Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

I am still doing some testing of U-verse Voice in my home. 

Overall, it’s going well and I really do like it, but I need more time to play around with it.

If you are a journalist or industry analyst seeking a real world view on U-verse voice, email me: alan at weinkrantz dot com or you  log on to http://letscall.me/u-verse-voice-review and it will ring my AT&T / Apple iPhone.

note: to use this service, just type in your phone number when you hit the landing page noted above.  The service calls you and then it calls me on my phone.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Wanna rent a special Pay-Per-View Event on U-verse?

Real easy.

• Press GUIDE on your AT&T remote control.  Go to Pay Per View Channel 102 by using the up / down browse arrows.
• Select the program you want to order and then press OK.  A  Program Info screen will appear showing you the event time and how much the event will cost.
• Press OK and if there are Parental Locks in place, you will need to enter your PIN.
• You will then be asked to confirm your order.  Just press OK and you’re good to go..  Want to go to live TV, just press EXIT.
• Be sure to tune in to the event’s channel at the scheduled starting time.  If you are late, you can’t rewind what you missed.  (sort of like being on time to the movies).  However, unlike VOD, you can record your Pay Per View event to your DVR and watch the event at your convenience.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Renting a video from U-verse saves you a trip to the video store - and back.

Here’s all you do:

• Press VIDEO ON DEMAND on your AT&T U-verse Remote
• Use the down arrow to select from the list that appears and then press OK.
• You will then see a program information screen appear with detail about the video you want to rent and the cost of the rental.
• You have the chance to preview your selection if you wish, so just select "Watch Preview."  Then, press OK.
• If you want to leave this screen and not rent the movie, press BACK to return to the previous screen.
• Select rent and then press OK.  Press OK again so as to confirm your decision.  Then, just sit back and relax and your program will begin.

Wanna try VOD at no charge?

Just take a look under "Movie Extras" in your VOD storefront.  It’s a great place to see behind-the-scenes special programs and cool trailers from your favorite movies -  all for free.

Yup, it’s that’s simple and easy.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

If you want to record any of your favorite programs on your U-verse system, it’s really easy and you can record up to four shows at once - even if they are on at the same time.

Here’s what you do:

• Press RECORD on our AT&T Remote to record what you are watching on TV directly to the DVR.
• Press GUIDE to find your favorite program or series you want to record, just highlight it, and then press RECORD in order to schedule a recording.  (you’ll know you did it when you see a red dot appear)
• Press RECORD TV to see a show list (your AT&T DVR will record up to 133 hours of standard programming or up to 37 hours of HD programming.

That’s it!

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Today, I had a demo of U-verse Voice, AT&T’s consumer VoIP phone service.

Where AT&T’s U-verse Voice stands out is in its integration under the U-verse brand name and its robust services. 

You have to re-think the way you use your phone because your new world being delivered is through your big screen and / or on your computer-  and not your phone.

The functionality of the phone (making and receiving calls) stays in place, just like it has since the day that Alexander Graham Bell told his assistant to come into the room.

I think the service is important for several reasons:

1. It gives AT&T a compelling reason for consumers keep their residential land lines even though trends show that while AT&T’s wireless business continues to grow, the residential land line business is slowly declining.

2. If you have a home based business and need a land line phone, then this type of service lets you combine the best of both worlds with having a central portal in which to manage your calls both at home and away from your home office.

3. It further differentiates itself away from cable and satellite. 

TV is the center of millions of American’s digital lives. Now with voice  being integrated as part of your TV service’s user-interface, the nature of, and the way you think of and mange "voice" totally changes. 

Yes, a phone is a phone is a phone.  But now the phone itself become secondary to the real value of managing and  controlling your family’s voice services.

4. It becomes a precursor to having what will one day be some similar to a small-scale enterprise network in your home.  (Think HomePNA and ultimately G.hn)

No matter where you work, chances are your company is on some type of enterprise network. The bigger the company, the more complex and carrier grade your network might be.  Something similar is evolving in the home:  you now have voice, data and video over one phone line that is being trafficked and managed by the phone company.

Coming soon: my own real world review.

I’ve decided to order my service and once its up and going, look for a future post (hopefully next week) once I have had a chance to play with it.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Even though, AT&T Inc. has announced the availability of AT&T U-verse Voice in other markets, today is when the phone company as we no longer know it, is launching U-verse Voice in San Antonio, where I live and blog away.

The idea of U-verse Voice is simple:  it  brings together your AT&T home phone, wireless, broadband and TV services — all on one bill — with unique features that provide a new level of integration, convenience and control.

AT&T U-verse Voice Raises the Bar With New Features such as:

·         Combined AT&T U-verse Voice and AT&T wireless voice mail with U-verse Messaging, which provides a single voice mailbox that can be accessed from any phone line or PC.

·         U-verse Central, an online management portal that gives you the option to easily and conveniently manage your call preferences, voice mail, contacts, call history and more from any PC, in addition to the ability to control call preferences from your home phone.

·         An online voice mailbox to check, manage and forward voice mail from the online portal, much like an e-mail inbox.

·         Call History, which enables you to view your most recent incoming and outgoing calls online or to view your most recent incoming calls on your AT&T U-verse TV screen.

·         Click to Call, which will initiate a call from your home phone to any number in your Call History with one click of a mouse or the U-verse TV remote control.

·         An online Address Book that is accessible from any PC and allows you to Click to Call from your home phone, to create and share contact groups with other U-verse Voice customers or to set up distribution lists for voice messages.

·         Locate Me, a feature that provides simultaneous ringing on up to four wireless or landline numbers so that you never miss an important incoming call.

·         Traditional calling features, such as Call Screening, Call Blocking, Do Not Disturb and privacy settings. 

All U-verse Voice customers will have 911 service. Where available via the local 911 network, U-verse Voice customers will have Enhanced 911 (E911) service.

Pricing is….sort of ok, but fairly high….

U-verse TV customers can choose from two flexible U-verse Voice calling plans:

·         U-verse Voice Unlimited, which includes unlimited local and nationwide minutes to any location in the U.S., Canada or U.S. territories for $40 a month.
·         U-verse Voice 1000, which includes 1,000 Call Anywhere minutes to any location in the U.S. or U.S. territories for $30 a month.

Video to follow tomorrow….

Later today, I have a video interview with an AT&T Exec to talk about U-verse Voice.  Look for a posting on this tomorrow.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Warning:

•    Do not try this at home.
•    Batteries not included.
•    Demonstration as shown, performed by professional stunt car driver.

Light Reading’s Phil Harvey, has a great post entitled “Raising Ruckus with U-verse." In Phil’s piece, he talks about the idea of running U-verse in HD on a wireless network using Ruckus Wireless’ new MediaFlex 7000 gear, noting how well it actually worked.

I’m not here to challenge Phil’s technical expertise, or the notion that in theory (repeat theory) that you could do HDTV over a wireless network, not only making it more convenient for consumers, but much easier and less expensive and time consuming for the AT&T installation crew when the come to your home.

I am here, though to challenge what amounts to nothing more than pure common sense given the following issues:

1.    Phil’s house is not my house.  I don’t know his set-up, how far the TVs are from the set top box, what kinds of walls he has, and where his microwave oven, let alone the hair dryer in the bathroom may sit.  I live in a two-story home.  Maybe Phil lives in a one-story ranch-style, or a mansion.  Or a condo.  Or a reconverted warehouse. The key is WiFi performance varies dramatically by home. Just because it works in Phil’s home doesn’t make it scalable to every home.

2.    Phil is an exception and not the rule.  Just like any early adapter, it sure looks and sounds cool to do this, but AT&T (and Verizon) are after millions of customers who reliably want TV, not just a few who want to push the limits of technology.

3.    While WiFi’s capability is growing, so are bandwidth demands. Telco’s like AT&T and Verizon are already been requesting 400 mbit/s of performance. You have to ask yourself, why do they need that much bandwidth? It’s probably because they are planning new applications we don’t know about yet.  The reality is this:  WiFi doesn’t even get us reliability to today’s requirements. It won’t for tomorrow’s either.

4.      Service providers are all about service.  As long as my service flows seamlessly, I never call them.  And if they can’t fix or diagnose a problem over the phone (or on my wired home network) then a costly human intervenes, or even worse has to pay a service call to my home. WiFi is not ready for prime time as a backbone for IPTV services.

5.     WiFi simply doesn’t deliver the kind of reliable performance telco’s like AT&T require. To achieve the kind of reliable performance telcos demand, they need 100% excess capacity. This means if you need 40 mbit/s, you gotta have have 80 mbit/s always available in throughput. Today’s WiFi can’t deliver that kind of performance.  Not now and as AT&T starts to add more service offerings to my U-verse package, not in the future either.

In concluding his article, Phil begs the question:  how much are consumers willing to subsidize the privilege of having a wireless network for the IPTV service? 

Good question, but the wrong question.

I think the real question should be what kind of new and innovative services would consumers pay for, via their TV on a wired network?  How can AT&T leverage a small-scale enterprise network in one’s home to further differentiate its product and service offering from cable and satellite providers?

All of the above aside, I personally think we are used to, and gladly accept the use and functionality of WiFi for a computer or laptop in the home. 

I think we are also conditioned to having a TV wired to “something” that brings us even higher resolution images, new applications, and at a time when the cost of gas is beginning to make a permanent impact on our society, new ways to work and play from home.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Home Entertainment magazine’s Geoffrey Morrison has a fair and balanced review of U-verse vs. TWC Cable.

Read about it here.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Since I work at my office and at home, I have AT&T services in both places.  I am sure as many people who run small and large businesses, we need bandwidth and speed at work and home.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced the immediate availability of the AT&T U-verseSM platform for high-speed Internet access to small businesses in more than 40 U.S. markets.

AT&T High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled Business Edition offers download speeds up to 10 Mbps, which, depending on the applications needed, can serve up to 32 Internet access connections over existing telephone wiring in the customer’s business.

AT&T Business U-verse also provides free unlimited access to the company’s nationwide Wi-Fi network, the largest in the United States, to small business subscribers. The network comprises more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots nationwide, which includes expansion into more than 7,000 U.S. company-operated Starbucks locations, allowing businesses to stay connected from almost anywhere — whether they’re in the office or on the road.

In addition, AT&T Business U-verse, which uses advanced, fiber-based Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure to deliver high speed wired and wireless connectivity, offers subscribers virtually unlimited e-mail storage and powerful online protection packages, including anti-spyware, anti-virus, pop-up blocker and SpamGuard Plus.

AT&T Business U-verse also features wireless office networking at no additional charge, giving users the freedom to receive and send large data files, view streaming video and access other high-bandwidth applications by using a wireless-enabled laptop or other device.

Among the markets with AT&T Business U-verse availability are portions of Los Angeles; Sacramento, San Diego; the Bay Area, Riverside, San Bernardino and Carlsbad, Calif.; Hartford, Stamford and New Haven, Conn.; Atlanta, Ga; Anderson, Bloomington, Indianapolis and Muncie, Ind.; Northeastern Illinois; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; Detroit, Mich; Cleveland, Akron and Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas; and Milwaukee and Racine, Wis.

AT&T Business U-verse service will be made available to businesses in additional markets within AT&T’s 22-state local service footprint over the coming months. AT&T is the largest provider of broadband service in the United States, with more than 14 million customers.

The company offers several cost-effective tiers for AT&T Business U-verse, ranging from as little as $40 a month up to $100 a month, depending on the downstream speed. The AT&T Business U-verse network also expands the company’s footprint of business-class broadband availability, so more customers can access AT&T High Speed Internet services.

At this time, AT&T is waiving installation charges for AT&T Business U-verse — a $95 value. The wireless-enabled equipment also comes with four Ethernet ports, a USB port for direct connection and AT&T’s two-tier firewall.

For more information or to order AT&T Business U-verse, please visit http://smallbiz.att.com/businessuverse or call 1-888-288-8339. For information about other small business solutions from AT&T, please visit www.att.com/onwardsmallbiz.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

I now have AT&T’s U-bar on my U-verse ITPV service.

In principle, it’s a great idea; but the notion that we have to wait 20 - 30 seconds to load makes this feature fall short.

I would welcome comments on your take if you have U-bar in your service area and what’s on your U-bar?

There is more feedback over at the U-verse U-talk forum here.

alan @ weinkrantz dot com

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

So, how does U-verse work?
How do I get the most out of my U-verse experience?
How does my Remote work?
How do I schedule programs?
What about parental controls?
How do I order a movie?

Download the AT&T User Guide Here:
Download U-verse_Feature_Guide.pdf

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Memo to all the AT&T Board of Directors:

In advance of the AT&T annual meeting on Friday, April 25, ya’ll are invited to my house to check out a real life deployment of U-verse.  Just let me know when you are coming to town and I will arrange for your transportation…meaning I can pick you up and bring you back to your hotel. 

Then, we can go to the Starbucks in my neighborhood, which is the first one of its kind in the U.S. to have iTunes up and going on AT&T WiFi.

And finally, we’ll top things off, I would like to treat you to a free milkshake at our editorial offices at the Olmos Soda Fountain.

In order to qualify, you must identify yourself as being one of the following.

Gilbert F. Amelio, Lead Director
William F. Aldinger III
Reuben V. Anderson
ames H. Blanchard
August A. Busch III
James P. Kelly
Charles F. Knight
Jon C. Madonna
Lynn M. Martin
John B. McCoy
Mary S. Metz
Toni Rembe
Joyce M. Roché
Dr. Laura D’Andrea Tyson
Patricia P. Upton

If you need a ride from your hotel, call me at 210-410-3075.  Or just email me at alan@weinkrantz.com.

No kidding!

Mi AT&T Casa es Tu AT&T Casa!