AT&T's U-verse Service in Louisville, Kentucky -- a Review

I've been a subscriber to Insight Communications cable in Louisville, KY for 12 years and their internet services for about 6 years. In that entire time, I was relatively happy with the service, but became distressed when I saw the price drift upward as picture, service, and internet speed became spottier and spottier. So when AT&T started sending me mailings inviting me to try their U-verse Phone, Internet and TV service, I took notice. Still, I was reluctant to jump ship from my existing service to another service that offered more features, but would cost me a little more money and require a box for every TV. But when AT&T lowered the price below the price I was currently paying for Insight.

WHAT IS U-VERSE

U-verse is AT&T's internet, phone, and television service that uses fiber optics, and high speed internet and data technology to provide all three services to the home. Because of the method of transmission, U-verse requires that the customer's lines be within about 2000 to 4000 feet from a transmission box called a VRAD. The shorter the distance, the better the internet speed and more HD signals that can be offered.

Once the signal reaches the home, it is sent to a Residential Gateway, a giant modem/wireless router combination that sends the signal through the house to your computers, phone, and the set top boxes for the TV.

INSTALLATION

When we signed up for U-verse at our local Louisville AT&T store, the salesperson advised us that since we were switching our phone number to u-verse, we'd have to wait 10 days. Because of the high demand, the only appointments that were available were weekday morning appointments. I made my appointment for a Friday morning in the 9 AM to 11 AM timeframe. Two days before installation AT&T called me to advise that they had run the line to the side of my house and that the signal was powerful enough to ensure I would get the internet speed I'd requested and could support 2 HD feeds.

On the Friday of install I received a call at 8:30 advising they'd be at my house at 9. At 9 AM, the doorbell rang and my installers walked in. Matt and Ash, my installers, covered their feet in booties and got to work. I gave them the information I knew about my house, including the locations of the current cable installation and where I believed the feed came in on my house. They examined the lines and Matt used words he would soon regret, saying that he was happy to see that we were a newer house with Cat5 wiring. Initially, everything seemed to go well, as my installers went through the house testing signals with the piles of equipment they had with them, changing out connections at each cable wall plate, and installed the Residential Gateway in the room of my house where I had requested it. Because I was working from home, they worked first to get my internet up and running and then set about installing television. Unfortunately, the wiring was not cooperating. Long story short, Matt and Ash spent lots of time intelligently troubleshooting the wiring in my house and determining where the problem was This involved climbing through my attic, following the paths of existing lines, and lots of trips up and down two flights of stairs. Finally, around 3 PM(!), they had everything figured out and I had a TV picture and phone. They showed me the features, packed up and were walking out the door when BOOM..... the picture froze. The two men, who had not taken a break during the entire time swapped out my residential gateway to see if maybe THAT was the problem, then went to get lunch while I attended to an errand I had to run. I called them 40 minutes later and advised that the gateway didn't do the trick. The two men showed up, retraced their paths yet again and found the culprit, some bad Cat5 wire. They replaced that and suddenly I had U-verse service. Both men were professional and even advised me of a small piece of wood trim that they thought they'd knocked loose in my attic and indicated that if necessary, they would contact AT&T to help me get it repaired. It turned out it was simply a loose board that we were able to easily fix. I appreciated their honesty and their hard work without a break to make sure my system was installed correctly.

U-VERSE EQUIPMENT

Residential Gateway

The U-verse residential gateway is essentially the brain of U-verse and acts as a modem and wireless router for your Internet as well as providing the TV and phone signals. It is HUGE, standing sideways on its own base. Its wireless signal appears to be as adequate as the Linksys router I was using before.

DVR & Set Top Boxes

If you have Insight's DVR now, you know it is a large hunk of heavy metal about the size of a VCR or DVD player. I was never a huge fan of Insight's DVR. We had to swipe out one of ours twice, and the other one had issues with suddenly forwarding itself to the end of a program midway through. Add to that the ability to only record 10 hours of HD, and the DVR seemed mostly to be a bust.

U-verse's DVR is something completely different. In a package about 3/5 the size of the Insight DVR, it packs a DVR that can hold over 200 hours of SD programming and and 60 hours of HD programming (or a combination of the two). The beauty of this DVR is that every other TV with a set top box can connect to the DVR and watch the shows contained on it. So if my daughter wants to watch the iCarly I taped a week ago on her TV in her room, she can do that. If I want to watch CSI: Hoboken in my family room and pick up where I left off in my bedroom, I can. Additionally, the DVR records four programs at once (although it is limited to

One of my favorite things about the DVR is that it has a fast forward that backs up the programming a few seconds when you press play. This means that when you're zipping through commercials and you see your favorite program, you don't have to do the DVR yo-yo to find that space right before the commercial break ends. The DVR seems to have just the right amount of rewind to catch your reaction time when you see that your program returns.

Additionally, U-verse has an iPod App that allows you to check the TV guide, record, and delete programs to your DVR from anywhere you have data access. This is great for when you're out and about and realize you forgot to record True Blood for the wife, or as recently happened to me, you seem something that appears to be newsworthy and you setup your DVR to tape the news. You also can easily delete your recorded programs to make room on your DVR for more programming.

The only negatives I've seen so far are the lack of a clock on the front of the DVR and the fact that the DVR doesn't allow for slow fast forward or rewind. This means that you can't watch that bone crushing football replay in slow motion.

Interface

Another pet peeve I had with the Insight Digital package in Louisville was the interface, which combined the exciting visual look of a Commodore 64 game with the intuitiveness of a Windows Mobile phone with a directional button. While it wasn't hard to get to the programming you wanted, it often required wading through a myriad of menus. AT&T's U-Verse uses a much more elegant interface with attractive on-screen graphics and text. The on-demand navigation reminds me somewhat of the iPod, with branching menus that allow you to easily move among categories and sub-categories. The channel guide displays six channels and two hours worth of listings at a time. It is superimposed over the video of what you're currently watching and gives you a brief synopsis of the highlighted program without having to click into it. By using the arrow keys while watching programs, you receive a small PIP display of other channels, allowing you to channel surf while remaining on your current channel. U-verse even helpfully tells you how much of each program is left so you don't wind up tuning in Law And Order: Traffic Court just as the verdict is being read.

U-VERSE TELEVISION

I decided to subscribe to the U-verse 450 package, which provides over 400 channels of programming, including over 120 HD channels. Yes, many of these are redundant, but I currently have almost everything I had on Insight, PLUS almost every movie channels. The on demand offerings appear to be very similar. Like Insight, AT&T has a puzzling additional subcharge for a few extra HD channels (which I did not subscribe to), but the selection of HD seems to blow Insight's away, and unlike Insight, AT&T has intelligently made the HD version of each available channel the same number as the SD channel with a 1 added to the front. For instance, Louisville's Channel 3 is 0003 in Standard Definition and 1003 in HD. NOTE: There is no local Weather Channel on U-verse and U-verse does not currently broadcast the secondary digital channels in Louisville, such as Channel 3's weather signal and THIS network.

PICTURE

After three or four days of using U-verse in Louisville, I have a mixed verdict on the picture compared to Insight. On Standard Definition, U-verse would appear to have the edge on Insight. Insight's SD picture always looked like a VHS copy of a show compared to its HD equivalent, with washed out colors and a grainy picture. U-verse's picture, while clearly SD, is much more vivid and colorful, and looks really good, especially on our LCD sets.

HD, however, appears to suffer a bit from the compression that AT&T uses to squeeze all of those signals over the lines. The colors appear to be more vivid that Insight's, and on slow moving and static shots, it would appear to be better than Insight's picture. In fast moving shots, such as a bomb explosion in an action movie, or a fast movement across a football field, the picture can become pixelated. This effect seems to vary quite a bit by the channel you are watching, so not all of it may be the fault of AT&T. It also is less noticeable when you're sitting a normal distance from the screen.

If you're thinking about getting U-verse, note that, unlike cable, you will require a box for every television, and the technology limits the video streams to four separate channels, with 1 to 3 of those being in HD (depending on signal strength and your location). This means that U-verse is probably NOT a great idea for big families or people who need five or six TVs tuned to different things. For my small family, it is a non-issue.

SOUND

I only have the TV speakers as my guide, but there does not appear to be a big difference in sound between Insight and AT&T. With Insight I had many sound dropouts and there appeared to be a wide variation among channels in the volume of sound being output. AT&T's sound seems to keep a more consistent volume and perhaps has a bit too much clarity on LOUD commercials.

U-VERSE INTERNET

With Insight I had the 20.0 package. My speeds were typically from 20 Mpbs down to 2 or 3 Mpbs. The speed began to vary quite a bit in the last few years, and I seemed to have more delays in response. Still, overall I didn't have many complaints with their Internet.

With U-verse I got the 12 Mpbs capped package, which seems to vary from 7 Mpbs to about 11 Mpbs with slightly higher pings. Despite the slower speeds, streaming Netflix in HD over my PS3 seems to work more consistently with U-verse than it did with Insight.

U-VERSE PHONE

We don't use our home phone much anymore, but keep it because we've had the phone number for so long. U-verse phone works via VOIP and requires a large battery backup to keep the phone up and running during a power outage. It could be my imagination, but it seems as though the phone quality is less than Insight, though not by much. The phone does offer a pretty cool feature that allows you to check your call history from the TV and then call those people back with your TV remote. This causes your phone to ring and instantly connect you to the caller. While using the phone, I discovered one issue that apparently is a known problem. My touch tones are NOT registering when dialing certain voice menus. I can enter my phone or other information into a phone menu and not have it register. This does NOT seem to impact the dialing of a number, only the phone menus once I'm connected. I'm going to stay on AT&T until they get this fixed for me.

U-VERSE PROS (VS INSIGHT IN THE LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY MARKET)

-Larger channel selection for a cheaper price (at least with current bundle and 12 month contract deals)
-Whole house DVR with large hard drive enables recording of numerous programs to share with the entire house and can record four programs at a time.
-Whole house DVR works better than Insight's
-Equipment more elegantly designed
-Superior SD picture
-TV Guide, menus and on screen displays are more attractive and useful
-iPhone App allows remote channel guide and DVR recording access.
-Set top boxes and DVR are Energy Star compliant
-Huge selection of HD channels
-Installers appear more competent, show up on time, and are more professional
-Residential Gateway provides WIFI without having to purchase a separate router

U-VERSE CONS (VS INSIGHT IN THE LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY MARKET)

-HD Picture quality tends to break up during fast action
-Requires set top boxes to receive television signal
-Currently only four different channels may be accessed in a household at one time and depending signal strength the available HD feeds vary from 1 to 3.
-Maximum tier internet speeds (for me, anyway) are less than Insight.
-Louisville's local digital subchannels and the Local on the 8's from the Weather Channel are not currently available.
-Unavailable in many areas
-Gateway is much larger than a comparable router