard definition channels streaming at 2megs, with high definition channels streaming at 4megs. That's a little optimistic, as we've heard AT&T is looking to squeeze two HD streams into around 14meg.

As we recently discussed, AT&T won't be offering VoIP bundles with this initial launch, though AT&T vendors are working hard on the new platform to ensure everything works smoothly with the new home gateway and softswitches. No detail was given on when VoIP will enter the mix.