tito
join:2006-07-03
Waterford, CT
edit:
September 21st, @01:17PM
| reply to Fios Customer
Re: Moving out of Fios area - Any advice on other providers ?
Many areas in this state have AT&T U-Verse. That's what I have, & love it! Here's the website you should go to if you want to check availability:
uverse.att.com |
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pandora
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
 ·Comcast
edit:
September 21st, @02:03PM
|  said by tito  :Many areas in this state have AT&T U-Verse. That's what I have, & love it! Here's the website you should go to if you want to check availability: uverse.att.com In Danbury UVERSE is spotty. I know it wasn't available to me in late July of 2008, I asked about it just before terminating my AT&T DSL Express service.
To the best of my understanding Uverse has limitations on the number of DVR's and the number of HD sets. I prefer an all HD DVR solution, and require 4 of them in my home. My understanding is Uverse can't provide this level of service currently. I've also read that UVERSE tends to highly compress HD signals. I'd definitely consider Uverse for high speed internet access if it were available to me unbundled with other AT&T services.
EDIT: I just checked to see if Uverse was available on my street, and it is not according to the AT&T Uverse site. I also checked to see if addresses around the Danbury downtown CO had Uverse and the site said no.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." |
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MrFixitCT
Premium,VIP,ExMod 2001-06
join:2000-12-01
Guilford, CT
 ·AT&T DSL Service
·Comcast Formerly ..
edit:
September 21st, @06:01PM
| said by pandora :To the best of my understanding Uverse has limitations on the number of DVR's and the number of HD sets. I prefer an all HD DVR solution, and require 4 of them in my home. My understanding is Uverse can't provide this level of service currently. I've also read that UVERSE tends to highly compress HD signals. I'd definitely consider Uverse for high speed internet access if it were available to me unbundled with other AT&T services. That is true, 1 DVR per household however the DVR function and playback are now available to any STB in the household and have the capacity to record 4 streams concurrently.. There is also currently a limitation as to how many HD stream can be viewed at the same time, I believe that limit is 2 at this time though they are working on technology to increase this thru more efficient compression algorithms.. |
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pandora
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
·Comcast
|  Thank you very much for the clarification. You have always been very helpful to all on these forums.
Just FYI, I tried about a dozen Danbury addresses at the uverse.att.com link all around the city. None reported uverse service available, even very close to the downtown Danbury CO.
Anyone interested in Uverse in Danbury should call to verify service availability in my opinion.
I even tried the AT&T field office location, at 7 Backus Ave, AT&T on-line says even AT&T's largest office and support center in Danbury can't get Uverse. The downtown CO at 39 West Street also doesn't qualify for Uverse according to the site.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." |
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MrFixitCT
Premium,VIP,ExMod 2001-06
join:2000-12-01
Guilford, CT
·AT&T DSL Service
·Comcast Formerly ..
| said by pandora : even very close to the downtown Danbury CO. Again true! Uverse is not available as a CO feed anywhere at this time, reasoning is very much unclear and unbelievable to me as well. I'm told they are working on the logistics to provide service from COs and I believe it's due sometime in '09.. |
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pandora
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
·Comcast
| Thank you again. I finally did find an area in Danbury which the site reports as supporting Uverse. After many attempts, it appears most spots on Westville Avenue qualify.
I ran the cost estimator for 4 receivers with one DVR and HD capability plus 6 MB down 1 MB up internet access. The installation and equipment fee was $0, and the reported monthly cost was $159 for their highest end video package (the U400, which is quoted at $99 per month and includes HBO and Cinemax). The above number does NOT include any taxes or fees, which is always a bit of a mystery with AT&T more so than any other utility in my experience.
I get 4 HD DVR's via DirecTV, plus HBO with HD and a 250 station plan including SD and HD for $99. My DVR's include Internet based video on demand of over 3,000 and growing titles. I pay $55 per month (rounded up) for Comcast HSI 6MB/1MB. I paid $700 for DirecTV equipment (installation was free, however I paid to run cable myself to avoid holes in exterior walls) and $55 for a Comcast cable modem. AT&T Uverse wins hands down on install and initial equipment lease / purchase costs.
Each DirecTV DVR comes with dual tuners which can record dual HD signals concurrently, display can play a HD program concurrently and an additional background download can be in progress for another SD or HD program via DirecTV internet video on demand. Two of my DVR boxes are equipped with external 1 TB drives, and the remaining two DVR's are as shipped with 320GB drives. If I were to re-order today the current state of the art is a similar DVR equipped with a 500GB drive. On my 4 DVR's sit up to 2.6TB of mixed SD / HD programing.
It appears Uverse is less expensive to install than DirecTV, but DirecTV gives you 4 stand alone DVR's all supporting extensive HD program recording and unlimited HD playback. With DirecTV you can easily upgrade your storage by installing an ESATA drive into the unit and booting it back up (the DVR detects an external hard drive on boot).
Uverse seems to have install cost, and overall subscription cost down well enough to be very competitive. However, it has problems with very spotty availability.
Finally, I'll mention that AT&T Uverse peaks out at 10 MB down and 1.5 MB up in Danbury for about the same price Comcast provides 16 MB down and 2 MB up in Danbury. However Comcast is implementing a 250GB cap as of October 1. Comcast also indicates this fall that a 50MB down / 2 MB up tier will exist for commercial customers in Danbury. Supposedly AT&T will be announcing a DSL cap or usage based tier system in the intermediate future.
As a customer that is how I assess the offerings available by Satellite and Cable vs Uverse in Danbury. If AT&T ever offers several TB of local storage, shared by 4 receivers, all able to play and record multiple HD streams concurrently, I'd definitely consider it. I am not however, holding my breath, as AT&T seems to have issues rolling out technology of late. I recall my experience of not being able to get beyond DSL Express level of service. As a customer I remember feeling pushed away from AT&T (DSL) as my need for speed increased.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." |
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emead
4q2
Premium,MVM
join:2000-09-04
Danbury, CT
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| There are quite a few locations for Uverse in Danbury, you just need to be close enough to a vrad. Highland Ave and surrounding neighborhoods. Golden Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. I travel throughout Danbury and see quite a few vrads hanging off poles. The lake area has a few also. My Uverse has been working pretty good since I got it, about 8 months.
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I gave up searching for the Truth, Now I'm looking for a good Fantasy! |
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pandora
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
·Comcast
| I would have tried Uverse if it had been available to me. Unfortunately it isn't in my neighborhood. I used a number of addresses in Danbury before discovering Westville Avenue. I wish AT&T were able to roll this stuff out more completely on a city by city basis.
As Mr. Fixit pointed out, I made the mistake of assuming proximity to a CO was helpful to getting Uverse and tried places near the CO or near the field office off Sand Pit in Germantown.
Currently Comcast HSI is going a decent job for me.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." |
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