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story category AT&T IPTV Launches In Fifteenth Market
Also: some bugs persist, multi-HD streams by year end
(old news - 02:58PM Tuesday Mar 20 2007)
tags: dsl · Video · competition · coverage · business · telco · TVIP
U-Verse, AT&T's IPTV and VDSL service, has arrived in portions of Kansas City, notes the Kansas City Star (also see press release). That's the fifteenth market to receive service, a deployment goal AT&T originally stated they'd hit by the end of last year. Service in AT&T's first market, San Antonio, still has a few wrinkles, according to the Express-News. Some users have returned boxes three times; others say they're absolutely thrilled with the service.

Meanwhile, Telephony Online notes that the U-Verse holy grail -- multiple high-def streams -- is coming before the end of the year and that capacity skeptics "are wrong." "We are a leader in HD," brags an AT&T marketing exec in the report. "We rolled out HD in the fourth quarter of last year, and we have more than 25 channels of HD programming, which is more than the average cable offering in our markets."

Questions about the service? Have U-Verse and want to share your opinion? Head to our AT&T U-Verse forum.

Related:
  1. U-Verse Hits Northeastern Illinois
  2. Tuesday Morning Links
  3. Qwest Finally Killing Off Old 'Choice TV'
  4. Friday Evening Links
  5. AT&T Completes Whole Home DVR Upgrade
  6. Scott Cleland: Google Using 21x The Bandwidth They Pay For
  7. Should Cable Operators Offer Wireless?
  8. U-Verse Hits Raleigh, Orlando
Forums » AT&T IPTV Launches In Fifteenth Market
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RideRed
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join:2005-06-18
USA
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edit:
March 20th, @01:25PM

Quanity is meaningless

quote:
...we have more than 25 channels of HD programming
One look as my DishHD lineup sums it up. Equator, Rave and Monster channels are beyond lame. Having "more" HD channels in and of itself doesn't mean much.

nixen

@redcross.org

Re: Quanity is meaningless

said by RideRed See Profile :

quote:
...we have more than 25 channels of HD programming
One look as my DishHD lineup sums it up. Equator, Rave and Monster channels are beyond lame. Having "more" HD channels in and of itself doesn't mean much.
But think of it: with multiple streams, you'll be able to watch more than one hi-def piece of garbage, concurrently.
elijha35

join:2004-11-09
Independence, MO
It would be nice if it was available where i live in kansas city. Guess i will need to move out of independence if i want it.
desreversti

join:2002-09-03
San Antonio, TX
·RoadRunner Cable

TV quality

I do not have U-Verse myself, but a friend of mine's dad has it (he works for AT&T and has for a long time). I can easily say that I was impressed on how quick th channels changed compared to Time Warner's digital cable. Also, the picture quality was not that bad and I so far have positive impression of it.
KingofCola

join:2007-02-07
Greer, SC

Re: TV quality

The HD channel quality/clarity is impressive. These are the listed HD channels in San Antonio Market:

A&E, Cinimax, Discovery, ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, HBO, HDNet, HDNet movies, HGTV, 4 Local HD Networks, MHD, National Geographic, NFL, Showtime, Starz, TMC, TNT, Universal, and Wealth.

Neyland85

join:2003-02-04
North Augusta, SC

Re: TV quality

What is the current bit rate and resolution? Any compression or is it pure OTA quality? Do they plan on maintaining that same level of service while being able to compete on Internet bandwidth when they offer multi HD feeds?
KingofCola

join:2007-02-07
Greer, SC

The cap is around 27Mbs. HD streams are ~7Mbs and SD is ~3Mbs. Most homes sync at a max of 60+Mbs. Thus there is enough room to add 2-3 more simultaneous HD streams and up the data rate to 12+Mbs. Advanced MPEG4 compression technology should be able to squeeze HD to 6Mbs soon, so the available BW is more then enough to compete.

morbo
Complete Your Transaction

join:2002-01-22
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clubs:

multi-stream HD?


AT&T: please explain how you are going to do this without it being at the expense of the customer's internet connection?

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Re: multi-stream HD?

I would think the image quality has to take a pretty big hit....but I guess we'll see.
bogey780

join:2004-03-19
Covington, LA

Re: multi-stream HD?

The default gateway speed is 25M. They could be planning on upping it and who knows...maybe even a VDSL2 upgrade. But for a second HD channel it's 10Mb/s more.
Gilitar

join:2000-11-20
Mobile, AL
I think they use some sort of gateway that throttles back internet to alot more bandwidth to tv when needed.
Cod

join:2000-07-05
Greensboro, NC

said by morbo See Profile :

AT&T: please explain how you are going to do this without it being at the expense of the customer's internet connection?
If you go to www.uverseusers.com and check their forums, you will see many people syncing @ 60-70Mbps. They are not getting all of this bandwidth, its currently capped at about 26mb, but as at&t rolls out more HDTV streams later this year, you will definitely see this cap raised.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a faster internet tier emerge also by years end.
etaadmin

join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX

Re: multi-stream HD?

... and as STBs start sync'n higher the already stressed copper will have a lot more CRC errors. Two HDTV streams? don't make me laugh.

Uverse is a disaster in the making.

BTW zealotuverseusers.com is made up of AT&T employees and their kids with biased opinions and information... not worth visiting.
Gilitar

join:2000-11-20
Mobile, AL

The death of satellite

Do you guys think that IPTV and On Demand cable will kill satellite? There is no way satellite providers can compete with on demand. The old way of just simply broadcasting may be in trouble.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Host:
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Re: The death of satellite

I think they're safe for 5-10 years. It will take a long time for IPTV deployments to hit any kind of critical mass. Besides: despite all the attention given U-Verse, AT&T's largest deployment will be Homezone, which is a DSL/Satellite hybrid service....

Broadband video is going to hurt all of these guys eventually, so it may be a moot point.

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: The death of satellite

I agree with you on that one...
In a few years, the 'TV' will be nothing more than a PC with a soft TV (MobiTV, YouTube, IPTV, etc), and the traditional cable/satellite/telco/wireless will be just another data stream

RadioDoc
Sortofadog
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest

Despite all the hype most people just want to watch TV, not interact with it. That includes video on demand, which can be a royal pain in the ass to use (Comcast's on this system is broken half the time). IPTV needs a lot more bandwidth than most have at home right now, and neither it's appetite nor the supply is going to change much in the near future.

The current broadcast networks may be in trouble, since they make almost all their money from advertising placed at specific times in specific programs, but that'll change once some other income model becomes viable. Product placement has been around since pictures started to move on screen, and every new technology has been touted as the death of those which preceded it. Radio was supposed to be dead how many times now?

Those TV programs in on-demand systems are produced by those same networks more and more since the prohibition on network ownership was repealed. Universal (NBC) is huge in production. They make money each time a program is shown, no matter what the venue.
--
Toolmaster of La Grange.

ficken
don't get any bright ideas
Premium
join:2000-10-07
11111
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·CableOne

few things about this

The press release states that the launch is in Kansas City Kansas, not Kansas City Missouri. They are two different cities. Also, none of the services are available in Missouri at this time.

And yesterday I got a notice from Comcast that my rates are going up.

So this launch has done nothing for me at all. And the people who can get this service probably happen to live in very affluent areas of the cities covered.
--
If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure - J. Danforth Quayle
amungus
Premium
join:2004-11-26
America
clubs:
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Re: few things about this

Yeah, one guess as to which county got it...

Somehow I doubt they're serving, say, Prospect Ave. (or anywhere downtown) anytime in the near future.

I think the term "cherrypicking" probably applies to this new "market" area.

ficken
don't get any bright ideas
Premium
join:2000-10-07
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·CableOne

Re: few things about this

Concurred.

I don't see them lighting up Blue Springs, Lees Summit, Rattown...Raytown, my bad, Meth-dependents....oops, Independence or any place where the median income is below 80K a year.

And ATT has the fiber in the ground already, along with the boxes set up here in Blue Springs. I bet that ATT is waiting for the state legislature to roll over and play dead for them before we see anything being announced here.

And since that unnamed county is served by multiple cable providers already makes no sense for them to launch there, other than the fact that they can sell a mostly useless product to a bunch of sheeple that are willing to try anything so long as they can feel like they are more advanced than the people who live right across the street, even though they can't operate a can opener without a trip to the ER...Not that the people across the street are any smarter anyway.

Such is life....
--
If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure - J. Danforth Quayle
vinnie97

join:2003-12-05
Mesquite, TX

Re: few things about this

LOL, cynical much?
elijha35

join:2004-11-09
Independence, MO

Such is life for those of us in kansas city missouri. Then again if we did live in johnson county, where the majority of this launch took place, we would get to see, what a $5 difference in our bill? I agree, the missouri legislature will have to roll over to see this in kcmo, and even then we will need to live in a newer sub-division to see anything.

siouxmoux

@comcast.net

If I had Choose I Rather have Faster Net Access then Second

If I had Choose I Rather have Faster Net Access then Second HDTV Stream. Come on ATT 6mp is not fast enough for my needs. Right now Comcast could flip a switch and offer 16/2. But with those offerings from ATT. Comcast has no Incentive to Upgrade HSI speeds.

Also when Will ATT will carry FSN Bay Area. They carry every other FSN RSN nationally.
telarium

join:2004-02-28
Saint Louis, MO

Missouri.

I have it on good authority to say that it will be launched in St. Louis, Missouri (Creve Coeur, specifically) later this week, as well. So long, Charter!
Forums » AT&T IPTV Launches In Fifteenth Market


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