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"So far, AT&T/2Wire haven't done anything about this exploit."

A new firmware 5.29.105.94 for 2Wire 3800HGV-B (ATT U-Verse ADSL) offers a solution to this exploit.

http://www.uverseusers.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,2/topic,7112.0/

U-verse is transcoding from 20Mbps MPEG2 to 6Mbps MPEG4 (give or take), with predictably horrific results. To add insult to injury you can only tune 1 HDTV channel at a time for your entire house! AT&T went with a cheapskate FTTN (Fiber To The Node) network, which uses some variant of DSL to provide a 27Mbps copper pipe from the fiber node down the block to your home that's shared between TV, Internet and VoIP. The Motorola IPTV settop boxes run WinCE.

Uverse HD Quality

U-verse Internet is less bad than Comcast (10M/1.5M for $55/mo), though with higher latency due to the ~20ms hit caused by their DSL scheme. I kept that and dropped U-verse TV.

Yes, any idiot can see that FTTH is the way to go, but Comcast and AT&T aren't run by just ANY idiots. Running fiber is a one-time expense, a big one to be certain but once it's in place you're good for the foreseeable future. Now, Comcast could get away with milking their hybrid fiber/coax plant for a while longer if they'd simply devote more bandwidth to Internet instead of TV, especially if DOCSIS 3 modems work, but AT&T has no such excuse. Spending lots of money on fancy electronics to get their antiquated copper plant to provide a measly 27Mbps aggregate bandwidth from the fiber node to the home (FTTN) rather than do things right the first time is going to go down in the B-school books as one of the most penny-wise, pound-foolish decisions in history. Hello, regular HDTV feeds are 20Mbps and recompressing those so you'll have enough bandwidth left for Internet, VoIP, and one measly SDTV channel makes HDTV look like an overgrown YouTube video (I exaggerate... slightly).

The sad thing is that the measly 6M/1M "Elite" tier Internet service AT&T U-verse offers is usually superior to Comcast and cheaper too. If they'd have been a little smarter they'd have skipped TV entirely (and those expensive settop boxes, TV channel fees, etc) and used all the bandwidth for Internet... assuming that they absolutely, positively won't run fiber like Verizon.

I have to disagree with the notion that we have to wait for the existing monopolies to correct their rectal-cranial inversion. It is possible for a new company to build FTTH. Having a separate company run fiber that various competing companies can plug into, as CANARIE describes, makes a lot of sense. Such a dark fiber net could be municipally run, or maybe the electric companies would like another revenue stream.

Correction...they are running Cat6 to homes...not using existing copper. Cat6 surely supports more than 6Mpbs?

They're running Cat5e from the box on the house into the house, if they don't use the existing telephone wire or cable TV coax. See the DSL Reports U-Verse Forum or uverseusers.com. They're using existing copper from the node to the home. Now, people are reporting that many lines test to 70-100Mbps, if they're close to the node (within 1400 feet or so). Unfortunately AT&T is using lowest common denominator specs, which is driving the handful of people with FTTH nuts.

Uverse has been live since 2006 (while admittedly in a small geographic area). This is hardly news. http://www.uverseusers.com/

Parts of San Antonio have had the service for over a year.

Check this site out to find out more about U-verse:

http://www.uverseusers.com/

Unfortunately, I am too far from any of the boxes to get the service yet.

3screens.net also has some comparisons between cable vs. U-verse.

http://www.uverseusers.com/

Besides that GUI being hideous and about as functional as digital cable [read: not functional] I don't see much of an advantage of their TV system. I personally belive AT&Ts U-Verse is MUCH better -- given the lower bandwidth they will provide to the home [25-35 mbps and RISING]. Don't believe me? Check out some of the screenshots at: http://www.uverseusers.com/ Their outlay keeps growing every day -- the 18th they hit the San Francisco Bay Area. But, that's just me.