Just arrived in today's mail, the "Late Summer 2008" offer from AT&T:
up to $200 cash back! Hurry offers end September 20. DETAILS INSIDE!
The previous brochure, "Summer 2008":
up to $150 cash back! see details inside.
Should've waited.
AT&T really wants into the television business.
2008-08-27
*click*
1-800-ATT-2020. Voice menu. Service requests. Denise. Confirm PIN on account. How may I help you?
Please cancel this account's U-verse TV service.
Okay sir. Let me route you to our Retention department.
Ed picks up. He's in the San Fernando Valley, 20 minutes from here. Another excellent customer service hire; his voice smiles over the phone.
Please cancel the TV service. We like the 'Net, but we're just not watching the television.
May I ask why, sir?
TiVo wins; it's easier and faster to use. Free HDTV on the channels that matter for college football is enough, and U-verse charges extra for HD even on the bare-bones package. We really haven't watched the U-400 stuff much in the last two weeks.
Ed asks minor technical and accounting questions. AT&T will turn off the service tomorrow. Please just pay the broadband Internet portion of the bill. AT&T will send a postage-paid coffin for the DVR, please wait 10 days for it, then return the U-verse receiver in it.
Re-enabling the service is a simple call to a friendly AT&T rep. A service tech would need to install a new U-verse DVR.
Makes sense, Ed. Thanks.
Thank you sir.
Everyone has a great day.
Please cancel this account's U-verse TV service.
Okay sir. Let me route you to our Retention department.
Ed picks up. He's in the San Fernando Valley, 20 minutes from here. Another excellent customer service hire; his voice smiles over the phone.
Please cancel the TV service. We like the 'Net, but we're just not watching the television.
May I ask why, sir?
TiVo wins; it's easier and faster to use. Free HDTV on the channels that matter for college football is enough, and U-verse charges extra for HD even on the bare-bones package. We really haven't watched the U-400 stuff much in the last two weeks.
Ed asks minor technical and accounting questions. AT&T will turn off the service tomorrow. Please just pay the broadband Internet portion of the bill. AT&T will send a postage-paid coffin for the DVR, please wait 10 days for it, then return the U-verse receiver in it.
Re-enabling the service is a simple call to a friendly AT&T rep. A service tech would need to install a new U-verse DVR.
Makes sense, Ed. Thanks.
Thank you sir.
Everyone has a great day.
Time to Pay the Piper
First U-verse bill:
What? Y- had said he would apply a $50 representative's coupon against the bill because he mistakenly sold the service -- including Internet -- as free for one month.
1-800-ATT-2020. Oops, Skype dialed from a 202 area code and confused AT&T. Sorry, that was rude.
Home line. 1-800-ATT-2020. Voice menu. Billing. Shawn, badge #ST2021. Another nice fellow, this time located in Oakland. Account # and PIN. How can I help you?
Shawn just works in Billing. There's no note on the record or any indication that Y-, agent #CYDLASV359, had applied a $50 representative's credit as stated 29 July. Shawn has no way to route a call to sales, either.
Okay then.
Shawn says the unbundled price for Internet service is still $35. There's no way to cancel U-verse TV from the web interface, call to request it. Billing for mobile phone service can be bundled on the same bill as Internet, but the 20% discount applies only to bundled television/mobile service.
Good enough.
| Service | Period | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| U-400 TV | 8/15/08-9/14/08 | $99.00 |
| Broadband Elite | 8/15/08-9/14/08 | $35.00 |
| Credit for August free TV | 8/15/08-8/31/08 | -$44.23 |
| Taxes and Surcharges | $2.38 | |
| Total | $99.15 |
What? Y- had said he would apply a $50 representative's coupon against the bill because he mistakenly sold the service -- including Internet -- as free for one month.
1-800-ATT-2020. Oops, Skype dialed from a 202 area code and confused AT&T. Sorry, that was rude.
Home line. 1-800-ATT-2020. Voice menu. Billing. Shawn, badge #ST2021. Another nice fellow, this time located in Oakland. Account # and PIN. How can I help you?
Shawn just works in Billing. There's no note on the record or any indication that Y-, agent #CYDLASV359, had applied a $50 representative's credit as stated 29 July. Shawn has no way to route a call to sales, either.
Okay then.
Shawn says the unbundled price for Internet service is still $35. There's no way to cancel U-verse TV from the web interface, call to request it. Billing for mobile phone service can be bundled on the same bill as Internet, but the 20% discount applies only to bundled television/mobile service.
Good enough.
2008-08-22
A Penguin on the Telly
Is the U-verse television slate compelling? U-400 pipes in 417 channels:
Video on Demand (channel 9999) has selections for recent movies at $4 per rental. Adult hardcore entertainment is available at $7-12 per rental (people still rent pr0n?); about 12 channels have softcore "after dark" programming. Approximately 2/3s of VoD programming is re-plays of CineMax, HBO, SHO, and other pay channel programs that are not in the current air schedule. "Hundreds" of movies are available.
The competition: the Internet and Netflix Watch Now! service. "Top Gear" is on BBC America, but is also seen at www.surfthechannel.com and in the Torrent; the Stig's white uniform looks sharper on TV, but the program is entirely watchable online. Netflix Watch Now! has 10,000 films (many awful, but no charge) and more online daily. Coupled with a rental rate of about $2 per movie ($16/month, watch 8 DVDs/month) for the huge DVD-by-mail catalog.
The one compelling reason is live sports. Regional college and pro games make it tempting to the sports fan, but even with picture in picture and channel swapping, how much can you realistically watch in a weekend as you hunker down in your man-cave? (Correct answer: all.)
- 47 are radio stations
- 242 unique channels after excluding duplicates, eg, TMC, TMC - West
- 58 duplicates are HD versions
- 20 duplicates are non-English carrying the same programming
- 6 are AT&T promotional channels
- Many channels are empty, eg, 21 regional ESPN are blank unless a game is playing
Video on Demand (channel 9999) has selections for recent movies at $4 per rental. Adult hardcore entertainment is available at $7-12 per rental (people still rent pr0n?); about 12 channels have softcore "after dark" programming. Approximately 2/3s of VoD programming is re-plays of CineMax, HBO, SHO, and other pay channel programs that are not in the current air schedule. "Hundreds" of movies are available.
The competition: the Internet and Netflix Watch Now! service. "Top Gear" is on BBC America, but is also seen at www.surfthechannel.com and in the Torrent; the Stig's white uniform looks sharper on TV, but the program is entirely watchable online. Netflix Watch Now! has 10,000 films (many awful, but no charge) and more online daily. Coupled with a rental rate of about $2 per movie ($16/month, watch 8 DVDs/month) for the huge DVD-by-mail catalog.
The one compelling reason is live sports. Regional college and pro games make it tempting to the sports fan, but even with picture in picture and channel swapping, how much can you realistically watch in a weekend as you hunker down in your man-cave? (Correct answer: all.)
2008-08-19
The Ups and Downs
G.D. tried U-verse a year ago. He kept the Internet service but dropped the TV.
During the last month, he's had trouble keeping the link alive. After going round and round with AT&T, they're finally repairing the service.
Probable failure cause: corroded bridge tap between his house and the street. Solution: dig up the line to the street. The work supposedly started today.
G.D. lives in a neighborhood built some decades ago, so it's understandable that the copper infrastructure has aged. Regardless, it took some wrangling to get someone out to look at it. The failure is intermittent and data traffic is bursty, so the view from the central office generally showed the line as okay. Good thing G.D. is persistent enough to track it down to a resolution.
Update 2008-08-20
From: G.D.
Sent: Wed 8/20/2008 7:16 PM
Subject: gmail slow?
Is anyone else having problems with gmail being slow or is my internet connection still flaky?
thanks
$
During the last month, he's had trouble keeping the link alive. After going round and round with AT&T, they're finally repairing the service.
Probable failure cause: corroded bridge tap between his house and the street. Solution: dig up the line to the street. The work supposedly started today.
G.D. lives in a neighborhood built some decades ago, so it's understandable that the copper infrastructure has aged. Regardless, it took some wrangling to get someone out to look at it. The failure is intermittent and data traffic is bursty, so the view from the central office generally showed the line as okay. Good thing G.D. is persistent enough to track it down to a resolution.
Update 2008-08-20
From: G.D.
Sent: Wed 8/20/2008 7:16 PM
Subject: gmail slow?
Is anyone else having problems with gmail being slow or is my internet connection still flaky?
thanks
$
2008-08-13
Box of Whine
Petty annoyances:
When the DVR has been running longer than an hour, the disk drive bearings start to sing. It's a high-pitched sound, up in the range where it's difficult to locate the source. If the service stays, we need a quieter DVR. To be sure, C-- the installation guy had warned of disk noise.
Turning on the television with the TV's remote starts the U-verse box and automatically flips the TV's input to HDMI, which then takes a second to synch up with the U-verse DVR. This "feature" is desirable if you watch only U-verse programming, but it's annoying when I want to see the 2008 Olympics on NBC.HD, as freely provided by TWC. There's probably a setting on the TV to keep it from autoseeking a new source.
TiVo's skip-ahead / jump back function is really, really nice. When fast-forwarding the U-verse box, it's nearly impossible to hit the end of a break accurately. U-verse has a jump forward 30 seconds button, but it's not the same. Note to AT&T: just pay TiVo the royalty.
Once in View Recorded TV mode, jumping back to Live TV takes two steps. Select the Guide which puts you into the channel guide mode (recorded TV appears on channel 9999). Enter the channel number or scroll up through the 400-odd channels to find the live program. Hit OK. Now it's possible to jump back and forth between the recorded channel and the live channel.
When the DVR has been running longer than an hour, the disk drive bearings start to sing. It's a high-pitched sound, up in the range where it's difficult to locate the source. If the service stays, we need a quieter DVR. To be sure, C-- the installation guy had warned of disk noise.
TiVo's skip-ahead / jump back function is really, really nice. When fast-forwarding the U-verse box, it's nearly impossible to hit the end of a break accurately. U-verse has a jump forward 30 seconds button, but it's not the same. Note to AT&T: just pay TiVo the royalty.
Once in View Recorded TV mode, jumping back to Live TV takes two steps. Select the Guide which puts you into the channel guide mode (recorded TV appears on channel 9999). Enter the channel number or scroll up through the 400-odd channels to find the live program. Hit OK. Now it's possible to jump back and forth between the recorded channel and the live channel.
2008-08-12
FTP Speed Test Lite
First FTP speed test. Single trial of network speed during evening hours (21:30-22:00) when the cable modem is loaded with traffic from the neighbors. The AT&T gateway is unloaded.
Not a bad first look. AT&T is twice as fast uploading, and 30% faster downloading.
- Upload 6,098,903 byte WMV file, download 97,704,430 zipped collection of MP3s.
- Transfer program: native MS Windows FTP from command line.
- Connections are wired (100 Mb/s) Ethernet.
- Source host is Windows Vista Ultimate x64.
- Target host is UNIX.
- Distance to host via AT&T: average 47 msec.
- Distance to host via TWC: average 25 msec.
- Number of test runs: 1 upload and download for each network.
- Test time: 21:30-22:00 PT, during prime time television broadcast.
| Network | Time Up | Rate Up | Time Down | Rate Down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TWC | 100.71s | 60.54KB/s | 178.39s | 547.71KB/s |
| AT&T | 51.74s | 117.89KB/s | 138.10s | 708.04KB/s |
Not a bad first look. AT&T is twice as fast uploading, and 30% faster downloading.
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