Looks like AT&T is finally giving up on that turd. It makes sense though. They just purchased DirectTV and likely want all their video subscribers to switch to that. Dropping video frees up internet bandwidth and allows them to better compete with Comcast speeds.
My guess is this will more likely cause hoards more customers to drop tv subscriptions altogether and move to streaming and OTA. Most people would also likely move to comcast before DirectTV. Satellite TV is just a different beast.
DirectTV is still interesting though because it's wireless and doesn't have the same technical issues wired television has. It wouldn't surprise me if in the future satellite television is the only television service that doesn't stream through an internet connection.
Article:
http://deadline.com/2016/02/is-att-prepa...201703310/
Wait, is Uverse At&t's cable service? And I always heard satellite TV gets bad signals. Any truth to that?
Quote:Wait, is Uverse At&t's cable service? And I always heard satellite TV gets bad signals. Any truth to that?
I've had satellite TV since 2003 and I love it. The picture is outstanding, but yes, there are some short periods of signal loss during heavy storms. Overall, though, it's great service.
I just recently dropped AT&T U verse video and "cut the cord" so to speak. Anything that I watch on TV (which is very little) I can get by other means. I just can't see paying a subscription for television service when I don't watch more than 95% of the channels "given" to me.
As far as satellite television, I've been there done that. Direct-TV was decent, but it would drop out on occasion, especially if we are experiencing bad thunderstorms. Dish Network was even worse because their dish has to pick up multiple satellites and has to be aligned "perfect". Disruptions in service during a storm were just as bad if not worse.
As far as internet speeds, I think that it's over rated. Comcast claims these higher speeds, but I have my doubts. I haven't had a way to test speeds, but it doesn't really matter to me. The speed that I get with U verse internet meets my needs just fine. I can have my wife streaming a movie in one room, my daughter streaming something else in another room and still have acceptable download speeds for large files that I download on occasion. Sure a faster speed would be nice, but it's not a need for me right now.
Really?
I LOVE Uverse TV. At least the channels in the guide seem to have a little logic to them. The Internet speeds are good enough that I don't notice a difference and I work from home 90% of the time.
I tried one day a few summers to switch to satellite as Direct TV was running some scam at Best Buy.
Dude showed up to install it...he just finished and left and typical N Florida afternoon storm rolled through...TV was out for 30-40 minutes!
1-800-DirectTV "Please come get this crap off my house" :thumbsup:
I flip between Comcast and AT&T every few years. They pay me a few hundred dollars to do so.
ATT doesn't seem to have the outages Comcast regularly has, FWIW. Comcast just had another MAJOR one recently.
I was happiest with DirecTV, just not with the bill. I must admit, if ATT's DVR was more like TiVo instead of their Windows based platform, I'd be able to say I'm just as happy with ATT.
I've been on DirectTV for way over 10 years. Not sure how long. Never had a weather issue that lasted more than 5 minutes. However, they are working on a cool solution. Let's say you are watching a program and you lose the signal, your DVR will automatically switch over and start streaming the program via internet. When signal returns, program returns to Satellite.
My complaints with DirecTV are limited to $$$$$ ......
Quote:I just recently dropped AT&T U verse video and "cut the cord" so to speak. Anything that I watch on TV (which is very little) I can get by other means. I just can't see paying a subscription for television service when I don't watch more than 95% of the channels "given" to me.
As far as satellite television, I've been there done that. Direct-TV was decent, but it would drop out on occasion, especially if we are experiencing bad thunderstorms. Dish Network was even worse because their dish has to pick up multiple satellites and has to be aligned "perfect". Disruptions in service during a storm were just as bad if not worse.
As far as internet speeds, I think that it's over rated. Comcast claims these higher speeds, but I have my doubts. I haven't had a way to test speeds, but it doesn't really matter to me. The speed that I get with U verse internet meets my needs just fine. I can have my wife streaming a movie in one room, my daughter streaming something else in another room and still have acceptable download speeds for large files that I download on occasion. Sure a faster speed would be nice, but it's not a need for me right now.
As for internet speeds, it's pretty standard to run speedtest.net by ookla to test speeds on any device. Comcast does have faster speeds. AT&T is slower than a decent 4G LTE connection. But they've been rolling out a gigibit service which I believe is all gimick because in most cases you don't need an extremely fast connection to stream video which is what most people want to do (otherwise Uverse would not have even lasted as long as it has).
Ah ATT also known as paying more for less.
Quote:ATT doesn't seem to have the outages Comcast regularly has, FWIW. Comcast just had another MAJOR one recently.
I was happiest with DirecTV, just not with the bill. I must admit, if ATT's DVR was more like TiVo instead of their Windows based platform, I'd be able to say I'm just as happy with ATT.
Outages aren't the main problem. The problem is when for whatever reason you end up being "that guy" for the day. The one guy who's service just stopped working for whatever reason. In this scenario, they all suck. They don't have a plan. They will pretend they do, and send you through a script and send a tech out, bla bla bla, but they really don't. Wires isolate people like that. People usually love their service until something goes wrong. This is why I'm "pro wireless" everything right now. The price isn't quite right yet, but this is a situation where you can easily defeat wired incompetence and not be controlled by it.
Quote:As for internet speeds, it's pretty standard to run speedtest.net by ookla to test speeds on any device. Comcast does have faster speeds. AT&T is slower than a decent 4G LTE connection. But they've been rolling out a gigibit service which I believe is all gimick because in most cases you don't need an extremely fast connection to stream video which is what most people want to do (otherwise Uverse would not have even lasted as long as it has).
meh... Those tests are just that. Only a test.
I regularly download and upload multiple and large files. I've used everything from dial-up (back in the day) up to DSL/cable/T1/T3 lines and depending on the location and service, what I get from AT&T is just as fast if not sometimes faster. To say that the service is slower than a 4G LTE connection is laughable at best.
To get a truly noticeable difference all depends on the hardware involved. Your cell phone/tablet/laptop is not going to perform any better whether it's on an AT&T network or Comcast network, especially if you are using wireless. Wireless is very much limited, though that's changing.
Regarding what is important to most consumers, I would say reliability would be the number one thing. After using satellite/cable/AT&T U-Verse for television, I would say that U-Verse was probably my best experience followed closely by cable. My only problem is the cost vs. the product received. As far as internet, I have never had any major issues with (back in the day) Bell South / AT&T. I can't give an honest assessment of cable internet since I had limited exposure to it (using friends/associate's internet connections), but I can say that I was not real impressed.
Quote:meh... Those tests are just that. Only a test.
I regularly download and upload multiple and large files. I've used everything from dial-up (back in the day) up to DSL/cable/T1/T3 lines and depending on the location and service, what I get from AT&T is just as fast if not sometimes faster. To say that the service is slower than a 4G LTE connection is laughable at best.
To get a truly noticeable difference all depends on the hardware involved. Your cell phone/tablet/laptop is not going to perform any better whether it's on an AT&T network or Comcast network, especially if you are using wireless. Wireless is very much limited, though that's changing.
Regarding what is important to most consumers, I would say reliability would be the number one thing. After using satellite/cable/AT&T U-Verse for television, I would say that U-Verse was probably my best experience followed closely by cable. My only problem is the cost vs. the product received. As far as internet, I have never had any major issues with (back in the day) Bell South / AT&T. I can't give an honest assessment of cable internet since I had limited exposure to it (using friends/associate's internet connections), but I can say that I was not real impressed.
It's less laughable and more a fact. AT&T advertised their service at 18 Mbps max for their uverse internet. When I had it, it tested consistently at 12 Mbps. 4g and even 3g have a much faster top speed. T-Mobile LTE internet routinely tests 50-75 Mbps. I believe LTE has maximum theoretical speed of about 300 Mbps. Even 3g has a higher max than 18 Mbps. I tested 3g several times and I don't remember exactly what it measured but it was faster than AT&T Uverse. You could argue that the tests are not accurate, but those are the results, and I've never heard of the service providers disputing them.
You're probably the first person I've heard claming U-verse internet was as fast as comcast. Even AT&T doesn't claim that. I'm guessing there was some issue with your Comcast connection if that was the case (unless you somehow have the new gigibit internet AT&T is trying to roll out).
Either way, I don't particularly care. The speed isn't even an issue for me. Where I am, LTE is fast enough to stream HD on my television, and U-verse couldn't keep the service running for longer than a week (which is why I dropped them).
http://speedof.me/show.php?img=160217232940-1631.png
On a desktop with a usb 2.0 wireless G sticking out of it like a rhino.
Since the switch to uverse it's been all wireless and no issues streaming anything.
Speaking of 4g, Verizon has been slow as hell lately for me. And it's never been true 4G
Quote:http://speedof.me/show.php?img=160217232940-1631.png
On a desktop with a usb 2.0 wireless G sticking out of it like a rhino.
Since the switch to uverse it's been all wireless and no issues streaming anything.
Speaking of 4g, Verizon has been slow as hell lately for me. And it's never been true 4G
I've never had T-Mobile be incredibly slow, but it definitely drops in speed during peak hours when I'm typically not at home and not trying to do any streaming. When I had Uverse, speed was never a concern. If I ever had an issue streaming video it was very minor and happened seldomly enough that I don't remember it. It was more that I couldn't trust it. But if 4K ultra HD video streaming takes off I can definitely see U-verse having issues with that.
I have Comcast for internet and discovered their equipment strangles the speed. Probably by design. I went to the Comcast website and found a list of authorized modems and wireless routers and bought my own. The difference was significant.
I'm waiting for fiber to my house.
One day...
Quote:I'm waiting for fiber to my house.
One day...
Yep. It keeps you regular.