Why I dumped AT&T’s UVerse and kept my COMCAST on-demand
I have been an avid fan of Interactive TV since the first day I heard of it - many moons ago. I still remember John Malone proclaiming (in 1992) that by 1994 - they’d have 10M digital set top boxes out there.
I also have vivid memories of going to an AT&T building on Canal street - in the early 90’s (’91-’92) and viewing a screen which had two channels of real-time digital video playing. We were barely able to display one channel and I think these guys were talking about displaying three channels of MPEG video.
So when I first heard of AT&T’s digital TV Uverse service - I thought “finally”! 20 years later - and after numerous attempts they’re finally rolling out a triple play which can seriously dent COMCAST’s strangle hold on the cable TV market.
So the following is my history with trying to get UVerse installed in my home and why I eventually decided to disconnect it:
1. Part I - delight, glee and expectation
20Mbps line, 2 channels of full HD res videos, interactive services, VoIP - the whole nine yards! “Yes I’ll take it, when does it arrive?” So last Sept. ‘08 I anxiously awaited the arrival of the install crew but was told “sorry dude - you are beyond the length of where we can provide you service.” BUMMER!
I was told this same thing when I first tried to get DSL to my home, so this didn’t surprise me too much. I was bummed they led on that they could provide this to me, so I put my tail between my legs - and took their negative news with a light heart.
2. In December - a knock came at my door…
…. and it was a young guy selling UVerse door to door. I told him my story and he insisted that they COULD give me service. Then after getting the main center on the line they confirmed that at BEST I could only get a 19 MBps line, which would have to be sliced up for the two channels of HD video and that ALL I could get vis a vis digital line - was 3Mbps-6MMbps. I said fine, I signed up and finally got the service installed two months later (in Feb. ‘09) - and now the fun started!
3. God bless COMCAST
I knew that I better hold onto my COMCAST service while this was all going on.
I had chosen to get the COMCASST Blast line, as a second backup line, though in all fairness my slow-ass AT&T DSL line has been stable for years. It’s just max at about 1.2Mbps.
But I also knew I wanted to do an A:B comparison of the two on-demand video services, the two ranges of channels and programming and compare all the intangibles (see below.) So I commenced testing the UVerse digital TV service against our existing COMCAST service.
4. Surprise, surprise it didn’t take too long to realize UVerse SUCKS!
Hit the pause button - what’s supposed to happen?
Since the beginning of history TiVO has shown us a revolutionary experience of ‘pausing‘ live TV - so we can make a comment, go to the bathroom, put a show on hold while you answer the phone, etc. Well guess what?
When you hit the pause button on UVerse it says “pause only works on recorded on-demand shows!”
OMG! = Strike One.
5. UVerse is at least 2-3 years behind COMCAST
Now go to the on-demand menu and take a look at the library of available UVerse on-demand content.
COMCAST has something like 10,000 titles available, Uverse could not have had more than 75 - maybe 100. Not only could I not find anything to watch, but since I’m an expert at COMCAST’s library - I especially noticed how scrawny, thin and pathetic the UVerse library is. It’ll take YEARS for them to catch up to COMCAST and by then, COMCAST will have grown that much more.
I suspect what’s topping off the maximum # of titles COMCAST can offer is more about the non-scalable UI than anything else. If they can improve that, then they’ll leave UVerse behind - for good!
So shitty ass library = strke two.
6. Sorry Matilda - that ain’t what I call ‘Interactivity’
One of the big differences between UVerse and COMCAST is that the later generation boxes that AT&T gives you have true digital interactve services. So there it was: weather, local town, theoretically local news (non-existant), local ads (???), surveys (????), games (maybe there was 1 or 2 - it was completely under whelming) and perhaps there was a couple of other pathetic things - that they CALLED interactivity - but weren’t.
This was such a disappointment, I’ve actually blocked out of my head exactly what it was. It was a complete waste of mindshare and brain cells.
So interactivity gets a pathetic - third strike - and at that point, you’re OUT!
7. Some saving graces……….
Having some interactivity at all - is better than none.
And there was ONE coolio thing in their UI. As the reduced size PIP of the current program was displayed in the upper right hand corner, so one could view the program guide, each channel you scrolled to ALSO showed a miniature thumbnail PIP of THAT channel’s programming.
THAT was totally coolio. There was the two-channel real-time digital video display I had been shown 18 years previously!
But not worth keeping the UVerse service for!
So out it went - and will stay DOA until they improve their library, enable user’s to pause live programming and they improve the range of Interactive services.
I wonder if they ever heard of ‘the Internet?’
