Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Yes, you can save money on your AT&T bill.  If you do what I do, you can do likewise and I believe the same principles apply for other service providers like Verizon, Comcast, DirectTV, TimeWarner, etc.

1.  Call AT&T and ask them to review your bill and tell them that you need to save money.  Depending on your service area and depending on the day you call, there will generally be some type of  special offering.  

2.  Ask for something for free to keep you as a customer.  Do your homework.  I just got 3 free months of HBO, just for asking.  Shop around with offers from competitors and tell the person at the other end that you have a competing offer.  Make sure it’s true and make sure it’s comparable and / or better than AT&T’s offering.

3.  Have a set goal of 20%.  Assume you are spending $100 per month on your service, a $20 savings may not seems like a lot, but when you add it up, it comes to $240 per year.  When you calculate what it takes you "earn" $240, based on your tax bracket, it could be a gross amount of $300 per year or more.

4.  As a rule, AT&T’s offerings expire – and expire automatically every six months.  AT&T is not going to call you to remind you to renew your offering.  Remember, they expire.  So, put your expiration date in your calendar and call them the day after your offer expires and tell them you want to renew, or get another savings offering that is equal to or better than your present offer.  

AT&T is a terrific company with a great service offering, but I think they are dumb for not reaching out to customers when service offerings expire.  It would be a real PR coup for them, but someone inside AT&T who makes the decisions to do otherwise.

Give it a try and remember that your milage may vary.  Be diligent and be prepared to cut them off and move elsewhere if they don’t save you money.  The cost of replacing you as a customer is high.  It’s called customer acquisition.  

If you get a call center agent who does not budge, ask for customer retention and try this approach.  Let me know how it goes with a comment on this blog or an email to:  alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Yesterday’s announcement by AT&T offering a great site where you could watch online shows was just a tip of the iceberg.  Here’s 25 Places to Watch the Fall TV Season Online

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

via entertainment.att.net

Kudos to AT&T, who is announcing today the launch of AT&T Entertainment – a new website that lets you watch streaming TV shows and movies on your PC for free.  Any online user in the U.S. – whether or not they are an AT&T customer – can visit the site and watch free online content.

AT&T Entertainment has popular content from ABC and NBC Universal (through an agreement with Hulu), CBS Interactive and MTV networks.

This launch is part of AT&T’s three-screen strategy to deliver quality video content to consumers across the TV, PC and wireless phone.

Is AT&T disrupting itself?

Yes, and in a positive way.  It is clear that the shift to more web based content makes sense and that offering customers great content, associated with AT&T is a way to keep and grow a customer base.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

About 18 months ago, I asked Ralph de la Vega when I could control my AT&T U-verse^SM TV with my iPhone.  Well now, I can.  Sort of.  As long as you are away from home. 

AT&T has a free application from the Apple App Store to make scheduling and managing recordings on their DVR even easier when you’re away from home. 

The U-verse TV Mobile Remote Access App for iPhone and iPod touch lets customers record their content from virtually anywhere and is another example of U-verse TV applications and DVR enhancements that have been rolled out to customers at no extra charge.

The app allows users to easily search U-verse TV program listings from the full program guide, view descriptions of selected programs, schedule program or series recordings, manage or edit scheduled recordings, and delete stored DVR content.

The Mobile Remote Access App is available for free from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

The launch of the new U-verse TV Mobile Remote Access App follows several DVR enhancements that are currently being rolled out to U-verse TV customers, including an exclusive new Total Home DVR feature that allows customers to schedule and delete recordings from any U-verse receiver in the home — all from a single DVR.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Source: www.voip-news.com

GotVoice and MetaSwitch are partnering to offer MetaSwitch customers voicemail to text service. The high-quality transitions are available now to customers.

“The ability to read voicemail quickly has proven invaluable to customers, saving them time and improving their productivity,” said Curt Blake, CEO of GotVoice. “Our collaboration with MetaSwitch and their service provider customers is a natural extension of the MetaSphere applications suite and will help GotVoice bring its technology to new audiences.”

According to the companies:

GotVoice’s patented and scalable technology platform processes MetaSphere voicemails and transforms the messages into text with unparalleled accuracy and speed. Having already converted millions of MetaSphere generated voicemails, the service enables users to quickly scan messages in email and immediately understand them at a glance – a compelling value-add service for consumers of MetaSphere voicemails.

“Our partners have come to expect technology innovation and leadership from MetaSwitch,” said Andrew Randall, Vice President of Marketing at MetaSwitch. “Our partnership with GotVoice solidifies this stance and continues our commitment to next-generation solutions for our customers.”

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Even with financial markets imploding, there is some good news out there. 

I just learned that AT&T now has more than HD Channels in every market they are in when compared to the old school cable company.

With recent expansions to the U-verse TV HD lineup, customers can now enjoy ABC Family HD, Disney Channel HD, Disney XD HD, ESPNews HD and ESPNU HD as part of their existing HD service subscription, depending on their programming package. With the additions, U-verse TV offers 100 or more HD channels in every U-verse TV market.
 
AT&T U-verse TV has two HD subscription options.

HD service is included with the U450 programming package and available for $10 a month with any other U-verse TV programming package. U-verse HD customers can get even more HD-exclusive channels with the HD Premium package for an additional $5 a month. All U-verse TV packages include HD-ready equipment, and most packages include an HD-ready Total Home DVR, which gives you the ability to record your HD programs from a single DVR and watch them on any connected TV.

For additional information on AT&T U-verse — or to find out if it’s available in your area — visit http://uverse.att.com. Customers can get more information about U-verse TV programming and television events by visiting http://uverse.att.com/uconnect.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Providers that use PortaSwitch from PortaOne can now offer users the ability to reliably read voicemails and process info instantly.  The company has successfully integrated GOtVoice G2 voicemail transcription into its PortaSwitch IP multimedia subsystem.

“The addition of GotVoice gives PortaSwitch users a highly flexible and strategic service option,” said Roman Khalenkov, sales and marketing director for PortaOne, Inc. “GotVoice can create a new revenue stream as a value-add for subscribers, or it can be offered at no cost as a way to attract or retain customers. In whichever form, this service is a unique differentiator-one with proven and lasting appeal for both business and non-business users in today’s competitive VoIP marketplace.”

GotVoice is available to carriers on a pay-as-you-go basis. It requires zero upgrades to infrastructure or capital outlays.

“One of the highest marketing priorities for any VoIP provider is to set itself apart from its competitors by offering valuable services that people want. The combination of PortaSwitch and GotVoice clearly satisfies this need,” said Colin Lamont, vice president of marketing for GotVoice. “PortaSwitch users will also appreciate the rapid time-to-market assured by the integration between both of our platforms.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

TW Telecom has installed a private, four-node network delivering Ethernet, Internet and local and long distance services for Amerex Brokers in Houston.

“Reliable and secure data and voice communications are imperative to the day-to-day operations of our business,” said Brian Trudeau, Chief Information Officer for Amerex Brokers LLC in Houston. “We require a network we can count on 24 hours a day, both here in Houston and across the country in our Manhattan offices, to be operational when we need it. We recognized the reliability of tw telecom’s private, dedicated services could improve the way we manage our network and mitigate outages.”

According to the companies:

Amerex Brokers’ headquarters location and disaster recovery sites in Houston communicate over a private, highly available 1 Gigabit Ethernet network. The company’s Carlstadt, New Jersey site utilizes a dedicated 100Mbps Ethernet connection providing traders secure connections to the company’s Houston location. Additionally, tw telecom provides a 70 Mbps Ethernet Internet connection and local and long distance voice services to all company locations.

“The tw telecom team took the time to really learn and understand our business and was proactive in helping us implement communications solutions that furthered our objectives,” said Trudeau. “What impressed us was the speed with which they can scale the circuit bandwidth to support our highly dynamic business environment. We view tw telecom as a partner in our business.”

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

I just saved almost 50% on my AT&T U-verse TV / Voice / and Internet service.

 
No, they don’t promote this.  And no this is not a bail-out.  And no, this is not part of Mr. Obama’s promise of change. 

You just have to call 800-288-2020 and ask for a discount by telling them you are thinking of switching to your local cable or satellite provider.

U-verse Voice went from $35 to $25
U-verse 400 went from $99 to $59
Yahoo Broadband Elite went from $30 to $10

My bill went from $164 to $94 per month by just asking.

Another tactic:  if you’re a guy, tell them you’re wife thinks you watch too much TV and the family has to save money so AT&T’s gotta go.

And if you’re a gal, tell them your man done left you— or just come up with a Jerry Springer like story saying that you gotta cut back on the household overhead.

I am in San Antonio and your market may vary, but press hard and you just might wind up with some pretty amazing savings. I did not cut back on services.

Note:  the deal they offered was only for six months.  I told them to note it on my record that I was going to call back in May to ask for the same thing again.

Tell them Alan from 3Screens sent you.

Share your story with me with comment on the blog or email:  alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Over the past 6 months a small startup named boxee has been making big waves in the digital media space. The company makes downloadable software for your computer (Mac&Linux at the moment) that weaves personal media, streaming Internet content, and social networking with a visual interface that makes your media come to life.

Boxee is, if you will, sort of what I could call PBS – not Public Broadcasting Service, but rather the Peoples’ Broadcasting Service. As you add friends to boxee, you can see what shows they’re watching and exchange recommendations with each other. In this way, you have the opportunity to create a bottom up approach to video programming that includes most of the mainstream online TV sites like Hulu, CBS, theWB, and more. It’s the people and not the broadcaster who decides what merits viewing in what is becoming and increasingly noisy and crowded marketplace for attention and viewership.

The best way to demonstrate the power, freedom and social community aspect of Boxee was to shoot the video that follows below. While the focus of my review remains on the video content portion, my review illustrates how to use boxee on an iPhone, a laptop and a big screen TV. You get a pretty cool way to enjoy moviews, TV shows, music, photos and streaming content from sites like Hulu, CBS, Comeday Central, Last.fm, Flickr, etc.

I’m just now starting to make new "friends" on boxee and listening to recommendations for programming that I can follow.

But Wait! There’s More!

Today, the company will be announcing that Netflix subscriber can play, browse and queue Netflix ‘Instant Watch’ movies from within boxee.  If they’re away from home, they can queue movies from their computer or phone, and then watch them on the big screen when you get home. I was told that Netflix on AppleTV is not currently available as they are working to overcome the hardware limitations of the AppleTV.  Check back with boxee’s blog  for progress on this initiative..  The boxee Netflix application was created using the embeddable Silverlight plug-in for Netflix, and they are now recognized as a Netflix affiliate.

Other announcements today include news services and channels such as:

New Content
- TheWB – shows like Angel, Buffy, Firefly, The O.C., Smallville, and In Living Color
- The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog – amazing photos from around the world
- MTVMusic – songs/artists in your collection are now linked with music videos

Updated Content
- Hulu – enhanced UI with access to personal queues from Hulu.com
- YouTube – newly developed interface with improved browsing/playback as well as h264 support
- CNN, Flickr, Picasa – custom interfaces with improved browsing and playback

All in all, a very cool approach to delivering a three screens experience.

Highly Recommended