Review by Rob2647 
UPDATED: 42 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 376 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Rochester,Oakland,MI
 $130 per month
 about 16 days
 "Fast Internet, Great SD-TV Picture, TH-DVR, Affordable, Feature Rich, And not a bundled price!"
 "None to count the service out compared to cable."
 "Great alternative to the cable giants, and no contract!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Initial review:
Decided to make the switch from Comcast, to AT&T U-verse. I can say I was happy with the decision. Getting the same channels(U200 package), if not a few more than what Comcast offered. My other option for internet would have been ADSL and going back to DirecTV, which worked great when we did have it for TV.
Ordered the Max internet(10down/1.5up) Getting within 500k of advertised speeds, not bad being about 1500 feet from the VRAD. I noticed the connection seems a little bit more snappy off the line, sort of speak than Comcast was. Pings times are very similar to my old cable connection too.
Install process was scheduled for 2 weeks from the day I placed the order was due to available install date, and my own schedule between work, and a weekend trip I had already planned. The install took about 2.5 hours. Had to rewire the main phone line in the NID, after the installer spent about 15-20mins at the VRAD making his connections. Reused the 2 year old Comcast installed RG6 coax to 2 of the 3 TV's in the house and to the modem/router or Residential Gateway(RG). I assisted the installer in cleanly running the third coax to the third TV, which was no big deal.
The RG is 2wire, and each TV box including the DVR are Motorola boxes. Never had a DVR with Comcast, so this was a major deciding factor in switching to U-verse, besides the 10/1.5 internet. The only downside that cable fanatics will tear on right away is that U-verse currently can run 4 SD-TV's or 2 HD-TV's all at once. No big deal for us, since all our TV's are standard def, and we only have three.
In all, everything is working well. My Vonage line is working great with U-verse too(Linksys PAP2 v2 adapter). Only today there was a brief hiccup with the service, lasted less than a minute and the RG reconnected without having to be power cycled like a cable modem would of have to been.
Had no need to call tech support, I can usually handle most of my issues on my end without any problems. And U-verse is not bundled or locks you into any contract. Which is A+ in my book. 
9/21/08
Been having intermittent service interruptions that last under a minute each time. Only happens at most a couple times a day. Gets annoying while watching TV. I believe it to be a issue with the gateway. Need to get a tech out to swap it out. Besides that, things are going well. Still debating whether or not to keep the TV after the first month.
9/30/08
Tech came out a last Thursday and ran his battery of tests on my end. Still finds no issues. I showed the tech the stats in the gateway. After he calls his tech support line, he swaps out the gateway for another. That seemed to fix the issue mostly. Still getting the random DSL Link Retrain. I"m about ready to schedule another tech visit and show them the detailed system log I found in the gateway after the last tech visit. Still willing to get the bugs worked out, because I refuse to go back to Comcast and deal with their slow capped and crippled service.
On the bright side, the Total Home DVR is now available to me, since last Friday 9/26. It works quite well, no need to fight over the TV with the DVR to watch our recordings. 
10/20/08
Finally got a line tech, 2 actually in one day, to come out and check out the lines. The first noticed 3 minor things that could have been causing a problem. He cleaned that all up. So far so good. My RG's stats page is looking much better than before. I think it's all ironed out this time. Both line techs noted that I'm getting a very strong signal. The second line tech thinks I should have the RG connected by Cat5 instead of RG6. But from reading on the forums, and reviews here either works fine. The techs were happy to see that I was willing to work with them to get the issues fixed, because there was no way in heck I was going back to Comcast.
I updated the monthly cost. It's a dollar less than what we were paying with Comcast. but we have a third TV hooked up, a DVR, faster internet(was on 6/1.5 w/Comcast), and total home DVR for nearly the same price. Plus got the first month free, and $200 bucks cash back. Still a great deal.
11/4/08
Everything still running great, TV and internet. No further issues with the service randomly dropping out. Decided not to switch to U-voice. Still keeping our current VOIP service for the time being.
12/24/08
It's been a while and I'd figured it was time for an update. Everything still running solid ever since the line tech paid a visit. Have found no reason to upgrade to the Max18 internet speed tier. Max10 is working great, still consistent speed wise. Ping times are still similar to what I saw with Comcast. U200 for the TV is been plenty for us. THDVR is very nice. All in all still pleased with U-verse. The only downside is the bandwidth caps they want to slap on the service. At this time they are only testing it in 2 markets. Thankfully not mine, yet. Once again still keeping our current VOIP service for the time being.
2/19/09
New year, new update! Everything still going great. I think the ping times have gotten a little lower then since when I originally signed up. Not leaps and bounds but easily below 50ms on 2 MI speedtest.net servers. Still on 10/1.5 tier and U200 Also enjoying the Weather On Demand service. Great for former Comcast customers that were used to Weatherscan. Still rockin the Vonage VOIP too. Additional STB fees recently raised from 5 to 7 bucks. So I updated my approximate monthly cost.
4/11/09
Still going strong. No issues, no outages. Rock solid service! Figured I'd post a brief update with a speed test result. Ping times are looking good too.
5/24/09
AT&T bumped up the download speed of the Max10 tier to 12megs. Still the lowly 1.5 upload. Would like to see the upload double to 3megs, but the 1.5 has been a workhorse when needed. On the TV side, still on the U200 package. Nothing on the TV side to worry about. Still a solid service. Finally I uploaded the latest speed test result. Enjoy.
7/5/09
Just got the update to the TH-DVR, now can manage and record shows to the DVR from any STB in the house. The interface has been improved. Weather On Demand, and the Ubar loads and displays faster than before. The 12meg internet has been solid, seeing 11.5 down on speed tests. Posted the latest speedtest.net results. See attachment.
9/4/09
Nearly a year later, still like the service. Just recently got the Mediashare feature which in nice. Been experiencing momentary TV freezes. A little fed-up with the techs on the phone and the in home techs thinking it's something wrong inside the house. Now got the RG running on RJ-11 which I'm not 100% convinced that it's better than running it on RG6. Need to get a tech to call out a line tech to go through the outside line thoroughly. I'm looking forward to getting that fixed. Also recently upgraded to the U300 TV package for 1 extra dollar month for 6 months.
10/17/09
The TV freezing issue continued for more than a month since the last update. A little rant about it in a thread in the Uverse forum here seemed to have got something done. The thousands of corrected blocks in the gateway stats and the tv freezing has stopped for the past 20+ hours. The service still has been good otherwise. Nothing has changed. Ping tests look good too. See attachment.
Attachments:
Followup comments:  koolkid1563
Premium,MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
clubs: | THDVR THDVR will work on either the Motorola or Cisco boxes, it doesn't really matter which as they will both have the same software loaded on them and THDVR is purely software driven. | |
| Oedipus
join:2005-05-09 | Gateway I thought 2Wire made the RGs. I know Motorola and Cisco make the STBs, but beyond that I wasn't aware. | |
|  | Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI | Re: Gateway Oh duh, thats right.  For some reason I thought that was just a branding name Motorola was using for the gateway. | |
| 
paulw
@sbcglobal.net
| u-verse gateway seems like you found a useful feature in the gateway. My installer kept all of the books/paperwork on my RG. It would be nice if you tell how you got your stats out of this equipment. I have the 3800 model.
If you know where to find a documentation on this device I would appreciate knowing where to get it.
Thank you so much PW | |
| | | |
pandhw
@sbcglobal.net | rob2647: Thanks for the fast response. I really appreciate it. ATT sit isn't all user friendly if you don't have a roadmap. Dealt with bell for 40 tears as a telephone tech PW | |
| | | | |
kooolkid563
@sbcglobal.net | Re: u-verse gateway thanks for the info. appreciate your response. PW | |
| | | Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI
 ·Vonage
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·Comcast
1 edit | Re: How do the connections work? The TV boxes can be hooked up with either RG6 which leaves all 4 open ethernet ports on the gateway open for any wired ethernet devices.
Or you can use Cat5 for up to 4 boxes to the 4 ethernet ports on the back of the gateway.
The regular STB's and the DVR are the same as far as how they can be hooked up, RG6 or Cat5.
I currently have 3 computers and a Linksys PAP2 VOIP phone adapter wired to my RG and all 3 of my TV's are using RG6 comcast installed over 2 years ago when we had their service. | |
|
zboza
@comcast.net | location where are you located, im in oakland twp, off orion rd, just past dutton, and i cannot get uverse... | |
| | Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI | Re: location I'm in Rochester Hills, near Avon and John R roads. I see the VRADs all over the area. Maybe AT&T has not got any in your area yet. But they are always expanding. | |
|
uverse cust
@sbcglobal.net | no contract? How did you manage no contract? Everyone I know who has it (including myself) were forced into a contract, and did not offer 'no contract'. Is this something new? Or something offered in the past? | |
| | Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI
·Vonage
·AT&T U-Verse
·Comcast
1 edit | Re: no contract? When I signed up(in Sept 08'), there was no special cheaper monthly promotion for TV or internet. And with the U200 TV package or higher the DVR is included, so you only pay a fee for each additional receiver you have besides the DVR.
Have you tried posting in the AT&T Uverse forum about this before? | |
| | |
uverse cust
@sbcglobal.net | Re: no contract? No I have not. I just thought it was standard to be locked into a contact. | |
| | | | Raich92
join:2009-07-03
Macomb, MI | Re: no contract? How are your ping times so good? I live in Macomb,MI and my ping times are 137ms to a server in Stanton,MI! | |
| | | | | Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI
·Vonage
·AT&T U-Verse
·Comcast
| Re: no contract? That pretty much how they been. The Stanton, MI server on speedtest.net can suck during the day. My best speeds on it where late nights. The Kalamazoo, MI server or Chicago, IL I've found to be much better.
But 137ms pings is not good. You may want to post in the Uverse forums here and see if the guys in there can diagnose the issue. | |
|
MartyinLA
@uscourts.gov
| Uverse User Report Although the small satellite tuner in the bedroom works really well with the remote - you don't even need to point it at the box - the main dvr box is sometimes hit and miss with the remote. We've swapped remotes, and it is definitely either the dvr sensor or something else. Does anyone else have that problem or am I the only lucky one?
Been a Uverser user for nearly 2 months. No freezing or other problems as reported here. After having been a Tivo user for nearly 10 years, I miss Tivo's smarter interface, but couldn't wait until 2010 for them to hook up with Directv(if they ever do). I LOVE that you can access the dvr from other tvs in the house - something Tivo and the others cannot do. The HD and audio is flawless. I have no idea how many hours it records, and have about 60+ shows now (mostly HD). Also LOVE that we can record 4 shows at once. Never thought I'd use this feature but have taken advantage of that feature. Also love the strong wireless signal that we're using for laptops and iPhones. Also LOVE that I can view pics that I've loaded on my ATT Yahoo account with ???. Wish Uverse were cheaper though. | |
|
ATT Client
@cox.net
| Cancelling att We already have cable/tv/HD with Cox.
Wanted to try att, but decided to cancel for the following reasons:
1. The physical layer (the cable) was not installed in my apartment, when att salesperson said it was already there.
2. The iphone app (which salesman lead client to believe) that allows remote control movie recording never materialized.
3. The overall price for services was more expensive than the current carrier.
4. Client disatisfaction due to above items got att Fired. | |
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How do the connections work?
). Will I have the same restriction on location using ATT?