AT&T Is Phasing Out the U-Verse Video, Broadband Brand (fiercetelecom.com)

AT&T is killing off the 'U-Verse' brand after its $69 billion acquisition of DirecTV. AT&T's broadband and phone services will now be called AT&T Internet and AT&T Phone. The company says the move will bring "simplicity" across the swaths of services it offers. FierceTelecom adds: This transition should not be of any great surprise as the same trend has been taking place with U-verse TV. AT&T has been driving new TV customers to its DirecTV satellite service, a process that could enable the telco to use the additional bandwidth to increase broadband speeds. While AT&T is still supporting current U-verse IPTV customers, the telco has not indicated how long they will continue to offer that service. Additionally, AT&T may also phase out the DirecTV name at some point, but industry insiders said that won't occur until it launches its streaming video service under DirecTV. AT&T has already been moving away from the U-Verse name by directing new TV customers to the company's DirecTV satellite TV service. The company will likely then use the freed bandwidth from that transition to improve overall broadband speeds. Existing U-Verse TV customers are being supported for now, but it's unclear how long that will last.The Hollywood Reporter states that the move is also necessary because AT&T plans to launch three streaming video services next quarter.

Comments

Just dumped our U-Verse service...

[JargonScott]

I had an 18Dn/1Up plan (living in the sticks Indiana), and on their little exit interview they asked why I'm leaving:

"Well, your service went down at least a full day of every month, and the new local provider offers fiber to my house, 50Dn/10Up speeds, and costs less."

The girl didn't even try. "Ok, well that makes sense."

Re:Just dumped our U-Verse service...

[jetkust]

This. My U-verse service was out like every week (tv, interenet, and dvr access to my RECORDINGS). I spent more time trying to get the service fixed than I was actually using it. When the girl asked why I was leaving I basically said I don't think they're even able to provide the service. She half tried to send another tech out, but she knew it was over.

Re:Just dumped our U-Verse service...

[amxcoder]

I had the 18/1 plan as well for several years, and while I didn't have many service interruptions at all, the ceiling on the speed they could offer was a big factor in why I left. Once I decided to cut the cord and not do a traditional TV service, I wanted more bandwidth to make sure I could stream to several TV's simultaneously from HD sources and they couldn't provide much higher speed. And the price for that speed was the price that Comcast was charging for 100/10 service. The speed they can't compete on.

I don't think the IPTV service uses that much bandwidth either, so I doubt their "use the extra bandwidth for higher speed" suggestion will make much of a difference. When I looked at the gateway, I had 2 bonded lines running to me that provided 15Mb on each line, so total to my house was 30Mb/s. The highest speed I got on speedtest was 23Mb/s. If I had both TV's going, I might see my max internet speed drop to like 20Mb/s. This tells me that at most, their IPTV bandwidth was using less than 10Mb/s unless I"m overlooking something.

Freeing up that extra 10Mbs still won't get them anywhere close to what the other guys are able to achieve. Nevermind the pricepoint comparisons, just talking max speed.

No reason to celebrate for me

[Bruinwar]

I used to have Uverse. A couple years ago I asked Comcrap to beat their prices & they did, substantially. Lately I've been eyeing Uverse again because Comcrap's deals will expire sometime soon. Condo here, no dish allowed.

Losing competition is not something to celebrate. Not everyone can have a dish & I'm sure Comcrap knows that.