AT&T is preparing to shutter the company's U-Verse.com website as the U-Verse brand continues to be phased out. You might recall that AT&T had already eliminated the U-Verse branding from most of its products, with U-Verse broadband and U-Verse phone services now creatively just named "AT&T Internet" and "AT&T Phone." The company told DSLReports.com that the rebranding was to "make it simpler for our customers."
Phillip Swann
noted this week that AT&T has also been sending notices to customers indicating that the
Uverse.com website will also be shuttered as of May 30.
The website currently lets customers stream some of the channels they subscribe to via traditional TV packages, as well as providing access to an online DVR feature and a variety of on demand content. Based on AT&T's decision, it seems likely that the website wasn't a particularly popular destination for AT&T customers. AT&T has also been trying to drive most U-verse customers over to DirecTV satellite television.
“We haven’t made a final decision, but wanted to be transparent with customers that it was under consideration,” AT&T said.
The migration of users from U-Verse to DirecTV may ultimately free up bandwidth on the fixed-line AT&T network, allowing it to provide slightly faster broadband speeds to subscribers. Leaked company memos obtained by DSLReports.com had
previously suggested AT&T would ultimately be killing the DirecTV brand as well, though the original timeline for such plans has come and gone -- raising questions as to whether that's still AT&T's ultimate goal.