Q. I read today that AT&T is shutting U-verse down because they have a new TV service. I have had U-verse for several years. Am I going to lose my service today or this week? How will this happen? Will I get a refund? — Helena, town not given.
Helena, you can calm down. Let me try to explain what is going on.
AT&T today launched a TV service called AT&T TV, which offers programming packages similar to DIRECTV over an Internet-based set-top. (See our article for more information on AT&T TV.)
With the launch of AT&T TV, the telco also announced that it would no longer take orders for U-verse online. If you want to order U-verse, you will need to phone AT&T.
Because of the change, there have been a few news reports saying that AT&T is ‘shutting down’ U-verse. However, that is not the case. U-verse still has four million subscribers and AT&T certainly doesn’t want to pull the plug on so many customers at the same time.
The only thing that’s different now is AT&T has stopped online ordering for U-verse. However, you can still get it by calling. So, obviously, it has not been ‘shut down.’
That said, it’s clear that AT&T longs to go to an all-Internet TV business at some point, including shifting DIRECTV’s customers from satellite to streaming. But considering that there are still nearly 20 million U-verse and DIRECTV subscribers combined, that may not happen for a few years. And it certainly isn’t happening today, no matter what you might read.
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Does AT&T even know/understand that the point of many satellite users is that they CAN’T get cable of any type and thus can’t get ‘streaming’?! Jeez.
Wonder how many of the users are of this type and are totally out of luck when satellite service is shut down in the future?
I totally agree with Lee. We have AT&T Internet. Our service is so slow because it’s the fastest we can get in our area. I live 1 mile outside a small town. 10 miles outside a large city. Both of those areas have the fastest service on the market. My service is horrible and we cannot get upgraded to save our lives.
Let me be the first to say A T&T
IS SO FULL OF BOGUS CHARGES THEY ARE VERY UNFAIR TO CUSTOMERS ..MAKING CHARGES THATS NOT EVEN OWED. AND THEIR PRICING IS UNBELIEVABLY HIGHER THAN WHATS BEING TOLD TO YOU .THEY SEPERATED MY BUNDLE PACKAGE ..THEN STARTED CHARGING ME OUTLANDISH PRICES SEPERATELY .IVE ASKED THEM TO BUNDLE IT BACK SO FAR ALL I GET IS A BILL FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS FOR ABOUT 400 DOLLARS FOR CABLE INTERNET N PHONE ..SMH. BAD BUSINESS ..
I live in L.A. and my AT&T UVERSE was so bad, constant pixelating, stuttering, and video freezing, so dropped it in favor of Spectrum Cable. While cable is not perfect, it’s 95% better than streaming was.